After an easy victory over Kansas, No. 11 Oklahoma State faces a tough road game Saturday against surging West Virginia.

The Cowboys (7-1, 4-1 Big 12) play the Mountaineers at 2:30 p.m. Saturday on ESPN.

West Virginia (4-4, 2-3 Big 12) helped OSU’s chances of getting to the Big 12 Championship game by giving Iowa State its second league loss last Saturday. Oklahoma (9-0, 6-0 Big 12) leads the Big 12 and OSU and Baylor are in tied in second place with 4-1 marks. ISU has tie-breaker over the Cowboys.

The Cowboys play at West Virginia, then host TCU (which just fired 20-year coach Gary Patterson), then travel to Texas Tech and end the regular season hosting OU in the Bedlam game.

OSU quarterback Spencer Sanders passed for 157 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 53 yards and a score – all in the first half – against the Jayhawks.

“Honestly, it’s just a great chemistry moment,” Sanders said. “I feel like we really grew, today. We kind of stayed together as a team and no matter what the score was, we just kept moving. New drive, same drive we just kept doing what we were doing.”

“Spencer played well,” said OSU coach Mike Gundy. “He threw the ball well and was effective with that. When he had to pull the ball down and run the football, he was effective. He made really good decisions tonight, that would be my guess, and he was fairly accurate throwing the football.”

OSU running back Jaylen Warren had 69 yards rushing on just 9 carries and backup running back Dominick Richardson had 79 yards on 11 carries with one touchdown.

“What I’m really happy about is that we’ve gone two weeks now without a turnover,” said OSU offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn. “That helps not putting the defense in a bad position or anything like that. It’s been two weeks of holding onto the football. We need to continue that.”

The Cowboys held Kansas to 143 yards of total offense, 44 passing yards, 99 rushing yards and seven first downs.

“They’re just playing well; I almost hate to jinx them,” said Gundy. “They’ve played well throughout the year and I think Jim (Knowles) and his staff put good plans together. I think there is an advantage because they’re in his fourth year and they have a good feel for his system. We have a number of guys that are veterans who have played a lot of snaps. It’s hard to replace experience and maturity and that’s what we have on that side of the ball.”

The 143 yards of total offense were the fewest for an Oklahoma State opponent since Savannah State had 139 in 2012. 44 passing yards were the fewest for an OSU opponent since Missouri State had 23 in 2008. 99 rushing yards marked the fourth time this season that the Cowboys have held the opposition below the century mark. Seven first downs were the fewest for an OSU opponent since at least 2000.

“It was good to see out first group come out and really take control of the game,” said OSU defensive coordinator Jim Knowles. “It just feels good, I think, for everyone on this defense that can, from the start, prevent the big play and get off the field on third down. And get turnovers. It just brings confidence to everybody. No matter what else is happening, that’s what we really work on and build around here. It was good to see the young guys play. It was good to see a lot of guys got to play.

“And the older guys, who haven’t had much of a chance to play this year get in the game today. It was good to see them get in and get the experience. You can coach off of that. Overall, we accept this as a really strong performance. I don’t know if they had any explosive plays. And we did great in the turnover battle and third down, for sure. I was really pleased with the effort.”

Part of the success against Kansas was a drop in the number of penalties against OSU.

“We played well.” Gundy said. “I just realized we had the one penalty on the pass interference, which was kind of questionable. I don’t know if there has ever been a game here where there has not been a penalty. We practiced well this week. The snowball started rolling downhill and they couldn’t really stop it and then it just kept going. We focused well and practiced well during the week.”

The OSU win came against a Kansas team that came close to an upset of No. 4 Oklahoma the week before.

“That’s a really fast and physical football team out there and we didn’t come close to matching it,” Kansas coach Lance Leipold said of OSU. “They have one of the better defenses in the country and it showed itself today. They stubbed their toe a week ago, but they got their guys to bounce back and play. And play well.”

The Cowboys intercepted three passes in the game, their most since picking off three passes against Kansas in 2019. Kansas’s five first quarter drives yielded three three-and-outs and two turnovers. The Cowboy defense limited the Jayhawks to 23 yards of total offense – all of which came on the ground – in the first quarter.

OSU has 12 straight wins vs. Kansas, setting a school record for consecutive wins against one opponent.

OSU’s initial record 11-game streak was set vs. Kansas State from 1947-62, while the active 12-win streak vs. KU began in 2010.