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The Rundown: Gundy Talks Turnovers, Special Teams Struggles after Texas Loss

Gundy breaks down what went wrong.

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[Pool photo via Brett Rojo-USA TODAY Sports]

For the first time in 2020, Mike Gundy had to answer questions about a loss.

Oklahoma State lost to Texas 41-34 in overtime Saturday. After the game, OSU’s coach talked about turnovers, special teams mishaps and playcalling decisions.

On Teven Jenkins’ illegal man downfield penalty in overtime

“We’ve gotta be a little more squared away there on that. It’s kinda confusing how it happened. It was a goal-line play that was called outside of the 10, and the play got strung out a little bit more than normal. I think Teven just kinda lost where he was on the field.”

On penalties

“Texas had 142 yards in penalties, and we had 70. Obviously the one at the end in the overtime, on the pass interference call against [Thomas Harper], that one was pretty significant. But this is a simple game for us, really. We lost the turnover 5-0, and we got a kick return for a touchdown. You have to give Texas credit. They made the plays in the end to win the game, but we didn’t give ourselves a chance. You have four turnovers, and you have a roughing the punter, which is five turnovers, and we give up a kick return for a touchdown.

“As I’ve said many times before, disciplined football, special teams and turnovers is what determines the outcome of games until you get to the latter part of the season. We failed in those areas today, and this is the result you’ll get.”

On the fumbled exchange between Spencer Sanders and Chuba Hubbard

“I can’t see through the line on replays. Until I was to watch video … but it doesn’t make a difference, that shouldn’t happen. We’re too far along to have exchange issues like that with those two guys. It’d be unfair for me to give you what happened without having a fair look at it, but either way, we can’t have those things happen, not and beat good football teams. That’s just not gonna happen.”

On Spencer Sanders’ turnover struggles

“We have to look at the tape and see what happened, identify the problem and then come up with a plan for it. Today was a little different than what it’s been in the past for him. The [exchange with Hubbard], he’s been doing that for three years. So, that shouldn’t happen, whatever happened. Then a couple times, looked like we’re holding onto the ball to long and getting it stripped from behind.

“Either way, when you lose the turnover margin like that, nah, probably not gonna win the game.”

On the roughing the punter in the fourth quarter

“We had a block on. Again, I can’t see, so it’s hard for me to tell. But either way, our guys are coached that if you don’t have a clear shot to it, you gotta use what we call a drive by. You gotta be able to go out of the box of the punter and reach your hand out. That way if you miss, you get the drive by and you don’t get the roughing. So, I’ll be able to explain that more when I look at what exactly happened, but either way, we can’t do that. You go after the block if you know that you’ve got it. If not, you gotta swing by and miss the frame of his body.”

On trying to block a punt of fourth-and-22

“When the ball is punted near the 50 like that, and this guy can really boom it, he’s got really good distance on his punts, so we try to mix up return and block. We try to not let him get in a rhythm and down us inside the 10-yard line.”

On more injuries on the offensive line

“I’m sure it affected some, but again, I’m going to go back to the turnovers. I don’t think it effected enough where it could change our thought process on the way we look at this game from a turnover standpoint.”

On the pass interference call on Thomas Harper in overtime

“Well, obviously, they would’ve had to kick a field goal. It looked like to me, you guys probably had a better view than I did, it looked like to me the guy just went around and got his feet tangled up in our guy and fell down. I’m not sure. That one was a little bit iffy for me from what I saw. I would have to see it again, but that would’ve forced him to kick a field goal, that’s for sure. I think that was third down.”

On Joseph Ossai

“I thought he played a good game. He’s a good football player. Toward the end of the game, the guy that made plays was [Sam] Ehlinger. We chased him down a couple times. We had unblocked guys come through on the pressure. He ran out of there and threw the ball back across his body for a touchdown. He’s a good football player. He’s a guy that got us late. Even with all the mistakes that we made today and how undisciplined we were in certain areas, he still made plays at the end of the game that got us.”

On the final play

“Again, I was looking on the perimeter. We had a good feel that they were gonna bring pressure. Somebody got tangled up inside and missed a block. I can’t say until I watch it and have a good idea, I hate to say. We’re trying to make a play and convert the fourth down. They got after us and put us in a bad situation and made the play at the end of the game.

“When he got chased out of the pocket that fast, that changed all the coverage and everything back there. Everybody’s gonna start flowing that direction. So, it would be really hard to tell without looking on tape and stopping it really early because he never got to set his feet. I think he was chased out of there before he could ever set his feet.”

On the defense

“We got rubbed off on the big pass play, and then early we were getting beat on some inside zones, but without really studying it, I would say they had to play pretty good. We put them in terrible positions time after time after time after time after time. They rallied a few times and held them to field goals. I’m gonna say they played pretty good. You can’t put them in that position that many times, particularly against a quarterback like Ehlinger.”

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