Cowboys' blowout loss nothing but embarrassing

TROY, Ala. — Mike Gundy's Cowboys went to Georgia two weeks ago and showed, in the words of their own coach, that they weren't ready for the big time.

Friday night, in Wiregrass Country, Gundy's Cowboys showed they're not ready for the small time, either.

The Troy Trojans, pride of the Sun Belt Conference, pinned a 41-23 loss on Oklahoma State in a college football clunker at Movie Gallery Stadium.

Embarrassing. Totally embarrassing. Embarrassing performance, embarrassing result.

It's no high crime to lose at Troy; the Trojans are a gutty little team with an innovative offense, a fair share of athletes, good facilities and in a football-rich region, with plenty of leftovers for the lower class of Division I-A.

But it's a high crime to be non-competitive. A high crime to get blown out. A high crime to seemingly be unprepared for a team you knew would be hungry to ambush the rare BCS-league foe brave enough to find its way south of Montgomery.

This game was not as close as the score indicated. Troy made three scoreless journeys inside the OSU 20-yard line and another inside the 30.

OSU's only first-half touchdown came courtesy of Troy's bonehead fake punt, setting up a 26-yard drive, and its first second-half TD was set up by a blocked punt.

This game can't be laid at the feet of Bobby Reid. The benched veteran quarterback had no hand in this debacle, after a week in which his coaches played games on who would quarterback, a bit of subterfuge that apparently didn't faze the Trojans.

As detectives surmised, Zac Robinson went the whole way at quarterback and played neither well nor poorly. Just sort of played and didn't make the case, perhaps expected by the coaching staff, that he should lead this team.

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