10 Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 69-3 Loss to No. 6 Oregon

BOX SCORE

EUGENE, Oregon — Well, that was expected to be bad, and it was worse than even expected.

Oklahoma State lost to Oregon 69-3 on Saturday in Autzen Stadium. The game was as bad, if not worse, as the final score said it was. Here are 10 thoughts on the game.

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1. That’s the Gap to a National Contender

The Cowboys have hovered around the national contender group at various points in Mike Gundy’s tenure, but here in 2025, the Cowboys are give or take 66 points from that category.

It was worse than most could’ve even imagined. Even Vegas thought the Cowboys could hang around four touchdowns of the Ducks, but it was evident early the gap was much bigger.

Some stats of note:

Total yards — Oregon 631, OSU 211
Rush yards — Oregon 312, OSU 144
Pass yards — Oregon 319, OSU 67
First downs — Oregon 24, OSU 9
Third-down conversions — Oregon 7-for-12, OSU 4-for-16

And here is a look at Oregon’s drives with starting quarterback Dante Moore in the game:

TD
TD
Turnover on Downs
TD
TD
TD
TD
TD

Oregon scored two touchdowns in its first three plays. OSU ran 61 plays and scored 0 touchdowns. It felt like if you dropped Bixby into 3A.

The Ducks could have scored 100 without much more effort than they already put out.

2. Worst Loss Since …

It’s OSU’s worst loss since ’07 — 1907, that is. It’s OSU’s worst loss since Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United States.

That was just the eighth year of OSU football. Boyd A. Hill was the coach. Here’s what he looked like:

That loss way back then was a 67-0 game against Oklahoma.

Oklahoma wasn’t even officially a state the last time OSU got beat this bad in a football game (h/t to The Oklahoman‘s Scott Wright for that stat).

3. I Don’t Even Know How to Evaluate Zane Flores’ Game

Zane Flores made his first college start Saturday, but with everything on fire around him, I don’t even know what to think about it. It certainly wasn’t good, but what was?

He finished 7-for-19 (37%) with 67 yards and the two picks.

He had to have had a handful of passes batted down by a guy who was instantly in his face on a quick pass attempt.

Flores threw consecutive pick-sixes in the third quarter. The first was ugly. The second was nearly the same play apart from the fact that he got clobbered as he threw it.

Making your first start in Autzen Stadium against the No. 6 team in the country with left tackle Markell Samuel out with injury was a losing combination, and boy, did Flores and the Pokes lose.

4. If the Score Didn’t Make It Obvious, Oregon Ran It Up

The Ducks scored 20 or more points in the first three quarters of Saturday’s game, including 28 in the third after they already had a 41-3 lead at the half (14 of those came off the aforementioned pick-sixes).

Oregon made a statement in this game with the Cowboys.

The two biggest running-it-up moments probably happened going into and coming out of halftime.

The OSU defense forced a rare fourth down in the final minute of the first half, but rather than kicking a field goal, the Ducks went for it and converted on 4th-and-3 before scoring a touchdown with 11 seconds left to make it 41-3.

Then coming out of the break, Oregon starting QB Dante Moore got one second-half series — a series he capped off with an 11-yard touchdown pass to make it 48-3.

I’m not blaming Oregon for running it up. It was a college football game between two Power Conference schools, and those final four minutes of the first and first four minutes of the second half are big in close games. So, it makes sense for a coach to want to get a live look at that stretch. But, leave no doubt, the Ducks were trying to bust lightbulbs on the scoreboard.

5. So Many False Starts

Autzen Stadium has a nickname: The Zoo.

The OSU offense found out why Saturday. That crowd helped force five false start penalties on the offense.

OSU finished with six accepted penalties for 30 yards. That yardage total isn’t egregious, but five false starts in one game is not a pretty sight.

6. The O-Line Musical Chairs Has Already Started

Gundy has long discussed having to play “musical chairs” along the offensive line when guys start to go down with injuries. Well, two games into this season and that has already started.

Markell Samuel, an Appalachian State transfer who started the season opener at left tackle, was a late scratch from this game with a foot injury, according to Dave Hunziker. Kasen Carpenter also started that UT-Martin game at center but left with injury. Carpenter was suited up Saturday, but he too was a victim to the shuffle.

To cover for Samuel, Nuku Mafi flipped from right tackle to left tackle. Then Nebraska transfer Grant Seagren stepped in at right tackle.

Austin Kawecki got the start at center against the Ducks. He was listed with an “OR” with Carpenter on the initial depth chart, but Kawecki started the season opener at right guard.

So, Noah McKinney got the start at right guard. He didn’t start the season opener but rotated in at right guard and right tackle.

After all that shuffling, OSU’s starting O-line Saturday read:

LT — Nuku Mafi
LG — Bob Schick
C — Austin Kawecki
RG — Noah McKinney
RT — Grant Seagren

7. Trent Howland Looked Alright, Finished the Game in a Boot

Somewhat similar to the Hauss Hejny scenario, running back Trent Howland looked about as good as any Cowboy did Saturday before leaving with an injury.

After not playing against UT-Martin, Howland took six handoffs for 31 yards — 5.2 yards per carry — against the Ducks.

Five of those carries came on OSU’s lone scoring drive of the day, where he rumbled for gains of 7 yards, 4 yards, 8 yards, 5 yards and 5 yards. He came back out for the Cowboys’ next series but suffered what looked to be an ankle injury on a 2-yard run before going to the locker room and reemerging with a walking boot.

Football players get put in boots often, so hopefully this isn’t a long term thing. But of course the one thing that was working for the Pokes got taken away over the span of a quarter.

8. OSU’s One Good Drive

Back to that scoring drive.

OSU went 69 yards down the field across 16 plays to score its only points of the contest.

Rodney Fields Jr., making his season debut, took three handoffs to start that drive, setting up a 4th-and-1 on OSU’s 34-yard line.

The Cowboys went for it — despite punting from the Oregon 40-yard line (on 4th-and-8) the series before. That punt netted 20 yards because it went into the end zone. Incredibly frustrating.

Wait, what were we talking about?

Oh yeah, OSU’s scoring drive.

Flores got the yard needed on a QB sneak to keep the drive alive.

The Cowboys then had a 3rd-and-10 after a McKinney false start, but Flores scrambled and hit a wide open Christian Fitzpatrick 35 yards downfield, setting the Cowboys up on the Oregon 29-yard line.

That’s when Howland did his work. The Cowboys got as close as the Oregon 6-yard line but kicked a field goal to make it 20-3.

It felt for a second like that could stabilize things for the Pokes, but that was quickly proven false when Oregon scored a 42-yard TD on its next possession.

9. Soul Searching Inbound

Not even the Cowboys who went to Boulder last season have suffered a loss as bad the one OSU had Saturday.

We’re about to see what this team full of newcomers is about. They have a bye week before hosting Tulsa on a Friday night. Can this group band together and still make something of this season or is this a spot, like last season, where things begin to unravel?

“I think the culture part of it,” Gundy said. “We’re going to find out this week, which we talked about this several weeks ago, is that, to a certain extent, nobody’s ever been in a difficult position. So we don’t know how they’re going to react, but we’ll find out this week. In most cases we’ve always had them for years, and so we kind of have them trained. We know who they are, so the most important thing now will be how they react to this moving forward. They were fine. There was enough disappointment that it made me feel good because … they should be disappointed because they want to play better and have success.”

10. The Gundy-Lanning Stuff Was Still Super Weird

One of the odder storylines in my time covering OSU is whatever came from the Gundy-Lanning (mainly Lanning) spat this week.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Lanning is the type of guy who looks for motivation in everything. Those types of people are usually uber successful, like Lanning is, but that’s gotta be a stressful way to live.

If you hadn’t heard, Gundy made comments about Oregon having a lot of money around the program this week, which is true. Gundy also was super complimentary of Lanning, the Ducks and what they’ve built. But somewhere in there, it was taken as a slight, perhaps leading to why this score was so lopsided.

Here’s what Lanning said after the game:

Lanning: “It never hurts when somebody pours gasoline on the fire.” Says he respects Gundy and he’s probably saying “I told you so” right now.

— James Crepea (@JamesCrepea) September 6, 2025

It was all just so odd and resulted in OSU’s worst loss since 1907. What a strange reality we all live in.