Injuries and inexperience finally caught up Oklahoma State (6-3, 5-3 in the Big 12) as the Cowboys were upset by TCU, 22-29, Saturday in Fort Worth.
The loss ended OSU hopes for a spot in the Big 12 Championship game against Iowa State.
“I don’t think we are the same team from when we started the first game,” said OSU coach Mike Gundy. “We have some young kids out there. We’re playing with three freshmen on the offensive line. We are down six starters on offense from day one. It’s not fair to say to the team that it’s the same group. Now, we’re going to compete our (expletive) off and try to win every game, but we’re a little different team now than when we started against Tulsa.”
The Cowboys close the regular season with a trip to Waco to play Baylor (2-6, 2-6 in the Big 12) at 6 p.m. Saturday on ESPNU. Baylor lost to No. 11 Oklahoma, 13-27, Saturday in Norman.
“It’s never fun losing,” said OSU defensive end Brock Martin. “We had the goal of winning the Big 12 Championship, but sometimes your goals fall out of reach and you’ve got to keep working. We still got Baylor next week and we’re still going to try to win that game. They’re tough at home and we haven’t beat Baylor at McLean Stadium since they built it, so we’re going to have to go into that game with some pride to win. Disappoints come and it’s an up and down roller coaster.”
The Oklahoma State defense forced a season-high five turnovers, but the offense was held scoreless on each of the ensuing possessions.
“We allowed too many big plays in the last few weeks and that’s been killing us,” said OSU linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiga. ‘We obviously have a lot more turnovers, but we can’t be allowing 60-yard plays down the field. That’s how you lose games, so we need to stop allowing those to happen and that comes down to watching film and practice and opening our eyes and being disciplined.
“You can’t ever be proud of your performance when you lose, so we just have so much to work on.”
Playing in place of injured running backs Chuba Hubbard and L.D. Brown, Dezmon Jackson got the second start of his career and finished with 29 carries for 118 yards and a touchdown. Jackson had 36 carries for 235 yards and three touchdowns in his debut start vs. Texas Tech last week.
“We wanted to try and stay balanced,” Gundy said. “We’re young at tackle right now. We’re not just going to become a throwing team. We don’t have a lot of depth at running back right now, so we’re not going to become a running team. We’re going to stay as balanced as possible.”