Oklahoma State football: Three overreactions to 24-21 Iowa State loss
By John Scimeca
3. OSU’s season is over!
Of course the sky isn’t falling in Stillwater after the Cowboys’ loss. It’s a tough pill to swallow for many OSU fans, especially because memories linger from the 2011 road upset loss in Ames that knocked the Cowboys out of the national title game.
OSU is still very much alive for a Big 12 title game slot, given that has head-to-head wins over Baylor and Texas. The Bears and the Longhorns figure to be in a position to challenge for the Big 12’s second-best spot in the standings along with Iowa State.
It’s also not a guarantee that Oklahoma will finish the season undefeated — just look at how the Sooners struggled in the first half against a weak Kansas squad, trailing 10-0, before pulling away late in the fourth quarter in Lawrence.
OSU fell to No. 15 in the polls, which doesn’t preclude the Cowboys from the CFP conversation if they were to defeat the Sooners and win a Big 12 title. It’s still October, and many higher-ranked teams (including the nation’s best squads) could still suffer a gut-punch loss before the season’s end.
Who would have predicted that Penn State would lose in nine overtimes to a two-win Illinois team? Or that normal juggernauts like Alabama and Ohio State would stumble in the first two months of the season? And who on earth could have foreseen Clemson suffering its third loss of the season before November?
Ranked teams are losing at a historic rate so far in 2021, and the Cowboys could still stand to benefit if they take care of business against the rest of their Big 12 opponents before Bedlam.