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Knee-Jerk Reaction: Oklahoma State at West Virginia

By Kurt Freudenberger

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Unfiltered and somewhat unorganized thoughts immediately following the Oklahoma State football team’s overtime win on the road against West Virginia.

If watching a game like that is nerve-racking enough for fans, I can’t imagine what it’s like to actually play in it.

But this team remains unfazed.

Someway, somehow, the Cowboys have won again, and their continued and somewhat inexplicable success in the win column is almost as baffling as their continued runs up the freaking middle.

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It’s almost as if they couldn’t lose if they tried. Because sometimes, it sure looks like they are trying to.

Despite repeatedly running five miles an hour into a brick wall in the middle, despite throwing interceptions to defenders basically running wide receiver routes for them, despite running a quarterback draw play in overtime on third down for a quarterback who is rarely in the game in those situations and also runs five miles an hour, despite ANOTHER extra point mistake, despite literally having about three offensive plays at this point, they won.

Unreal.

Cue all the cliches. Talk about getting the ‘w’. Talk about doing what it takes to win in the end. Talk about being 6-0 at the end of the day, regardless of how it’s happened.

Scoreboard, bro, scoreboard.

It’s cool. It’s all true.

Three conference games, three last-minute wins, all coming in very different ways. Despite the offense falling off the face of the earth, this one feels better for some reason. Maybe because the Cowboys had never won in Morgantown. Maybe because it was the first win since UTSA that didn’t feature blown calls or controversy. Who knows.

I offer no real analytical breakdowns this time. We’ve all seen it several times by now– One individual or unit steps up every single time it’s needed. The defense carries the team for most of the game. The opponent coughs the ball up and/or has a crucial play wiped out by a penalty. The offense stalls for most of the game, but suddenly comes through when needed, with some innovative and bold play-calling that had no reason to actually work. J.W. Walsh. Ben Grogan. Copy and paste.

That’s about the gist of it.

Oct 10, 2015; Morgantown, WV, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys players celebrate after beating West Virginia in overtime at Milan Puskar Stadium. Oklahoma State won the game 33-26. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports

At this point you have to stop caring in a way about all the negatives that have plagued the Cowboys this season. They simply find a way to overcome them each time. This team isn’t going to put together the full performance we want to see this season. They aren’t going to successfully run the ball. Rudolph isn’t going to come out and throw for 350 and zero picks each game. The defense can’t be expected to be on the field the majority of the game and still shut an opponent down all four quarters.

But, a team that goes through three games in a row like this, including two on the road, well…they are now prepared to face any situation, and face it with full assurance that they are going to find their way out of it and into the locker room for yet another dance party.

It’s all they know right now.

It almost feels like some sort of cosmic payback for all the things that haven’t gone the Cowboys’ way in the last few years. The fumble non-touchdown against Texas. The missed field goal against Iowa State in 2011. The dropped interception against OU — other teams are the ones doing these types of things this time.

Hey, that’s fine.

This team, and this team’s fans, kind of deserve a break from all this suspense for a week or two. Fortunately, a bye week is coming up, with another sort of bye week after that with a home game against Kansas. Maybe Gundy and Co. can take the extra time to finally figure out how to run the ball, or maybe add a few plays, or whatever else they need to do. Whatever happens, hopefully they don’t lose whatever they have going for them right now, because they’ll likely need it when they head to Lubbock to face a pesky Texas Tech team, on Halloween of all things.

Expect a similar outcome. At this point, why wouldn’t you?

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