COLUMBIA, Mo. — Saturday night's 28-23 win over No. 3 Missouri easily ranks as the biggest win of Mike Gundy's coaching career.
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And his No. 17 Oklahoma State Cowboys pulled off the weekend's most impressive upset by answering two of its most pressing questions: Can the defense hold up against a great offense? And who will arise as the No. 2 receiver opposite Dez Bryant?
The answers: Yes, and Damian Davis.
Maybe we should have seen this defensive performance coming on the Tigers' first drive, when Orie Lemon's third-down tackle at the 1-yard line forced a field goal. It was the first time all season the Tigers didn't score a touchdown on their opening offensive series.
If we didn't know then, we should have known after the second Tiger drive, which consisted of three plays and a punt — the first three-and-out for Mizzou's first-team offense all season.
The Cowboys gave up 454 yards, which sounds like a lot, but was 114 shy of the Tigers' season average. And Missouri's 23 points was more than four touchdowns short of their average.
“Our defensive staff, the plan they put together was to mix up coverages, mix up twists, stunts, blitzes to try to get (Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel) off balance,” Gundy said. “We got him sometimes, put some hits on him.”
Sounds like it worked. Daniel had thrown one interception and been sacked twice in the first five games. He was sacked twice more and intercepted three times Saturday night.
“We seemed like we were a little bit off all night,” said Daniel, who entered the game as the Heisman Trophy front-runner. “The reason, I don't know... I couldn't figure out why.”
Then there's Davis, the 6-foot-5 sophomore receiver who is built like a goal post, but is surprisingly agile in his boney body.
He got wide-open for a third-quarter touchdown, then came down with a jump-ball on a busted play for the Cowboys' final TD, which at the time, gave them a 28-17 lead.
He only had three catches, but produced 76 yards and proved that OSU has more than one deep threat.
Those two pieces will be vital to the Cowboys' further success, with games remaining at Texas, Texas Tech and Colorado before the regular season finale against Oklahoma.
Lost in the shuffle of Saturday night's drama, the 6-0 Cowboys are now bowl-eligible — a detail that doesn't seem to be as big a deal as it did in recent years.
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Albert, your manager is paging you. Clean up on isle five.
I think it's obvious that the OSU defensive coaching staff had been holding back a few things to spring on Mizzou. Why give away all your plans when you're winning by 4 TDs every week? The MU game tape will no doubt make it much harder to surprise Texas in a couple of weeks. But I think the 'Boys at least have a chance.
The OSU team is a growing thing. It has a great deal of room left for growth, but it is growing. I don't see them as quite Big 12 title contenders, yet, as Texas is only two weeks away, and we need to see if they have a let-down against Baylor. (ALL Big-12 teams are dangerous, even the worst. The Cowboys dare not look past the immediate game, no matter how they did in the most recent one.) But, if they continue to grow at the current pace, and make it past Baylor with the kind of win they should, given their abilities, then take down Texas, the Big-12 title becomes a very real objective. IF (and it is a big "IF") they get to that title game, it will likely be against Missouri again, and they will be much better prepared for that next meeting. And don't forget Kansas, should they win the North Division. They've already had an object lesson in humility and preparation ... and as I said, ALL Big-12 teams are dangerous. So, let's not talk National Championship quite yet. There are six games to go minimum, this season. None will be a cake-walk.
The best part of this weekend is only the OU fans with Class are posting on the boards. Great win for the Pokes, I wish the Sooners the best up till Nov 29th.
I'm a lifetime OU fan. Congrats to OSU fans, their players and coaches. It was a pleasure to watch and I'm very happy for all of you. Now beat Baylor and Texas.
Congrats OSU team and fans. The 'Pokes played an awesome game. Gundy and his staff coached an awesome game. It was a pleasure to see Daniel taken down many many notches.Awesome upset.
Albert...celebrate the win, but do it with some class. We sure don't need to be boasting that we can beat the world, because that's when teams get beat when they should have won. Here's hoping the Pokes are feeling good about the big win today, but have their heads back on business come tomorrow morning, because Baylor also just showed that we had better not look past them. Go Pokes! Beat Baylor!
Now that’s how a REAL TEAM\MAN takes care of business, for all of the good ol boy teams in the Big 12 get ready because Boone Pickens didn’t spend all that money for nothing we are GONNA BEAT texASS and u0 FOR THE FORSEEABLE FUTURE !!! DAMM texASS and u0 BAD LUCK!!!!!!!! LONG EARED DONKIES.
Let's not forget Baylor in those 'games remaining'. Baylor just beat Iowa St. 38-10...Losing to them would all but erase this huge, huge, possibly program changing win.
OSU's KO heard round the world 10/11/2008 COLUMBIA, Mo. — Oklahoma State is still undefeated.
And it was the defense that did it.
The Cowboys pulled off a huge win - the biggest since Mike...
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Leave a comment. Log in below or sign up (it's free).Editor's note: It is not our intent to offer comments on crime or fatality stories.
Go Pokes!