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10 Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 45-10 Victory against Tulsa

On Bowman’s big day, OSU’s receivers and more.

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2 years ago

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[Devin Wilber/PFB]

PHOTOS
BOX SCORE

TULSA — The Cowboys won like they were supposed to win Saturday.

Oklahoma State thumped Tulsa 45-10 to advance to 3-0 heading into Big 12 play. Here are 10 thoughts from the game.

1. The Bow Show

The Cowboys are still struggling in finding open space in the run game, but it wasn’t nearly as noticeable Saturday because Alan Bowman was spraying it.

In three quarters of action, Bowman went 24-for-31 for 396 yards, five touchdowns and an interception. He had as many touchdowns (four) as incompletions in the first half.

And Bowman was showing no favoritism, as his first four touchdowns all went to different receivers. Per OSU, it’s the first time since 2011 that OSU had four different players catch a touchdown in the first half. The four Saturday were Brennan Presley, De’Zhaun Stribling, Talyn Shettron and Josh Ford. The 2011 quartet was Josh Cooper, Justin Blackmon, Hubert Anyiam and Isaiah Anderson.

Bowman’s second half was a little sloppier than his first. It worked in some ways. He caught a hot snap in the third quarter and stepped in the pocket and flung a ball in Stribling’s direction. It was underthrown, but none of the Tulsa defenders were able to make a break on it. Stribling, meanwhile, darted back toward the ball and took off for a 63-yard touchdown. The next series, Bowman threw his interception, failing to get a hitch route over Jehlen Cannady, as the Tulsa safety hopped up and grabbed it. But by that point, Bowman had turned into father nature and stopped the Hurricane.

Given the competition level, you could argue whether this was Bowman’s best game as a Cowboy, but the first half had to be his best half as a Poke.

2. Run Struggles Continue, Tulsa Filled the Box

The game plan for defenses going against OSU this season has been to fill the box and make the Cowboys beat you outside. The Cowboys have done that three times now, but it’s puzzling to watch this team struggle to run the ball after it was the team’s identity last season.

Gordon carried 17 times Saturday for 41 yards — that’s 2.4 yards a carry. The run struggles don’t stop at Gordon, either. Sesi Vailahi had five carries for -1 yard and a touchdown. Presley was OSU’s most efficient rusher by far, running for 22 yards on his lone carry, a fun misdirection play in the first quarter. If you take out that 22-yard trick play, OSU ran for 107 yards on 34 carries — 3.1 yards per carry.

“At the end of the half, we’re in a two-minute situation and they had an extra guy in the box,” OSU coach Mike Gundy said. “I kind of expected them to (stop loading the box) some, but they didn’t. …

“It’s been that way pretty much — at least a half guy (extra in the box). Looks like that’s the leading candidate up to this point for other teams to defend us.”

Through three nonconference games last season, Gordon had 19 carries for 109 yards and two touchdowns. That was back before the Cowboys truly knew what they had in the future Doak Walker winner. Yet through three nonconference games in 2024, Gordon had 62 carries for 221 yards and three touchdowns.

That says two things:

1. This has been a bit underwhelming to this point, in spite of the loaded box the Cowboys ran into. A year after running for 6.1 yards a carry, Gordon is averaging just 3.6 yards an attempt. And that’s come against an FCS team (a good one, but an FCS team nonetheless), Arkansas and a Tulsa team that the Cowboys beat 45-10.

2. It isn’t too late for OSU and Gordon to get rolling. Despite hardly being used in the nonconference schedule last season, Gordon flourished the rest of the season, running for 1,623 yards after those three opening games.

If there is a reason to feel optimistic that it is just a matter of teams filling the box, Alan Bowman was as comfortable as can be in the pocket Saturday. He wasn’t sacked, and the game’s live stats didn’t even show Bowman being hurried.

3. OSU’s Receivers Looked as Good as Advertised

I was quite bullish on OSU’s wide receivers entering 2024. The trio of Presley, Stribling and Rashod Owens was as good a group OSU has had since maybe that 2017 room that featured James Washington, Marcell Ateman, Jalen McCleskey, Dillon Stoner, Tyron Johnson and Chris Lacy.

But OSU’s 2024 room didn’t necessarily play like it was as good as that 2017 room in OSU’s first few games. The group had a case of the drops and just seemed a little off on some would-be tough catches that would’ve been big plays. Well, the group came to play in the 918. Stribling will grab the headlines with his seven catches for 174 yards and two TDs, but Presley was good, Owens made some tough catches and Talyn Shettron got going.

Stribling’s second touchdown (when he came back and grabbed an underthrown ball before housing it) was as impressive as any singular play from Saturday’s game. And his first was nice, too, as he looked like another OSU No. 1 (Dez Bryant) when going over a cornerback in the end zone to make a grab.

Owens had some tough “I’m bigger and stronger than you” catches in the first half, a half in which he caught three of four targets for 43 yards and two first downs.

This is the type of game I expected from OSU’s receivers going into the season.

4. Cover Presley at All Times

Teams might have to start guarding Brennan Presley when he steps off the bus.

In the first quarter alone, Presley had six catches on six targets, 34 receiving yards, a receiving touchdown, the 22-yard run and he returned a punt. That’s eight touches in a quarter. It’s fun seeing all the ways Kasey Dunn is getting Presley involved, especially in opening drives when the script is still in effect and Presley can attack any openings OSU saw on film.

Out of Bixby High School, Presley finished his homecoming with seven catches (on seven targets) for 46 yards. So eventually the ball started going elsewhere, but OSU has made no secret about it, it will get Presley the ball by any means necessary.

Presley’s season totals are:
23 catches
35 targets
173 receiving yards
3 carries
29 rushing yards
4 total TDs

He’s averaging 11.7 targets a game.

5. Hello, Talyn Shettron

Talyn Shettron was the highest-rated wide receiver prospect the Cowboys have landed since Dez Bryant (two Dez references in one post?), and Shettron looked dang good on Saturday.

Shettron had three catches for 110 yards and a touchdown. The touchdown and 78 of those yards came on one play in the second quarter when Shettron used his elite speed to blow past a Tulsa corner, catch a ball in stride and outrun the rest of the Golden Hurricane defense to the end zone.

His other two passes went for first downs, the first an 11-yard pass from Bowman and the other a 21-yard completion from Garret Rangel.

The injury bug has bitten through the OSU receivers room the past few seasons, and it got Shettron last year in his redshirt freshman season. Shettron played in seven games in 2023, catching six passes for 78 yards. Saturday’s game feels like it could be a launching off point for the Santa Fe speedster.

“He’s had a much better year than what he’s had,” Gundy said. “Unfortunately he’s been beat up injury-wise in his career. He had a really good August and started to show signs of wanting to take that next step, and he’s had some catches in the games before this one. Then today he had an opportunity to do some things on a big stage for him, and I thought that he played pretty well.”

6. This Team Loves Collin Oliver

The Cowboys were without their premier pass rusher Saturday and will be moving forward, but they still kept him a part of the game in a cool way.

After his touchdown catch in the first quarter, Presley broke out Collin Oliver’s sack celebration.

At one point, I believe, the celebration was about throwing roses on a casket, but it has since been altered as spreading the wealth. Regardless of what it is exactly, the trio of Xavier Ross, Jaleel Johnson and Kendal Daniels also broke it out in the second half when Ross and Johnson combined for a sack.

Pass rush is the thing the Cowboys will miss most in Oliver’s absence. Without him Saturday, the Cowboys sacked Tulsa quarterback Kirk Francis twice, the aforementioned Johnson-Ross connection and a Daniels sack, and Kody Walterscheid was credited with a hurry. It’d probably be unrealistic to ask one player on OSU’s defense to fill the void Oliver left, but hopefully the Pokes can keep quarterbacks uneasy by committee moving forward.

7. The Tight End Lives

Gundy tried telling us this offseason that he thought the Cowboys had something in true freshman tight end Josh Ford, and it’s making more and more sense as the season rolls on.

Past Ford being a help as an aggressive blocker, he also caught three passes Saturday for 33 yards and his first career touchdown. Ford came in motion in the second quarter and feinted a block before squirting free across the middle. It’s beautiful just how open tight ends can get in the play-action game.

Considering the tight end was extinct for a handful of years, this probably isn’t too outlandish to say, but Ford has the makings of the best OSU tight end to come through Stillwater in a long while.

8. Nardo Adjusts and Stifles Tulsa Run Game

The Golden Hurricane didn’t score any points in the first quarter, but Tulsa did run for 6.4 yards a carry in the frame.

It was an early “here we go again” feeling after the Cowboys got gashed on the ground last week, but in the final three quarters, Bryan Nardo and his Cowboy defense worked that number down to 3.6 yards a carry.

Take the competition level into account, but going from 6.4 yards a carry in the first frame to 2.8 in the remaining three quarters shows the Cowboys have it in them to fix things on the fly.

9. The Zane Train Stays in the Station for Now

The Cowboys got to dive into their bench for the first time this season. OSU Twitter was ready to see the debut of redshirt freshman quarterback Zane Flores, but OSU went with the more experienced Garret Rangel.

Would it have been nice to finally see Flores given all the hype? Sure, but I’m certainly not mad that Rangel got to play. He finished 4-for-8 for 35 yards and had 14 rushing yards.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, Rangel’s biggest exposure to the OSU fanbase wasn’t totally fair to him. Spencer Sanders went down in 2022, and with Shane Illingworth transferring out going into that season, Rangel was thrown into the fire as a true freshman. In four games that season, he threw four touchdowns to five interceptions. He really played in only three games because his first game was some mop-up duty when OSU blew out Arkansas-Pine Bluff. From that point on, Rangel played at Kansas in a game where the Jayhawks were looking to become bowl eligible for the first time since 2008, so the building was rocking. The next game was in a monsoon against West Virginia. Then he played OSU’s bowl game against Wisconsin. All of that, again, as a true freshman.

I’m also excited to see Flores. Gundy has spoken highly about him, but even if he got in the game Saturday, it’s not like anyone would know what the future of that position looks like considering at that point OSU’s main focus was running out the clock.

10. A Nice, Smooth Nonconference Game

It feels like it’s been a while since the Cowboys just went out and throttled an FBS nonconference foe, no questions asked. That happened Saturday.

The last time OSU beat a nonconference FBS team by 20 or more points was the 2019 season opener against Oregon State. That was Spencer Sanders’ first start. A lot has happened since then.

In the years since, OSU has had two double-digit win seasons, so maybe the Cowboys need these close games to keep an edge. But OSU fans have to be pleased with the Cowboys taking care of a team that has dominated the FCS, beating an SEC team by any means necessary and throttling a team from the American on the road.

Are there things to fix? Sure. The run game has to get going. Big plays against the defense could still be cleaned up a bit, but this was a tough, tough nonconference slate for the Cowboys. OSU is 3-0.

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