How did Oklahoma State football lose to West Virginia? 'Three plays is the difference'

STILLWATER — When Saturday’s game began, Kasey Dunn had a list of big-play possibilities, the kind of calls the Oklahoma State offensive coordinator thought could be touchdown-makers, even on a rainy day with a true freshman running the offense.

By the time Cowboy quarterback Garret Rangel’s final pass fell incomplete, closing the door on the 24-19 loss to West Virginia at Boone Pickens Stadium, Dunn had checked each of his big-play calls off the sheet — and had no touchdowns to show for it.

“Hit one of ‘em and we win,” Dunn said after the Cowboys concluded the regular season with their fifth loss in the last seven games for an overall record of 7-5. “It felt like that pretty much throughout the day.”

The Cowboys scored two touchdowns and two field goals, but they all came on sustained drives, not from Dunn’s haymakers.

On the other side, the Cowboy defense had one of its better performances in limiting big plays, giving up only three plays of more than 15 yards — but those three plays went for touchdown runs of 36, 54 and 57 yards.

That’s 147 yards and 21 points off three plays, compared to three points and 180 yards on the other 61 West Virginia snaps.

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“It sucks, because I feel like that was our best complete game,” junior linebacker Mason Cobb said. “But no, three plays… three plays is the difference. They probably had 70, and we lost three of those plays, which sucks.”

Though the three TD runs looked somewhat similar — with quarterback Garrett Greene going up the middle for the first score and freshman running back Jaylen Anderson gashing the Cowboys for the second and third — defensive coordinator Derek Mason said there was no common thread to his players’ breakdowns.

A linebacker looking the wrong way. A defensive back in the wrong gap. Small issues that opened holes for huge plays.

“I’ll go back and watch the tape, but I thought we were sound in what we were doing,” Mason said. “You just looked up and they made a play and we didn’t. That’s reality.

“We talk about working not to get frustrated and working on the fix. Every time those things happened, we had to come back with a fix. You gotta give your guys answers. The good thing was guys were owning up and accountable for what happened on a couple of those plays.”

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Likewise with the offense, it was a breakdown here or bad timing there that turned potential big blows into swing-and-misses.

Rangel threw for 148 of his 180 yards in the first half before the rain picked up. And true freshman running back Ollie Gordon had all but 28 of his 136 rushing yards in the second half, including his 23-yard TD run.

But the shots Dunn took provided nothing but close call after close call, like the deep ball to Braydon Johnson in the middle of the fourth quarter that could’ve gone for a touchdown had it not slipped through his fingers.

“I’ll be darned if we didn’t really connect on ‘em for a variety of reasons,” Dunn said. “Maybe one was called and it was cover-two (defense). Maybe one was called and we missed a protection. One was called and we had a drop or a mis-throw or something.

“We all just took our turns as an offense. Just didn’t hit one. If we do, I think it’s a different story. We’d be feeling a whole lot better right now.”

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And a similar feeling has been cast over the whole season.

“We just haven’t stayed healthy,” head coach Mike Gundy said. “We don’t have enough guys to practice and it’s difficult to mix and match. Somebody told me that we’ve had 22 first-game starters this year. In a normal season, we have six or seven. I would say that would be the biggest issue.”

In the middle of the afternoon on Oct. 15, Oklahoma State was undefeated, ranked eighth and leading TCU — yes, the still-undefeated and potentially playoff-bound Horned Frogs — by a 24-7 score.

And in the span of seven Saturdays, the Cowboys have fallen so far, they’ll be squirming for position to get the attention of a middle-tier bowl.

“I’m aware of what’s going on,” Gundy said. “I know the situation. My job is to evaluate what’s available for us and where we’re at, evaluate coaches and concepts and schemes based on availability of players.

“Overall, I’m not frustrated. The only time I would get frustrated is if our guys were not competing and playing hard. And I have not seen that this year.”

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State football: 'Three plays' makes difference in loss to WVU