Box Score Dive: WVU Fails to Take Advantage of OSU Turnovers, and Pokes Avoid Penalties

There were some bonkers numbers posted from a variety of players on Saturday in Stillwater as Oklahoma State took down West Virginia. I wanted to take a look at a few of those as we dive into the box score and OSU’s second-biggest win of 2018.

Let’s start where I always love starting.

PPD Check: There were so many possessions on Saturday (OSU has had 34 offensive possessions against WVU in the last two years … 34!), and Oklahoma State performed above its averages on both offense and defense.

As you can see Oklahoma State’s defense stepped up against one of the best offenses in the country. And West Virginia’s defense, solid up until this point in the season, surrendered 45 points on 15 non-zero possession drives to the Pokes (31 of which came on six drives in the second half!).

31: That’s how many fourth quarter points were scored. And 28 (!) of those were scored in the final 11 minutes. It was like the fourth quarter of Bedlam 2010 (with much different result).

35: If you want to not understand this team, look no further than their first down totals. After posting a Gundy era-high 39 last week, they followed it with 35 more this week (which ranks in the top five since 2005). Why is that significant? Because against Kansas State they posted 15 (!), which is in the bottom 10 showings in the Gundy era.

13: West Virginia only scored 13 points on four OSU turnovers. They got the ball three different times inside OSU’s 40 yard line and only managed one TD and a pair of field goals. They also turned the ball over on downs on OSU’s 5 yard line on one of those possessions.

45-24: I noted this in my 10 Thoughts, but if you reduce the game to a red zone-only affair, OSU pasted WVU 45-24. WVU had three red zone “turnovers” with one fumble, one loss of downs and then the end of the game. An agitated Dana noted this after the game.

“I think we left probably 14 points out there,” said Holgorsen. “When you are in the red zone and can’t punch it in, if you are a great offense, you do that. I guess we are not a great offense because we couldn’t do that.”

5×5: Five skill players — four receivers and a running back — got at least five targets from Corn on Saturday. That never would have happened earlier in the season, and I think it’s a sign of the game slowing down for him and him figuring out the offense in a non-practice setting. It’s to the point that I have a ton of confidence about his ability to command the O in pretty much every situation.

17:45: That’s how long OSU had the ball in the second half. It included a stretch in the third quarter that they had it for nearly 10 of the 15 minutes. Oxygen gets a little thinner for CFP-worthy teams on the road in November when the underdog is keeping the ball away from you for long periods of time. WVU seemed like they were really affected by this and it colored all of their decisions down the stretch. In other words, they seemed extremely rattled over the last two quarters.

35: We gonna talk about how OSU only had three penalties for 35 yards or nah? I said this after the game in my postgame show, but that seemed to be more of a function of how the game was called than anything. OSU did some stuff defensively that would have gotten players kicked out of their game with Baylor. On Saturday, it didn’t even draw a flag.

6: That’s how many more yards per carry OSU averaged (7.7) than WVU averaged (1.7) in the second half. That, maybe more than anything, is how they were able to overcome a 17-point deficit.