Pokes Showed the Formula For Their Success, Just Need to Repeat It

The Cowboys earned a big win on Saturday night and there were several contributing factors.

Taylor Cornelius lived up to some of those Clint Chelf comparisons and shut up some critics (present company included) for at least another week. The Cowboys defense had its best showing in conference play, even if the numbers don’t necessarily show that. And oh yeah, Tylan Wallace turned in the best stat line by an OSU underclassmen since Dez Bryant was redefining defining what it meant to be a #Freak.

But for all the stats and records and postgame raspberries and rants, one ingredient to OSU’s success has gotten little pub. OSU played one of its cleanest overall games of the season and didn’t turn the ball over.

I wrote about this as one of the fixes OSU needed to implement during the bye week, but the Cowboys came home from Manhattan ranked 96th and 114th respectively in penalties per game and penalty yardage. On Saturday night the Pokes were flagged just four times — matching a season low with the Boise State game — and lost just 52 yards in punishment. And two of those penalties came during their first defensive possession. OSU’s offense only had one penalty accepted, a 15-yarder on Deionte Noel.

“You know I should have brought that up,” Mike Gundy said when asked about the penalty count. “Yeah, we were really good I thought.”

Across the field, Texas committed a season-high 11 penalties for 86 yards. Time and time again, the Longhorns played the part that the Cowboys have played for good chunks this season and shot themselves in the hoof.

This was also just the second game all season that OSU didn’t commit a turnover (yep, also Boise State). Coincidentally, it was also Cornelius’ only gave without an interception. Oklahoma State is now 35-2 when it does not commit a turnover under Gundy.

Also worth noting is that the last four games on the Cowboys’ slate include three teams that force the least amount of turnovers in the Big 12 — Oklahoma (7), Baylor (6) and TCU (6).

It remains to be seen if that neat and tidy performance against Texas was the Cowboys’ turning of a new leaf or just an aberration. But we saw just how good they can look on a Saturday night that they didn’t shoot themselves in the foot. If they want a chance to strong finish, the Pokes will need to continue to eliminate errors.