10 Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 38-13 Loss to TCU

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FORT WORTH, Texas — The Cowboys’ heralded bowl streak comes to an end in Cowtown.

Oklahoma State fell to TCU 38-13 on Saturday night in Amon G. Carter Stadium. The loss brought the Cowboys down to 3-7 on the year (0-7 in Big 12 play), and with just two games left, OSU cannot get to the six wins needed to keep the streak alive. Here are 10 thoughts on the game.

1. More Bad D

TCU scored touchdown on five consecutive drives Saturday night. Turns out they just needed two touchdowns to beat the Pokes. The rest was overkill.

After hitting a field goal on their first drive and missing one on their second, the Horned Frogs ripped off that quintet of scores with each drive being at least 63 yards long. TCU punter Ethan Craw didn’t have to be woken up until the fourth quarter when he went out and booted it from the OSU 45-yard line. Hopefully his hamstrings were warm after not playing all day.

TCU also came into the game with the No. 15 rushing offense in the Big 12 (below OSU), but managed to run for 175 yards on 6.3 yards a carry. In fairness, that number really ballooned when Jordyn Bailey darted down OSU’s sideline for a 59-yard touchdown before the officials picked up what looked to be an obvious hold. But it looked for a while like OSU might outrush its opponent for just the fourth time this season until the Horned Frogs outrushed the Cowboys 98 to -3 in the fourth quarter.

Gundy mentioned postgame that the Cowboys have to do a better job of getting off the field on third down. TCU was 5-for-7 on the down in the first half and faced just three third downs in the second.

The defense is certainly banged up. A freshman walk-on linebacker played legitimate snaps. Having an edge rusher like Collin Oliver would certainly help on third down, but man, this defense continues to be tough to watch.

2. A Two-Play Stretch That Perfectly Describes This Season

With about four minutes to play in the first half, OSU ran a nifty little concept on the outside that, for a moment, resulted in a first down.

It was 3rd-and-5. Brennan Presley, Josh Ford and De’Zhaun Stribling were bunched near the sideline to Bowman’s right. Presley was lined up on the inside. On the snap, he ran an out route while Ford and Stribling each ran in-cutting routes. Presley got freed up and caught a pass for a seven-yard gain and a first down. But there was a flag.

Stribling’s route wasn’t so much in-cutting as it was run directly at the defensive back covering Presley. It was a pick. It got called because of course it did. It was on OSU, and that’s just the luck the Cowboys have had this season.

So that forced the Cowboys into a 3rd-and-10. That play saw Trent Howland swing in motion to Bowman’s left. Howland was a decoy. Bowman threw to Presley, who started on that side of the field but was coming back across the play. The issue was the TCU defense was running in that direction following Howland, and Presley was gobbled up for a two-yard loss … on a forward pass.

OSU can’t get out of its own way with penalties nor can it get lucky and get away with a pick play every once in a while. Then plays like the second one leave you scratching your head. It’s just rough in nearly every aspect.

3. Presley Gets the Record

The diamond in the roughness that is this season: Brennan Presley has caught more passes than anyone in OSU’s history.

With 3:38 to play in the third quarter, Presley had a five-yard catch to tie the record Rashaun Woods set in 2003. Then mere seconds into the fourth quarter, Presley caught an 11-yard pass on the TCU sideline, carefully toe tapping before his momentum carried him out of bounds. He finished with 10 catches for 75 yards, bringing his career receptions tally to 297.

Whenever the Gundy era of OSU football does come to an end, Presley has a case to be on the All-Gundy Team, which is saying something because he plays a position that OSU has perhaps been best at through Gundy’s tenure. I get that this is Presley’s fifth year, but regardless, he has more college catches than this pantheon: Justin Blackmon, Dez Bryant, James Washington and Tylan Wallace. That’s awesome.

4. And He Made Even More History

We’ve already gushed about him and have been all season, so let’s make this one quick.

Here is the list of Cowboys who have 5,000 career all-purpose yards:

Barry Sanders
Thurman Thomas
Terry Miller
Brennan Presley

Again, sure, he’s had five seasons. But to be the only receiver on that list of Hall of Famers is awesome.

5. Hello, John Paul (He Goes by JP Now) Richardson

Former Cowboy John Paul Richardson (he’s JP on the TCU roster) went off for 100 receiving yards against his old squad. He did all that on just seven catches (and only eight targets).

He was outstanding, as he was his first two seasons at Oklahoma State. OSU fans should be plenty happy with their slot receiver, but man, Richardson was one who got away. He’s a dog.

6. The Ollie Diamond Was Fun for Three Plays

The Cowboys started their second drive of the second half pinned on their own six-yard line.

OSU’s answer to the tight spot was to line Ollie Gordon up at quarterback with Trent Howland behind him and Josh Ford and Jake Schultz to either side. The Cowboys ran three plays with that personnel:

Howland gain of five
Gordon gain of 15
Howland gain of five

It was perhaps the most fun part in this game that was 24-0 at the half. I might be on board for OSU going full military academy and running that option for an entire game.

TCU’s rush defense isn’t anything to write home about (came into the night ranked 15th in the Big 12 ahead of only OSU), but the Cowboys were able to get a decent push for what felt like the first time in a long time. And with that push, Gordon was able to open his stride a little bit. He finished with 121 rush yards and a touchdown on 25 carries. It’s just the third time this season he eclipsed the century mark, and it’s always fun to see that what he showed last season is still there.

7. And Trent Howland Was Rumbling, Too

Trent Howland leads the Cowboys in yard per carry among players with at least 10 carries this season — more than Gordon, more than Sesi Vailahi and more than Rodney Fields.

Howland carried eight times against the Horned Frogs, totaling 47 yards. The radio broadcast said he has been banged up throughout the year, which might be why we haven’t seen him as much. But when he gets an opportunity, he usually takes advantage of it. He had a lane to the end zone in the third quarter but appeared to trip over his own feet — another example of how cursed this season is.

With Gordon likely gone to the NFL next season, OSU has to feel fairly decent about its depth in that running back room moving forward.

8. It Was Mostly Bowman with a Little Bit of Smith

The Cowboys were working in freshmen at a lot of spots Saturday, but it looked for a while like the freshman most Cowboy fans wanted to see wasn’t going to get in.

Quarterback Alan Bowman played the majority of the game, completing 66% of his 29 attempts for 141 yards, a touchdown and an INT. Without watching the tape (doing my best Gundy impersonation), it felt like he was missing high quite a bit. His interception was a bit behind Presley, and when Presley planted to go back for it, he slipped.

Bowman looked better in the second half, particularly on his touchdown throw to De’Zhaun Stribling — a corner route in the back of the end zone. That was one of his better throws of the season.

I thought we’d see Smith coming out of half considering the Pokes mustered a goose egg through two quarters, but he got the Cowboys’ final drive of the night, going 6-for-8 for 92 yards. He looked good in spots. His third completion was a ball in a window to Stribling, and Stribling was able to spin out and gain 31. Then he threw a nice ball to Camron Heard (a redshirt freshman making his first catch) for a gain of 28.

But, as expected with a freshman, Smith also had a few mistakes. He had an intentional grounding on 2nd-and-3 from the TCU 15-yard line that pushed it back to 3rd-and-26. After a 14-yard checkdown to Vailahi, Smith needed something on 4th-and-12, but TCU defender Travis Jackson jumped up and made a nice play to intercept the pass.

Overall, it was just good to see some semblance of the potential future with how rough the first half especially was. It’s going to be frustrating if Smith ever becomes the guy and we’re left talking about how he needs more experience when he could be getting plenty more from here on out. So, hopefully he does.

9. Bye Bye Bowl Streak

For the first time in a long time, OSU fans won’t have to dictate their holiday plans around an OSU bowl game.

After 18 years, the Cowboys won’t go bowling in 2024. It had to end at some point, but man, a team with this much expectation in a wide-open Big 12 is a difficult way for it to end. Back in August, playing in a non-playoff bowl game might’ve been disappointing to some fans with all the Cowboys had returning.

Back in 2006, OSU finished the regular season 6-6 and earned a trip to the Independence Bowl in Shreveport. There, the Cowboys beat Alabama in the Crimson Tide’s final game before Nick Saban took over. The final bowl in the streak came in 2023 when the Cowboys won nine games in the regular season and made the Big 12 title game. After a loss to Texas in Arlington, OSU beat Texas A&M in the Texas Bowl in Houston. It started with an SEC win and ended with one.

The streak spanned the eras of OSU titans like Zac Robinson, Brandon Weeden, Mason Rudolph and Spencer Sanders. It featured a pair of Fiesta Bowl wins — perhaps the two biggest wins in program history. It also featured two trips to the Cotton Bowl and another to the Sugar Bowl. Shoot, it featured Amen Ogbongbemiga shoveling Cheez-Its in his mouth in Orlando.

It was the greatest stretch of football in OSU’s history. But, for now, it’s done.

10. Gundy Doesn’t Want to Get into Monday Comments

The man in the arena is a real thing.

It cannot be easy playing/coaching in front of thousands of people who are wondering about your every move. But if you go 10 or so miles past the man in the arena, you’ll find Gundy’s quotes from Monday.

By now, you’ve probably heard, but in the midst of a lengthy quote, Gundy said, “In most cases, the people that are negative and voicing their opinion are the same ones that can’t pay their own bills.” The quote continued for a bit somewhere along those lines. Postgame Saturday was the first time Gundy was in front of the media since the comments and the fallout to them. The Oklahoman‘s Scott Wright asked Gundy about the comments after the game, and he said he wanted to talk about football only.

The horse that is this story has been beaten worse than the Cowboys over the past seven weeks, but I’ll just add this: It’s OK that a fan base that sold out season tickets before the year started and is being asked to donate more money now than they ever have before (OSU was about to put QR codes on its players’ helmets for goodness sake) is upset about a season that has gone totally south. And in some ways this is another compliment to the work Gundy himself has done over the last 20 years. OSU football has been so good that a season like this is unacceptable.