Leftover Notes on Oklahoma State’s 59-16 Win Over Baylor

I emptied much of my notebook in the 10 Thoughts on Saturday evening, but here’s what I had left after cleaning it out. As always, these are random thoughts and musings as I watch everything unfold.

• It amuses me how much the Oklahoma State fan base detests Baylor. I understand why — it feels like Baylor came in and stole some of the shine that should have gone to Oklahoma State in the early 2010s — but it’s still pretty astounding how everyone felt about an 0-5 team coming into the game.

• “Great reset of his hips” is a great announcer phrase. I laughed out loud.

• Pooh Stricklin is a great name.

• Southwell said this in our Slack chat during the game, but this was a tremendous uniform matchup. It’s not the best OSU has ever engaged in, last year against WVU was an all-timer, but it was up there (Baylor needs help with its shoulder pad graphics, by the way).

• Tre Flowers, a dude.

• The ref was jacked!

• Oklahoma State’s first down defense needs to be a lot better. They get going uphill on first downs against decent offenses, and it just can’t recover.

• How big was the Justin Phillips strip and Walterscheid recovery? Baylor is driving there to go up 14-0 after an atrocious fumble by Jalen McCleskey, and then it starts to get in your head a little bit. An 0-5 team up 14-0 on you at Homecoming?

• I wrote this in the first quarter: Rudolph looks lost … He got a little better as the game went on, but he wasn’t as sharp as he probably needs to be.

• This was a pretty interesting formation.

• I said it before the season, I’ll say it again — Marcell Ateman is as much of an “oh crap, we have to have a first down/TD here” guy as James Washington is.

• How about a true freshman on punt returns for a preseason top 10 team?

• This was … not good, considering it was tied at 7 at the end of the first quarter.

• I hope Carson was OK after seeing this.

• Mason was not very good in the first quarter, and yet he was still 6/11 for 137 yards and 2 TD on his first three drives.

• I loved this shot of the helmets. It barely looks like McCleskey has a number on there. So clean.

Jalen McCleskey (@lilsho2) hauls in a TD pass to give #okstate the 14-7 lead pic.twitter.com/vnYg6zhJPe

— Jason Elmquist (@jelmquistSW) October 14, 2017

• Do we know why Matt Rhule wears a short-sleeve pitcher’s jacket during games?

• Am I the only one who feels like Oklahoma State’s linebackers and defensive ends overrun running backs a lot when they have them caught in the backfield?

• John Lovett is pretty good for a freshman.

• How did Tre Flowers miss this??

• Baylor had a drive in the middle of the second quarter where it ran 12 plays — nine of them were rushes. Again, Baylor came in No. 92 in the country in yards per carry. They were healthier than they have been, but it didn’t feel like they had a ton of respect for OSU’s run defense.

• Baylor trying to single cover Marcell Ateman is like my three-year-old trying to single cover the Oreos after dinner.

• The best part of the helmets was the O-State on the front.

• One of the FOX announcers said at one point, “They have so many weapons, it’s almost a hindrance.”

• J.D. King is really good at football, and him and Justice are going to be the heart of Oklahoma State’s offense next year with so many questions at QB and so many WRs on the way out.

• Tyron getting tackled by a kicker is not a thing I thought I would see on Saturday.

• How bizarre was the Washington fumble? I thought he was trying to pitch it to Ateman with two guys covering him. He wasn’t, but that’s how weird it was.

• I am going to miss watching Mason Rudolph play football. Got a little Tom Brady in there somewhere.

• I liked that OSU didn’t go deep as much as it did against TCU. It picked its spots better, chose single coverage on great players, and found the flow of the game instead of trying to force it deep so often.

• I know Baylor isn’t that good, but OSU’s secondary did a really good job (although they Ramoned a few balls that could have been pick-6s

• Why was Baylor not going for it in OSU territory in the second half? You trying to cover that spread?

• Kasey Dunn … he knew.

• Tyron takes your breath away. I know he has just nine catches on the season, but my gosh!

• This reminded me of the Justin Gilbert pick-6 at Texas right in front of Mack Brown. One of the great GIFs ever.

• Rudolph has gone to Tylan in the end zone on like 3 of his 6 targets. Trying to get the freshman a TD!

• I’m not sure whether to be more surprised that OSU had a 13-play drive against Baylor or that it was just OSU’s third-longest drive of the season.

• Here are some stats:

Zach Smith against OU: 33/50 | 463 yards | 4 TD | 0 INT
Zach Smith against Oklahoma State: 11/28 | 127 yards | 0 TD | 1 INT

• Is this good?

• Let’s all take a minute to watch and appreciate the beauty of a James Washington route. I don’t even care whether he caught it or not. Just watching him in his world, running past people with that preposterous gait is a joy in and of itself.