It’s the end of a miserable season for the Oklahoma State Cowboys, and the exclamation mark was a 52-0 loss last Friday at Colorado. OSU finishes the season with a 3-9 overall record, 0-9 in the Big 12.

It’s the first time since 1994 that the Cowboys went winless in the conference. Oklahoma State ended the year on a nine-game losing streak after being picked to finish third in the preseason media poll.

“Well, that one didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to,” said OSU head coach Mike Gundy. “    I don’t even have to look at the stat sheet, but we didn’t really give ourselves a chance on offense. I don’t think we had a first down in the first half, and I was surprised that we couldn’t perform better defensively.”

Colorado took control of the game early and Oklahoma State helped by committing a plethora of errors throughout the game.

The Buffaloes jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter before things settled down a bit and neither team scored in the second quarter.

OSU got the ball to start the game, but on the third play from scrimmage, quarterback Maealiuaki Smith threw a pass that was intercepted by Travis Hunter and returned six yards to the OSU 24-yard line. It was the first of two interceptions in the game for Smith.

On the Cowboys’ third possession, Smith completed a pass to Brennan Presley, but Presley fumbled the ball, and it was recovered by Shilo Sanders of the Buffaloes. All the other OSU possessions in the first half ended with punts.

While the OSU offense struggled in the first half, the Cowboys defense played fairly well. Oklahoma State had five sacks in the first half, marking its first half with five sacks since the first half against West Virginia on Nov. 6, 2021.

Colorado scored on their first possession of the second half to take a 28-0 lead.

On the next OSU possession, Smith fumbled the ball away on the OSU 25-yard line, giving Colorado great field position. The Buffaloes took advantage of the short field and drove the 25 yards in four plays for a touchdown.

One bright spot for the Cowboys came at the end of the third quarter when a Shedeur Sanders pass was intercepted by Jeff Roberson at the OSU eight-yard line.

The Buffaloes led 38-0 at the end of the third quarter.

Colorado scored two more times in the fourth quarter to take a 52-0 lead.

The Cowboys ended the game while marching down the field and getting all the way to the Colorado five-yard line as time expired.

“That was a phenomenal finish defensively,” said Colorado head coach Deion Sanders.     “That’s indicative of who we are in how we play the game of football, both coordinators, man, Rob and Pat man, my God, these guys are so darn good. I know you guys question a multitude of things from them, but they’re so good, and they’ve been so consistent throughout the year. They’ve exceeded all expectations. We’ve exceeded all expectations, and I’m really happy where we are.”

Colorado gained a total of 471 yards of offense while holding OSU to only 147 total yards.

OSU committed four fumbles, losing two of them.

“Days like today are extremely difficult to swallow,” said Gundy. “I did tell (the players) that I was proud of them for staying with us for the last couple months and I respected them for the way they continued to practice very enthusiastically. We just didn’t get results today. We gotta do a much better job of coaching than what we did today.”

Colorado was led by quarterback Sanders who completed 34-of-41 passes for 438 yards and five touchdowns, with one interception. Hunter increased his standing in the bid for the Heisman Trophy with his performance against OSU. Hunter caught 10 passes for 116 yards and three touchdowns. His teammate added 175 yards on 11 catches for two touchdowns.

“I think Travis clinched the Heisman with his performance,” Sanders said. “I think he made a lot of people aware of how ignorant they were, his performance today, three touchdowns, 100 yards, an interception, and two passes broken up.”

Smith completed 11-of-29 passes for 70 yards and two interceptions, for OSU.

It was the worst Cowboys loss in the Gundy era and the last time OSU lost by more than 50 points was late in the 2000 season, a 58-0 loss to Texas Tech.