Box Score Dive: Seven Numbers That Tell the Story in OSU’s 38-35 Win Over Texas

You better believe we’re going to look at this game from every single angle possible and then maybe even invent a few new ones after that and look at it some more. This is what you do when OSU has beaten their first non-1-win Big 12 team at home in the last two seasons.

Let’s take a deep dive into the box score from Saturday’s game to take a gander at seven stats that explain why OSU was able to take down the No. 6 team in the country in Stillwater on Saturday.

• PPD Comp: Here are some points-per-drive numbers from Saturday with their season-long comp going into Saturday. I thought they were intriguing.

The real outlier here is a Texas defense that gave up over a point per drive more than normal. OSU’s offense was what it’s been for most of the season, and their defense was slightly worse than normal (which is weird to think about given how the game felt). OSU did hold Texas to 14 points on their first nine drives, but they closed hard and OSU didn’t have many answers defensively late.

That’s not to take away from their effort — which I still think was pretty good — but maybe it wasn’t quite as good as we first thought. OSU gave up 3.2 PPD to Iowa State and 3.1 to Kansas State, but those seemed like much worse performances than the one against Texas, maybe because to this point those are worse offenses than Texas’.

• 34:28: Again, I know time of possession is not something I should care about, but I can’t help but think that with a team that isn’t as adept at quick scores on deep passes, holding onto the ball in long, sustained drives (OSU had nine of six or more plays on Saturday) is a good thing for Corndog and Co.

• 12: Corn running the ball often has mostly been a mixed bag so far this season. OSU is 2-2 when he runs it 10 or more times, but I thought they used him so well when he did tuck it. Seven of his 12 rushes went for either 5+ yards or a TD (or both).

• 1: I’m not sure what to do with the fact that OSU had its lowest sack total (1.0) in probably one of its better defensive games of the season (given the stakes, who they were playing and how everything played out on Saturday). I think it’s probably (?) not a ton more than a good reminder that while numbers and records are nice, Ws are better.

However, OSU seemed more complete on defense from D-line to defensive back (at least for three quarters) than they’ve been in a while. Gundy referred to their proximity to coverage after the game, and I would agree. They also defended in a lot of different ways and weren’t only reliant on sacks.

• 3: Texas QB Sam Ehlinger had three different streaks in this game where he missed three or more consecutive passes (one streak of three, one of four and one of five). While he did hit his last seven and did everything he could to make good on his Q3 promise that Texas would win, OSU put Texas into a must-throw situation for most of the second half, and that’s not a great place for Texas to be.

• 8/9: Gundy mentioned grabbing momentum and heading downhill after the game as it related to the game as a whole. But how about this: Taylor Cornelius was 8/9 for 95 yards on first down when he threw the ball. That’s phenomenal and one big reason OSU only had two three-and-outs on Saturday.

• 50 and 100: That was the percentage, respectively, for Oklahoma State on third and fourth down situations. On the flip side they held Texas to 42 percent on third down, including 2 for 6 in the first half. Gundy let it ride a little bit on Saturday (2 for 2 on fourth down), which is one massive reason they walked away victors.