Poor Special Teams Play Snapped Oklahoma State’s Momentum at Iowa State

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Some predictable mistakes tripped the Cowboys up in Ames, Iowa.

As Marshall wrote, receiver Wyatt Young’s passion has always manifested close to the line. Quarterback Drew Mestemaker showed at Tulsa he sometimes takes unnecessary risks in an attempt to be the hero.

And, well, the defense has shown cracks for weeks, but that side of the ball might have held up much better if not for the surprising anchor strapped to the Cowboys in this one.

That shocker was the complete collapse of the special teams unit, which coughed up two critical possessions in the first half.

“Those are both two really, really timely costly mistakes for us,” coach Eric Morris said.

Losing the ball twice would always be bad, but Oklahoma State’s offense was humming, and Morris treats every press conference like “momentum” is his word of the day. That is how much the coach seems to believe in it.

Multiple Cowboys talked about it after the loss.

“I feel like the momentum swings swing a lot more in our favor with the crowd behind us,” Mestemaker said, attempting to explain what happens to the team on the road. “We can’t rely on the crowd to execute our plays. We can’t get caught in the swing of emotions and gotta execute at the end of the day.”

The first special teams miscue was a well-executed onside kick early in the second quarter. When the Iowa State kicker made contact with the ball, three of the four closest Cowboys were leaning, turning or moving backward as they would do on a normal kick return play.

“We show those every week,” Morris said. “And we showed them this week. We practice them every week. Our two guys left early on a little bunt. We gotta execute that better.”

Only one of the five Cowboys lined up front looked like he had a shot, but credit to Iowa State, the Cyclones did a good job avoiding the football itself until it went 10 yards while also maintaining close pursuit. It looked like a black knife of Iowa State blockers plunged into the few Cowboys who tried to make a play for the ball at midfield.

“Hat’s off,” Morris said. “The kicker executed a perfect little bunt kick is what we call it. A little dribbler right down the middle. Our guys both left early. Obviously you look at it on film, you teach, and you’ve gotta do a better job of it obviously.”

Although the Cyclones had scored a touchdown on the previous play, their first three drives went touchdown, interception and three-and-out. So it’s safe to say the Cyclones were still looking for consistency.

A 43-yard touchdown pass on 3rd-and-1 later and Iowa State led 21-14. A rather shocking reversal in fortune considering the Cowboys should have gotten the ball back with a chance to go up 24-14 if not for kicker Sam Keltner’s first miss of the year and the onside kick.

Regardless, the Cowboys marched the ball downfield and even overcame their usual red zone issues to even the score. As bad as things got later, the defense showed up here, forcing a punt seven plays and only six yards later.

That was when OSU punt returner Bobby Deal chose to leap forward a bit in an attempt to make something like a diving catch on the punt instead of letting it hit the ground and roll. He made contact, but couldn’t hold on, and Iowa State jumped on the ball at the OSU 36-yard line with 2:26 left in the half.

Despite the incredibly short field, the defense held Iowa State to a 39-yard field goal kicked on 4th-and-20. This sent Iowa State to the locker room up three points despite the fact that Mestemaker and the offense scored three touchdowns on four drives.

It feels more than possible that the Cowboys quarterback would have found the end zone one more time if given the ball back in the first half.

Instead, he spent the final 6:19 of the half on the sidelines, practically an eternity in football given the commercials and the 2-minute timeout. Then came halftime.

When the offense finally came back out, the Cowboys picked up 30 yards on three plays before an incompletion, a run for no gain and a false start dropped the offense into a 3rd-and-15 hole it couldn’t escape.

Iowa State converted on 3rd-and-5 and 3rd-and-6 before going up by 10 points, and the Cowboys were officially playing catch-up for the rest of the game until Young’s penalty following the go-ahead touchdown in the final minute.

It was basically a complete reversal of what happened for the Cowboys at home, where safety Evan Jackson returned a backward pass against UCF for a touchdown and fellow safety Quinton Hammonds recovered a Colorado fumble on the first play of the second half to set up a go-ahead touchdown.

“Football, especially college football, it’s such a game of momentum,” Morris said after beating Colorado. “We talk about that with our players all the time. We talk about when you have momentum, you’re fighting to keep it, and when you don’t have momentum, you’ve got to go get it. Just like leverage in life. No difference.

“And I think football has always been one of life’s greatest teachers. And I think that’s true, and kids learn that mentality about momentum. So, that’s something even when we have good ball, bad ball in here, and I’m showing film to the whole entire team on Mondays, momentum is a part of that. That’s important for us to capture these moments.”