Connect with us

Football

10 Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 39-31 Victory against Arkansas

A lot of words on a crazy game.

Published

2 years ago

on

[Devin Wilber/PFB]

STILLWATER — I’m not sure I’m capable of 10 coherent thoughts about that game, but at the same time, I could probably provide 25 spats of confusion.

Oklahoma State beat Arkansas 39-31 in double overtime on Saturday in Boone Pickens Stadium, as the Pokes came back from a 14-0 hole and a plump yardage difference to remain unbeaten. Here is my best shot at 10 thoughts.

1. Arkansas Sports-Talk Radio Is Going to Be Insane

Oklahoma State had no business winning that football game.

The Razorbacks outgained OSU 648-385 , had a running back rush for 6.2 yards a carry and still lost. It’s incomprehensible.

It was as if some omniscient being continually asked Arkansas if the Hogs wanted to win the football game, and they just looked back at that all-seeing soothsayer and said, “No, will you please leave me alone?” Or as Nick Saban once said:

Arkansas running back Ja’Quinden Jackson might has well have been running through Library Lawn on a Sunday morning his holes were so big. But it felt like Arkansas was more comfortable putting the game on its quarterback’s shoulders instead of taking the 6.2 yards a pop OSU was giving Jackson.

A fourth-quarter drive must’ve been particularly infuriating for the Hog faithful. The game was tied at 21, and there was 9:37 to play. The drive ended when Taylen Green, Arkansas’ quarterback, was stuffed a yard short of the line to gain on fourth down near the OSU 20-yard line. That drive featured only one Jackson carry — it went for 26 yards. It felt like they just needed to hand him the ball and watch him run freely, but in crucial moments, the Razorbacks did the complicated thing by putting the ball in Green’s hands when all they seemingly needed to do was run the ball.

Other ways Arkansas should’ve won this game include the head-scratching false start call (we’ll discuss it more momentarily) when it looked as if Arkansas jumped on that fourth down that would’ve let OSU ice the game. Then despite looking way out of sync, the Razorbacks somehow made their way down the field in the final seconds of regulation and tied the game as time expired despite it looking a few times like the clock would just run out on them. Then the Razorbacks were gifted a Logan Ward missed field goal in the first overtime after Ward had been nails in this young season. Arkansas just kept choosing defeat.

Credit to OSU, the Cowboys stayed calm despite getting rocked in the first half and found a way to win, but Arkansas is very much going to feel like this was one that got away.

2. Alan Bowman and the Finger Guns

Alan Bowman perhaps had his best game as a Cowboy last weekend against South Dakota State. Saturday was less pretty.

Bowman completed just 56% of his 48 passing attempts for 326 yards a touchdown and an interception. He started the day 4-for-4 before completing just one of his next eight.

Bowman’s performance was a microcosm of the game in that it went up and down. He threw a pick, but it was a one-on-one jump ball to Rashod Owens. I think you live with that. The more concerning part was some of his inaccuracies that hit the turf. It felt like much more than last week, Bowman wasn’t set and was falling away from a handful of his throws, a habit that usually gets him in trouble. But to his credit, he beat an SEC team despite having non-existent run support and a defense that gave up 648 yards of total offense.

His second half was much better than his first. He finished the first half with 64 passing yards. He had 72 in the first series of the second half. Peaks and valleys.

Bowman hit Presley for a 36-yard gain in the fourth that put OSU within striking distance of breaking a tie, but on his way down the field, Bowman shot some finger guns toward the Arkansas side line, which drew an unsportsmanlike conduct flag. It was uncharacteristic for who I’m now coining Bad Boy Bowman, but despite the rage it brought on social media, I’m not sure the penalty changed too much about the game — thanks to Ward.


There were fewer than two minutes left, and with the game tied, I think OSU would’ve tried to drain the clock regardless and settled for a field goal. The penalty made it a longer field goal, but Ward hit it. No harm, no foul (except the literal foul called).

“You’d think as an older guy, that you could be composed, take care of yourself,” Bowman said. “But playing this game, it’s so highly competitive, and you get so fired up and you make a great play. I just looked up and the whole sideline was staring at me, and I should’ve just turned around and celebrated with my teammates. But I had to give them a little something.

“That could’ve potentially lost us the game. It’s all funny now, and Twitter and all that stuff, it’s everywhere. But it’d be a completely different story if we lost. That’s not gonna happen again on my side. That will get fixed. That’s my fault.”

3. But then What Was That Offside Call?

The craziness of that sequence didn’t stop there. This was mentioned somewhat in the Arkansas gift-wrapping the game thought, but the false start/offside call appeared cut and dry on the field. The officials didn’t see it that way.

The plan appeared to be that the Cowboys were going to run the play clock down as low as possible before calling a timeout and attempting a go-ahead field goal. OSU’s offense lined up on the fourth down while the play clock was rolling in an attempt to draw Arkansas offside, which would’ve given OSU a new set of downs and let the Cowboys really drain the clock ahead of the field goal.

It felt obvious to everyone in the stadium that OSU wasn’t going to snap the ball, but a jerky motion from Quinton Stewart saw Arkansas defensive end Anton Juncaj hop into the neutral zone. Dalton Cooper then reacted to that, whistles sounded and flags flew. After some discussion, they called a false start on Cooper.

That call stopped the clock. It forced Ward into a longer field goal and to some extent, it pushed the game to OT because it gave Arkansas the ball back.

“So when we go on two and we clap and then clap again, we motioned the tight end over the run the ball over here, they jumped,” Gundy said. “And the explanation to me was, ‘You can’t do that.’ But we’ve done it before. So there’s the issue you have with officiating crews. That’s an SEC crew. We’ve done it before. We did it all preseason in scrimmages with Big 12 crews, and it didn’t get called. So Steve Shaw’s the head of officiating, and he needs to fix it. He needs to get them all in one room and have everybody have the same (rules). That’s the way I see it.”

4. OSU Has to Find Some Way to Run the Ball

I counted four plays where the Cowboys had a third or fourth down with two or fewer yards to a first down, and they handed Ollie Gordon the ball on only one of those instances.

That’s where OSU’s running game is right now. The best running back in the country is in the backfield, but in obvious put-your-head-down moments, the Cowboys aren’t even trying to run it with their bell cow because of how dicey the running game is right now.

As a team, OSU ran for 59 yards Saturday on 26 carries Saturday. That’s 2.3 yards a rush. Gordon had 49 yards on 17 carries — 2.9 yards a rush.

That’s putting a lot on Alan Bowman’s plate. The fun ideas about this offense coming into the season were about how balanced it could be when teams were having to pick between stopping Gordon or the Cowboys’ weapons on the outside. Arkansas has a good (maybe great) defensive line and the Razorbacks were all in on stopping Gordon, but 2.3 yards a carry as a team isn’t going to cut it for a team with the aspirations that OSU has this season.

“We’re not gonna be able to get away with this much more,” Gundy said. “Not gonna happen. We’re gonna have to get better at that. We’re gonna have to get to 4.2 yards a carry — period. We’re not gonna be this fortunate as we move on down the road.”

5. Big Plays = Big Yikes

From one lingering concern of last week to another: Arkansas had a dozen plays of 15 yards or more in the first half Saturday … OSU had zero.

The game finished with 20 Arkansas plays going for 15 or more yards, while the OSU offense finally got going in the second half and had six of such plays. Giving up big yardage is not a recipe for winning football, despite Saturday’s evidence.

That’s not a groundbreaking statement, but the fact that an issue from last week appeared worse this week, that’s less than optimal for the Pokes and a concern as the season rolls on.

6. Brennan Presley Was Targeted How Many Times?

Nineteen is the answer to that question. In a physical bloodbath, OSU was force feeding its 5-foot-8, 175-pound receiver. Sort of awesome.

Presley finished with nine catches for 91 yards and a touchdown. He also had one rush for three yards and another score. Even some of his incompletions were big plays for the Cowboys in that he drew not one, not two, but three pass interference calls.

When the Cowboys’ offense couldn’t quite get going, it turned to Presley, an undersized player with one power conference offer, to beat an SEC team. And he did.

“He’s like a little rubber ball, a little bouncy ball,” Gundy said. “… That’s what he’s like. He just bounces off everybody and I keep knocking on wood that he just stays healthy. We try to get him out of the game and he won’t come out of the game. We tell him, ‘We’ve got to get you off return team,’ he doesn’t wanna come out of the game. So we just leave him in there and let him play, let him keep going. …

“And obviously there’s not a red flag when we throw to him. We only targeted him 19 times. No secret to that one. ”

7. Timely Defensive Stops

OSU’s defense didn’t play well Saturday, let’s not get that twisted. But there were a few key stops the Cowboys made from the first quarter to the second over time that ended up being enough in this game.

The first stop I want to highlight came on the Razorbacks’ opening drive. Arkansas had a 3rd-and-3 on OSU’s 27 when Bryan Nardo sent the heat, and Jeff Roberson sacked Green for a nine-yard loss. It pushed Arkansas out of field-goal range, and the Razorbacks ended up punting. Notable in a game where the clock ran out in regulation with the score tied at 31.

Something similar happened in the first overtime. The Hogs had the ball on the 16-yard line, but OSU brought pressure and sacked Arkansas back to the 28, and Arkansas missed the field goal.

Lastly, there was the obvious fourth-down stop to end the game. After OSU got ran over all game, after Arkansas was 11-for-20 on third and fourth down, Kendal Daniels got home on Arkansas’ 4th-and-1 attempt and ended things with a big tackle.

This was not a good game from the OSU defense. The 648 yards the Cowboys gave up is enough evidence of that, but in terms of finding some sort of way to win, the Cowboys D did just enough Saturday.

8. Turnovers Were Huge

Despite giving up big plays on defense and not being able to run the ball, the Cowboys won the turnover battle, which ultimately decided this game.

Arkansas turned the ball over three times Saturday, and those three turnovers led to 18 of the Cowboys’ 31 points in regulation.

Kale Smith’s pick-six was an obvious big play. Arkansas was looking to go up 21-0 at the time and run the Cowboys out of their own stadium before Smith halted that momentum and put some points on the board for OSU.

Then came a mishandled pitch in the third quarter that led to an OSU field goal.

But the real back breaker came in the fourth. OSU punter Hudson Kaak sent a wobbler that Isaiah Sategna couldn’t quite handle — especially considering one of his blockers took a spill at his feet as he was catching the ball. OSU long snapper Shea Freibaum was there to fall on it, and the Cowboys tied the game two plays later with a touchdown.

“Sometimes my wish is that I wish is that everybody in the world could just get back there for one punt return,” said Presley, OSU’s punt returner. “Fans all around, everybody looking at you because it is very nerve-wracking and stuff. I really wish people could get back there and see just how hard it is because it is a very hard job.”

All massive moments that ended up being the difference in a game that was so one-sided in yardage totals.

Also, make it two straight elite days from OSU’s special teams this season. Ward missed a kick, but he also made three. Then Kaak and Freibaum combined for the muff and cover.

9. Welcome to the Show, Obi Ezeigbo

Collin Oliver went down in the first half and might be done for the year. So, the Cowboys turned to a Gannon Golden Knight, and all things considered, he played well.

Obi Ezeigbo was playing Division-II football last season, and Saturday he played an increased number of snaps against an SEC team. He finished with nine tackles, including 3.5 tackles for loss. He recorded two of OSU’s three sacks on the day. In a full season at the D-II level in 2023, Ezeigbo had 10.5 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks. He could catch those numbers quickly playing like he did Saturday.

“Welcome to big-time college football whether you like it or not,” Gundy said.

10. That Game Was College Football

Arkansas, like Oklahoma, is a college football state. There isn’t an NFL team there to say otherwise.

Was Saturday’s game a technical masterpiece? Far from it. In fact, I wouldn’t put it past both coaches burning the film and acting as if none of this ever happened. But that’s almost what makes college football such a beautiful game. Mistakes, momentum swings, come backs — those are reasons I love college football.

When I think of all the change going on in the sport, it can be scary because some of it feels like the game I love is changing. But I think this game made me realize that all the outside stuff can change (players getting paid, players switching teams, etc.) but so long as those are the types of games we get to watch every so often, college football is going to be just fine.

In some ways, Saturday’s game eased my mind about where this sport is heading because at the end of the day, it’s going to come down to a bunch of college-aged kids going out on a field and executing. That’s the fun part.

Related Topics:

Most Read

Copyright © 2011- 2025 Pistols Firing Blog