No. 18 Oklahoma State is gaining momentum and the next challenge will be undefeated No. 21 Baylor at 6 p.m. Saturday on ESPN2 in Stillwater.

The Cowboys (4-0, 1-0 in the Big 12) topped then-No. 25 Kansas State Saturday 31-20 to stay undefeated.

“I told the team I was proud of the way they continue to play together as a unit,” said OSU coach Mike Gundy. “This team plays together more than any team I can remember since I’ve been the head coach. Tonight, offensively, we played much better, and the first half looked like what we have been the last 15 years. Defense played well. They gave up a couple big plays but rallied and held them to field goals.”

“Credit to Oklahoma State, they beat us today,” said K-State coach Chris Klieman. “We didn’t play our best game today and they beat us at the line of scrimmage, and we fought in the second half and did some better things on defense to slow them down, but we couldn’t penetrate them and get enough things going offensively.”

Sanders finished with 344 yards passing with two touchdowns and no interceptions. The 344 passing yards set a season high and marked the third-highest total of his career. He connected with Jaylen Warren for a 52-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage – the longest play of the year for the Cowboys.

“It felt good,” Sanders said. “We have a lot of young guys out there, so executing is great. I put the ball where they were at and they were catching it and we’re doing what we do. I’m happy we won and I’m happy we’re playing this well. I’m just excited to see how much more we can progress.”

Gundy said Sanders is improving each week.

“I think he was more consistent tonight,” Gundy said. “He missed a couple throws, which is alright, because he’s going to miss some. He missed Blaine Green running down the middle of the field who was going to score a touchdown, which probably would’ve ended the game right there. It would put them in an all-pass mode, which is not really where they want to be. I just thought he was consistent. He competes like always. He played hard and made good decisions.”

After missing all but one series in the previous two games due to injury, receiver Tay Martin returned and set OSU career highs with nine receptions for 100 yards. He also had one receiving touchdown.

“He’s a threat,” Gundy said of Martin. “You guys have watched us the past two weeks – we’ve had young players out there. When the other team knows you have young players out there, they’re going to challenge you and say go make a play. Not that they’re not talented, but they aren’t callused. They haven’t been beat up, haven’t been hit or played in front of crowds. They’re not ready for that. Tay Martin is ready for that. He has played a lot of football, so he becomes a threat out there. Most of the time they had two people out there around him, which allows us to run the football more.”

Martin was excited to return.

“We played as a team,” said Martin. “We were running the ball with Jaylen (Warren), throwing the ball to Rashod (Owens), come back with me, BP (Presley) had a couple catches, so everybody was just doing their job and we were feeding off of each other, so it made it a lot easier to make plays out there.

“It felt great. It felt like we were supposed to be doing that all year, so just to finally come out there swinging and playing fast, it felt great, it felt like Cowboy football. I know last year we came out strong most of the time so just having that taste back in your mouth was great and I’m excited for our next game for sure.”

This was the first time that OSU scored more than 30 points in a game this season.

“It’s better,” Gundy said of the improvement on offense. “I’m never going to talk about who we don’t have in a game because it is what it is, everybody knows who we have and don’t have. It’s extremely difficult to scheme offensively when you have youth and limited weapons at certain spots. It’s just difficult and you get where your hands are tied. They have done a great job of getting to where we are now, where our heads are back above water.

“I told the coaches tonight they had really good plans and I tell them sometimes their plans sucked. I tell them the truth and sometimes I make mistakes and tell myself the same thing. Our plans were really good. The offense plan was really good. The defensive plan was good, and the special team plan was good.”

No one has scored more than 23 points on the OSU defense this season.

“We didn’t give up the explosive plays,” said OSU defensive coordinator Jim Knowles. “We’ve been good on defense against these guys for three years. I think our guys are confident playing them. It’s a running attack. Option looks. You’ve got to keep your eyes in the right place.

“We’ve got to be able to stop (Number) 22 (Deuce Vaughn), which we did outside from the fluke play. We teach our linebackers to be aggressive in man coverage and he went down to cut, and we had it in, and they made a play.

“I can’t say enough about our leadership. I thought we covered extremely well. I thought our matchups on the outside were great and early on in the game they started taking some shots at us and we were all over it. We had multiple people there. That just gives the defense confidence. So, it was just all around a strong performance and I’m really proud of our leadership and the guys just keep on going and going no matter the circumstance, we just keep playing.”

Klieman praised Warren, who carried the ball 27 times for 123 yards. It marked his second consecutive 100-yard rushing performance after he carried 32 times for 218 yards in the previous game against Boise State.

“We didn’t tackle, and we didn’t get off blocks,” said Klieman. “Credit the running back (Jalen Warren) –  he’s a good player, there’s no question about that. We were just a step slow. We couldn’t get our footing; we couldn’t slow the game down enough and we just couldn’t get a stop. It was frustrating because then you see what we did after halftime. We played pretty well in the second half. They got a few plays on us but they’re going to, that’s a good football team..”

No. 21 Baylor (4-0, 2-0 in the Big 12) is undefeated with wins over Texas State, Texas Southern, Kansas and an upset win, 31-29, over Iowa State last Saturday in Waco.

Quarterback Gerry Bohanon has thrown for 828 yards this season with seven touchdowns. Abram Smith is the Bears’ leading rusher with 413 yards on 57 carries and five touchdowns. The leading receiver is R.J. Sneed with 18 catches for 317 yards and one score.