The Good, the Bad and the Ugly from Oklahoma State’s Homecoming Win against Colorado

The Cowboys messed around with the Buffaloes for most of the first half before sending them back to Boulder on a 37-0 run.

Oklahoma State got the win, but some of the issues that have plagued them all year showed up again, though mostly before halftime.

Let’s look at the Good, the Bad and the Ugly from OSU-Colorado before we turn our attention to Iowa State.

The Good: Turnover Battle

The Cowboys had their best outing when it comes to turnover margin in three years. OSU was plus-3 on TOs, forcing a fumble on a strip sack and then the two interceptions by LaDainian Fields. He now leads the league in picks.

PICKED. OFF.

📺: FS1 | @FieldsLadainian https://t.co/IilK9yd65E

— OSU Cowboy Football (@CowboyFB) October 25, 2026

It was also just the first time the Cowboys have gone four quarters without giving the ball way themselves.

Drew Mestemaker didn’t have his most efficient outing of the season, but he took care of the ball and it paid off. Turns out if you give this offense more possessions than the other team, good things happen.

The Bad: What’s Wrong with OSU’s Pregame Rituals?

Or better yet, what’s so right about their halftime rituals?

I’m kidding of course. The Cowboys actually scored a touchdown on the third play of the game, but after that it got… messy.

The Buffaloes looked like world-beaters in the first quarter, and the Cowboys’ defense didn’t have a lot of answers for most of the first half, especially when it comes to CU’s passing attack.

(Someone edit one of these bottles to say “Morris’ Secret Stuff.” No AI.)

Cowboys linebacker Ethan Wesloski talked about those slow starts after the game.

“Yeah and I think we can even keep ourselves out of that hole by starting better,” said Wesloski. “That was the message for us all week, I said it after the loss last week and to start fast we have to win first and second down to keep these guys behind the chains.” 

I’m not going to complain about a team and coaching staff being better in the second half. But we saw what it looked like when the Cowboys dug themselves a hole against a good team last weekend. They’ll need to try to find a way to curb that to reach their potential.

The Ugly Unattractive: Red-Zone Execution

Continuing the redundancy until we see it stop, but I’m downgrading this to simply “unattractive.”

A part of that slow start on the offensive side was the continuing trend of settling for three instead of six when they get deep into enemy territory. It remains head-scratching for such a prolific offense with an excellent playcaller in Eric Morris.

Morris took a different approach to it in the postgame.

“I thought offensively we’re in rhythm pretty much the whole entire game,” said Morris. “I thought we were better in the red zone. We took a lot of points when we got down there. Sam’s been awesome, as everybody knows here. It’s just like I told them, just think about how close we are to being so much better right now.”

The Cowboys did get better as the game went on. They scored red zone touchdowns on their first two drives of the third quarter, but they still settled for too many field-goal attempts. Good thing they have the nation’s top kicker.

But OSU is still ranked 14th in the Big 12 scoring TDs on just 52.4% of red zone trips. That is tied for 116th nationally while taking the second-most red zone trips in the FBS (42). To Morris’ point, this is just another reminder of just how good the Cowboys could be if they can figure a thing or two out.