10 Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 42-21 Loss to Arizona State

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STILLWATER — Welp, after a lengthy lightning delay the Cowboys’ losing streak was extended, and their bowl streak is on its last leg.

Oklahoma State fell to Arizona State 42-21 on Saturday in Boone Pickens Stadium in a game that featured a 2.5-hour delay at halftime because of a storm that rolled through Stillwater. Here are 10 thoughts from the game.

1. Third Downs (and Fourth Downs) Were Killer

The Sun Devils were 10-for-16 on third down Saturday, and two of those stops were null and void because ASU was also 2-for-2 on fourth down. Not winning football for the Cowboys.

There were some big gains on the money downs, too. Arizona State had four plays on third down of 10 or more yards. For reference, OSU had just five plays of 10 or more yards Saturday regardless of the down.

Teams are converting 42.2% of their third-down attempts against OSU. Coming into Saturday, that would’ve ranked 102nd nationally and 13th in the Big 12.

It has to be tough constantly being compared to Jim Knowles, but that’s how it is for Bryan Nardo. Knowles’ OSU defenses were elite on third down. OSU’s vaunted 2021 defense allowed conversions on just 29% of third down attempts. Knowles’ worst defense in the stat was in 2018, his first year, where teams converted on 39.3% of their third-down attempts. In both 2019 and 2020, teams converted just 26.5% of their third-down attempts on the Pokes.

Throw it into what seems like a bottomless pit of OSU’s defensive issues this season, but for this particular game, this was the most glaring problem.

2. This Was a Good Day (Relatively) of OSU’s Run Defense

That isn’t the compliment you might think it is.

Arizona State averaged 4.6 yards a rush against the Pokes, which is sadly the best the Cowboys have done against the run since the Tulsa game. Before Saturday, OSU had allowed six yards a carry or more in its past four games. The Sun Devils still ran for 225 on the Cowboys, which was below OSU’s season average of 251 coming into the game.

Lipstick, meet pig.

3. But Skattebo Still Throttled the Pokes

Cam Skattebo didn’t run for a million yards on the Cowboys, but he did dominate the Pokes by ground and air.

ASU’s bully back carried 23 times for 153 yards and a touchdown. He also caught four passes for 121 yards and two more scores. It was a career-high for Skattebo in receiving yards and just the second time he’s eclipsed 100.

Both of his receiving touchdowns were gashing plays. The first came on 4th-and-1 when Skattebo slipped out into the flats with no one around him before he rumbled for 50 yards. Then he took a swing pass 36 yards in the fourth quarter for his other receiving score.

CAN’T CATCH SKATT 😈

📺 @CFBONFOX
📻 https://t.co/0CMltGmpCV pic.twitter.com/i0k1zdjROD

— Sun Devil Football (@ASUFootball) November 2, 2024

In total, Skattebo had 274 all-purpose yards. OSU had just 270 yards of total offense.

4. Another Rough Day for Bowman, Gordon and the OSU Offense

The Cowboy offense played better in the first half than it did after the big delay, but that isn’t saying much.

It’s sad to say, but OSU’s better half included just 13 rushing yards. The Cowboys scored 14 points in the first half half and averaged 5.8 yards a play. The second half saw OSU amass only 107 yards of offense while averaging 3.8 yards a play.

Alan Bowman completed 57% of his passes Saturday for 175 yards, a touchdown and an interception. His TD was a one-yard pass to Brennan Presley. He threw one or two more balls that could’ve been deemed turnover-worthy. Bowman was just 4-for-11 in the second half before making way for Maealiuaki Smith to get some mop-up duty.

After two straight weeks of OSU’s running game looking the tiniest bit lively, Ollie Gordon had just 25 yards on 11 carries (2.3 yards a carry). That’s his lowest rushing output of the season, but it marks the fifth time he has been held to 50 or fewer rushing yards. What is happening?

There really wasn’t an offensive standout Saturday. Maybe Trent Howland who had 22 yards on three carries in mop-up duty. De’Zhaun Stribling had an alright day with five catches for 77 yards. Presley had a few impressive plays. But for the most part, OSU’s offense looked lifeless.

5. Could Smith Be the Guy Moving Forward?

Maealiuaki Smith has led played one drive of college football. It ended in an OSU touchdown.

It’s not exactly like Smith was otherworldly in the drive. He mainly just handed the ball off, but he quarterbacked the Cowboys on a seven-play, 49-yard drive that took 2:53 off the clock — OSU’s third-longest drive of the day in terms of yards and time of possession.

It was 42-14 when he finally got in. Smith can, at this point, play every game for the rest of the season and still redshirt.

His first college pass went to Ayo Shotomide-King for an 11-yard gain. He also threw a fade ball to Shotomide-King in the end zone, but it was out of bounds. Other than that, it was all run plays. Smith kept one of those himself, gaining five yards.

Gundy said after the game that Smith is getting “as many reps as Bowman” in practice, and though Gundy didn’t commit to Smith playing the rest of the year behind center, he didn’t say he wouldn’t.

“I mean, I don’t know,” Gundy said. “I’d have to get in there and look. I mean, it’s a valid question — they’re all valid questions — but I would hate to say something and go back on my word or whatever. But we will look at it. We’ll look and see.”

6. Officials Were Suspect at Times

There was a time early in the second quarter where it looked like Mike Gundy might stand in the middle of the field until the referees either gave in to his arguments or threw him out.

Bowman had just completed a 36-yard pass to Stribling down to the Arizona State 4-yard line. The Cowboys ran up to the ball, which was spotted. Joe Michalski snapped to Bowman, who turned and handed to Gordon. Gordon pushed his way into the end zone. The official on the far side of the field threw his hands up in the air signaling the score.

But then the officials got together and waved it off. Why? Apparently, a Sun Devil way down the field (and near the ASU sideline) doubled over injured after the big completion to Stribling. The injured player was a half a field away from the Gordon touchdown run, which again, the officials spotted the ball for.

Gundy came out to the numbers throwing his hands to his side and hollered at the officials for some time.

But that wasn’t the only flub the officiating crew had Saturday.

On the Sun Devils’ first drive, it looked like 12 players came out of ASU’s huddle for a third-down play. Arizona State got up to the line when the extra body realized he wasn’t supposed to be out there and started running to the sideline. The officials at least let OSU make a sub, as Gundy and Co. did the ole “run a defensive tackle onto the field and waste as much time as possible” trick. ASU was still able to get a play off, though, and Skattebo took a 3rd-and-1 handoff 29 yards.

The last instance we’ll look at (from the first half alone) came in the second quarter when Presley caught a ball over the middle and was clobbered. It had all the looks of targeting and was even initially called targeting, but it got overturned after further review. I no longer know what targeting is.

The officials aren’t the reason the Cowboys lost this game, and I don’t think it was a matter of the stripes favoring one side over the other. I just think it was a series of calls that weren’t good.

7. Second-Half Punting Decisions Questionable

OSU went for it on fourth down three times Saturday, so I won’t linger on this too long. But there were a couple of opportunities in the third quarter for OSU to attempt to extend drives and the Cowboys elected to punt.

On one side of the coin, it makes sense to punt the ball away. Getting yards for this OSU offense looks harder than it would be for Daton Fix to score a basket on prime Tony Allen. The other side of that coin, though, is that OSU’s defense is so bad, so more than likely you’re getting the ball back down seven more points than you were down.

The first instance I thought the Cowboys maybe should’ve gone for it was with just under 13 minutes left in the third quarter. Down a score, the Pokes elected to punt on 4th-and-1 from their 37-yard line. OSU’s defense actually got a stop, so you could argue no harm, no foul.

Then with less than four minutes to play in the third quarter, OSU punted on 4th-and-10 from what the stats have as OSU’s 49-yard line, but it looked to me that the ball on the ASU side of the 50. The Cowboys were down 28-14 at the time. The risk-reward with that one is tricky because OSU had just three plays of 10 or more yards while Bowman led the offense in the game, so it was rather unlikely. But OSU punted, and ASU went and made it 35-14.

The Cowboys finally went for it on their next drive. It was a 4th-and-5 from their own 30. Bowman scrambled for four yards on the play, turning it over on downs. The Sun Devils promptly scored and the runaway train truly ran away. So it feels like a lose-lose scenario for the Pokes. Regardless of the choice to punt or go for it, it ends in OSU giving the ball back to Arizona State, and Arizona State more than likely scoring.

8. OSU MVP Kyler Pearson

We all do our OSU MVP predictions for each game, and we were a bunch of dummies for not making the obvious choice walk-on return man Kyler Pearson.

Pearson took the second-half kickoff 98 yards to the house, but it was called back because of holding. Listed at 5-foot-6, 150 pounds Pearson still looked good in his other returns, finishing with 67 yards on kick returns and 37 yards in punt returns.

His 104 all-purpose yards were a team-best — another example of how not great the offense is.

9. The Big 12 Is So Fun, and OSU Isn’t Taking Part in Said Fun

The Big 12 has been so much fun this season … unless you’re watching Oklahoma State (the BYU game was fun, let’s remember).

Now at 0-6, the Cowboys are the only Big 12 squad without a conference win, and they’ve been outscored 220-137 in those contest.

But then you look at the rest of the league and see that Texas Tech went to Ames on Saturday and knocked off an unbeaten Iowa State. And Houston upset Kansas State in H-Town (the Cougars have three Big 12 wins, by the way).

It feels like any Big 12 team can win on any given Saturday … except Oklahoma State, a team that made the Big 12 title game last season with basically it’s entire roster back. Sure, there are injuries on the defense, but essentially the entire offense is the same as last season’s. And OSU has 0 Big 12 wins to show for it.

10. The Bowl Streak Is Down to Its Final Out

I think this point is best driven home by Jim Mora:

“Playoffs [the bowl streak]? Don’t talk about playoffs [the bowl streak] You kidding me? Playoffs [the bowl streak]? I just hope we can win a game.”

With that being said, OSU has to win out to keep its 18-year bowl streak alive. Keeping it going would include a win at TCU, a win against Texas Tech and a win at Colorado.

Bonus Thought: Still Split on the Unis

After simmering on my take of Oklahoma State’s throwback uniforms throughout the weather delay, I’m still torn.

I like the Tigers reference. It’s a well I don’t think OSU’s draws from enough. For those unaware, Oklahoma A&M College’s first team name was the Tigers, which is where the orange and black come from.

Just about all of me likes the helmets by themselves. Part of me likes also the striped socks and sleeves. But something about them mixing with the regular jerseys just feels slightly off. Almost feels like two different ideas are clashing with each other. They’re almost the same idea, but not quite. The helmet probably could’ve done with some white in the stripe to match with the stripes on the jersey. I applaud OSU for trying something so out of the box, but I’m not 100% sure the landing was stuck.

I will say, the OSU support staff had some long sleeve shirts that were striped and had the logo that was on the helmet on the chest, and those shirts were slick.