Lack of Discipline a Big Factor in OSU’s Stunning Home Loss Woes

A head-scratching concern has become a disturbing trend. Oklahoma State is losing home games, even ones in which it is the prohibitive favorite. The silver lining — if there is one — is that OSU will play out the the majority of its remaining games on the road.

Last season, a disappointing 3-3 home result derailed what was expected to be an all-time Cowboy squad. This year’s squad had a decidedly lower ceiling coming in but its floor has proven to be even lower than expected, too.

On Saturday, Cowboys welcomed a 1-3 Iowa State team, as a 9.5-point favorite, with a mean all-black uniform combination. It could have used a little more attitude of that along its offensive line.

Taylor Cornelius spent more time on the run than Daxx Garman on a treadmill. He wasn’t perfect, but Vince Young probably looks pedestrian behind that offensive front. The defense had few answers for a third-string QB who hadn’t attempted a collegiate pass.

A cupcake retreat in Lawrence proved to be only a fleeting reprieve after the Cowboys were ran off of Lewis Field in embarrassing fashion by Texas Tech two weeks earlier.

During Gundy’s tenure OSU is 36-22 in home Big 12 games, but is now just 2-5 in its last seven. Why is that? As Kyle Porter pointed out in his 10 Thoughts, OSU has has rarely been able to simply out-talent other teams (aside from a couple years). It’s often a matter of out-scheming and a keen attention to the details. Does that mean the Cowboys are more relaxed at home? Overconfident? I’m not sure what the answer is to that.

But so far this season, the Cowboys have been anything but disciplined, and minding their Ps and Qs has been a deficiency rather than a strength.

“Throughout the day we had nine penalties for 87 yards, that’s 40 yards too many at least,” said Gundy after the game. “Again, we had a horse-collar on the sideline, had a couple holding penalties on offensive linemen. We had one call on (Calvin) Bundage, I’m not sure what it was, even now.

“But regardless, we have to be more disciplined in the penalty area. We’re not good enough to overcome large numbers of penalty yards.”

The most important question now is how the team moves forward. With a trip to Manhattan on the horizon, K-State is never a gimme. After that it’s a much-need bye week before a suddenly-surging Texas team comes in for Homecoming.

“It’s college football, we got to get back to work in the morning and come up with a good plan,” Gundy said. “We got to travel on the road again and we got to get ready to play. That’s the message I gave the guys.”

Again, that may be a good thing. Since the start of 2016, OSU is 12-6 at home and 10-2 on the road. That’s unbelievable. Even scarier, they’re 10-6 as a home favorite in that span. Four of those seven losses have been as a double-digit favorite (they’re 8-4 as a double-digit home favorite in the last three years).

Here are all of Gundy’s losses as a double-digit favorite since 2010.

The problem with missed assignments and being undisciplined is that there is no coach-around for those type of issues. Maybe that’s what this team has become. Gundy-coached teams used to be sound in special teams, win the turnover battle and not shoot all of their toes off with penalties and head-scratching mistakes. The opposite of that is how you go 10-6 as a home favorite in the span of three years (I cannot explain the 10-2 road record).

We’ve seen that discipline change in recent years with the Cardiac Cowboys winning several by the skin of their teeth. The problem with 2018 is that this team doesn’t appear to have the talent at the top to overcome it.