The Good, the Bad and the Ugly from Oklahoma State’s Loss at Arizona

The Cowboys will come back from the desert with a few more bumps and bruises and another L.

Oklahoma State fell to Arizona 41-13, dropping its fourth straight game to move to 1-4 on the season. OSU is 0-2 since firing Mike Gundy midweek. The Cowboys didn’t score an offensive touchdown on Saturday and gave up five passing touchdowns on the way to a 41-13 rout.

So, we’ll have to go to the other side of the ball for our first talking point.

The Good: A Defensive Score

One of the few highlight plays by a Cowboy came too late to affect the decision, but it was a nice moment for a defense that at least put in some effort.

Before we get into everything else, let the freshman from OKC have his moment.

LaDainian Fields with a pick 6️⃣ in the 4th for @CowboyFB #Big12FB | 📺 TNT, truTV, HBO Max pic.twitter.com/JGHrvMJmoW

— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) October 4, 2025

LaDainian Fields came into this one having recorded just one tackle, against Baylor last week, and has spent most of his time on special teams. But the Cowboys’ defense is looking for playmakers and maybe this is the sign of more plays from the frosh.

Stepping back a bit, there is some good we can say about the defense. Yes, they gave up 41 points and nearly 500 yards, but a week after a head coaching change, OSU had a defensive coordinator change and then lost several of its key playmakers in the secondary.

OSU forced three turnovers on Saturday and at least gave the offense an opportunity to get back in it. The Cowboys held Arizona to a pair of three-and-outs and then a forced fumble for the first three drives of the second half. Unfortunately, the Cowboys offense went: INT, three-and-out, fumble, three-and-out, turnover-on-downs in the third.

The gassed Cowboys then gave up consecutive touchdowns in the last four minutes of the third quarter, and the game was kaput. Again, no really sexy numbers from the defense, but there was some effort. We’re really digging for things to praise these days.

The Bad: QB Play

Zane Flores faced a good passing defense on Saturday, but he really struggled to get into any kind of rhythm. He went 9-for-20 and only completed consecutive passes once all day. His 45% completion rate was better only than the 36.8% he turned in during his first start at Oregon.

I don’t want to pile on, especially with Flores’ having sustained an injury the severity of which we don’t know, as of writing. But it’s obvious that the Cowboys haven’t figured out how to set up Flores for success.

Sam Jackson got some more reps at Arizona. The traditional QB reps, not the cool wildcat kind. He showed some ability to extend plays, but his stat line wasn’t much to get excited about. He went 3-for-6 for 27 yards and rushed four times for 13 yards.

With Flores’ status uncertain and the fact that OSU went with an unproven quarterback in Banks Bowen in the fourth, it seems pretty clear that the coaching staff is grasping for something. Maybe Hauss Hejny returns at some point, but there is a lot more than needs to be done to facilitate success.

The Ugly: The Boxscore

The first game of the Doug Meacham era included some early explosive plays on offense, but the Cowboys came out flat in the desert and never really got anything going.

Hence’s the offensive side of the boxscore is the ugliest.

The Cowboys were outgained 478-158, converted just seven first downs and didn’t’ score an offensive touchdown.

That’s the fewest first downs in a game by OSU since at least 2015. May have to do some digging if I can muster the courage.

The 158 total yards, 2.7 yards per play and 2.4 yards per rush attempt are both the lowest since that 52-zip thumping by Colorado in last year’s season finale.

Again, I’m not sure how much deeper we want to go in quantifying the depth of OSU’s deficiency. For now, we can just hope that this is as ugly as it gets.