The Shock Has Worn Off, What the Heck Happened on Saturday?

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Embarrassing is an apt word for what happened at H.A. Chapman Stadium on Saturday.

And it was embarrassing for a lot of people.

“(Eric Morris) shoots it straight up,” Oklahoma State quarterback Drew Mestemaker said. “He’s not going to sugarcoat anything and be like, ‘Alright, it’s OK.’ He sat in there and said straight up that’s the most embarrassing offensive performance he’s ever been a part of. And I agree. I mean, I’d say the same for me. That’s just not how we play offense specifically. Defense, honestly, was the only reason we were in that game.”

It was embarrassing for Morris, who in his first game as a Power Four football coach lost to a team that finished 1-7 in a conference Morris’ North Texas squad nearly won last season.

It was embarrassing for Mestemaker in his big debut as a Power Four quarterback after an offseason of people singing his praises.

It was embarrassing for the fanbase that got its hopes up after two dismal years of football just to watch what’s viewed as a lesser in-state school beat the Cowboys for a second year in a row — the first time that’s happened since Harry Truman was in office.

Heck, it was embarrassing for us media folk who clearly drank the OSU Kool-Aid this offseason just for the Cowboys to go out and lay an egg.

Having slept on it, I’m not mad at the fourth-down attempts. I’m more frustrated with OSU’s inability to gain a single yard against Tulsa.

The failed attempts were:

4th-and-1 from the Tulsa 3
4th-and-1 from the OSU 32
4th-and-1 from the Tulsa 41
4th-and-1 from the OSU 34

I could certainly hear an argument that the ones in OSU territory perhaps shouldn’t have happened, but again, it comes down to getting enough of a push to move one yard forward … against Tulsa. So, I think what I’m saying is my concern lays most heavily on the offensive line.

“I put that in the turnover category,” said Morris of the failed fourth downs. “And you put the fourth down turnover stops in it and it adds up probably six or seven turnovers, and you’re not going to win against anybody when you turn the football over.”

If you include failed fourth-down tries as turnovers, OSU had seven turnovers Saturday.  The Tre Page III fumble goes down as a failed fourth-down attempt, but that was all the same play. So, it counts as one.

Regardless, if you give the other team the ball back seven times, it’s not a winning recipe. Tulsa scored 17 points off those turnovers.

If you’re looking for some glimmer of hope, it’s that, surely, OSU won’t have seven turnovers in another game this season. Given that, I still think this team will win a few games in 2026. But it no longer looks like the Big 12 dark horse many predicted, and for that to be evident after one game in Tulsa was one of the bigger shocks I’ve had in my time covering the Cowboys.