Three Things to Know Ahead of Oklahoma State’s Home Opener against Oregon

Oklahoma State will open up Boone Pickens Stadium with a visit from a heavyweight that dealt the Cowboys a quick KO last season. To make things even more concerning, the Pokes just got punched in the mouth by Tulsa in Week 1.

Let’s take a look at three things to know about this weekend’s matchup as we brace for Saturday.

1. A Dangerous Defensive Front

The Cowboys’ offensive line had a hard time handling Tulsa’s defensive front on Saturday. Now it has to try to hold back maybe the best defensive line in college football.

Defensive tackle A’Mauri Washington is a projected first-round pick who racked up 33 tackles and 4.5 tackles for loss last season. From the interior of the line, he had 1.5 sacks and eight pass breakups. And his fellow defensive tackle Bear Alexander had 50 tackles and 6.5 tackles for loss.

On the edge, the Cowboys will have to deal with sack-leader Tetium Tuitoti (9.5 plus 16 TFLs) and Mayao Uiagalelei (six sacks and 9.5 TFLs). And that’s just the first wave of a defensive line that rotates

It’s going to be even tougher given that starting left tackle Jacob Sexton is out for the year after going down early in Week 1.

It’s hard to know exactly how big of a factor that loss was since we didn’t really get to see the line gel for an entire series with him in there, but the group wasn’t able to keep Drew Mestemaker’s jersey clean or make running lanes consistently against a defensive front that, let’s face it, isn’t littered with projected draft picks coming off a big year.

2. Oregon Also Had a Disappointing Debut

OK, on the spectrum of disappointing season openers, the Cowboys and Ducks aren’t even in the same universe. The Ducks won, obviously.

But a team that came in ranked No. 2 in the nation, had to see some late-game heroics and a career outing by its quarterback just to come out with the win. The Ducks scored with 19 seconds in the second just to pull within 17-14 to Boise. They trailed at halftime and didn’t go up for good until deep into the fourth quarter.

That’s when Dante Moore found Dakorien Moore for a 62-yard touchdown with just under eight minutes to go that finally let Oregon take the lead. Yes, the same Dakorien Moore that scored a 65-yard touchdown on the Cowboys last season.

That leads us to the last point, and it ain’t pretty.

3. Watch Out for Chunk Plays

The Ducks can hit home run plays, and the Pokes can give them up.

Dakorien Moore is not the only Duck who can fly away from a defense. Against Boise State, Jeremiah McClellan had catches of 50, 51 and 23 yards. The Ducks had seven passing plays of over 20 yards in Week 1, plus a 40-yard rushing play by Jordon Davison. And we remember the number of haymakers last year’s Cowboys took in Eugene.

And though it’s a small sample size, this year’s Cowboy defense has shown to propensity to get beat.

Tulsa receivers logged plays of 56, 47 and 59 yards, and Damari Alston hit them with a 29-yard rushing TD. All in all, that’s six plays down the field of at least 20 yards given up. Somehow that only resulted in 24 Tulsa points. The Ducks have a lot more firepower.

If the Cowboys want to stay within striking distance, they’ll need to limit to big plays, but that’s easier said than done.