After Further Review: Revisiting Oklahoma State’s 36-14 victory over TCU

After a couple days to digest and re-watch the game, let’s look back at Oklahoma State’s 36-14 victory over TCU, starting with my questions and goals from the Pokes Preview blog.

Three questions

Lunt or Chelf?

The answer was Lunt, of course. And as we’ve already noted several times, Lunt was clearly rusty early, but found his rhythm as the game went along. He had a very solid second half, moving around in the pocket well and stepping into his throws. He took a couple shots, including a helmet-to-helmet rushing the passer hit, and never appeared physically or mentally shaken. His 20-yard scoring strike to Charlie Moore was his first touchdown inside Boone Pickens Stadium. Overall, Lunt 18-for-33 with 324 yards.

Can Joseph Randle run on TCU’s defense?

Randle was the workhorse again, tallying 126 yards on a career-high 32 carries. His longest run was only 12 yards, but he only lost two yards all day, something running backs coach Jemal Singleton told me last week would be the biggest key against the Horned Frogs. Randle is displaying a great combination of shiftiness and power right now, which is making him very difficult to bring down. It’s also important to note Jeremy Smith finally appears healthy again, getting seven carries, including the third-quarter touchdown on fourth-and-goal that was probably the turning point of the game.

Which secondary limits the big play?

OSU absolutely won this battle, as TCU’s longest pass play was 22 yards. It happened twice, with one of them coming on a trick play, a pass by Matt Brown after getting the ball on a reverse. OSU had four players record a catch of 20 yards or more — Josh Stewart (35 and 38), Blake Jackson (46), Austin Hays (41) and Moore (20-yard TD). TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin finished with just 185 yards passing.

Three goals

Force three turnovers

The Cowboys’ goal is to force three turnovers every game. In Game 7, it finally happened for the first time. Daytawion Lowe and Zack Craig tallied interceptions, while Nigel Nicholas forced and recovered a fumble in one of the wackier plays you’ll see–because no one knew the ball was still alive for a good 3-5 seconds.

Get pressure on the QB

Another fairly solid day here, especially against an athletic quarterback in Boykin. The Cowboys tallied two sacks and five quarterback hurries and knocked him to the turf another handful of times.

Win special teams

Definite win for OSU here, with Quinn Sharp drilling all five of his field goals and Jaden Oberkrom missing both of his tries. TCU speedy weapon Skye Dawson was given only two chances to return a kickoff and gained 14 total yards, and then muffed and recovered his only punt return attempt. OSU did have a significant special teams blunder, though, when Justin Gilbert fumbled on a kickoff return.

Other random observations

Have I mentioned I love the Phantom Pistol Pete logo on the ? If not — I love the Phantom Pistol Pete logo on the black helmet.

Big hits: Ashton Lampkin on Dawson on the opening kickoff, Lyndell Johnson on B.J. Catalon on the third down on the drive following Gilbert’s fumble, Caleb Lavey on a Boykin keeper.

Nice play by Craig in the first quarter to track down Boykin on the keeper. As I’ve mentioned several times before, he just seems to show up on a couple plays per game.

On TCU’s first punt, Ryan Simmons nearly got the block. But a great recovery by Perry after bobbling the snap to deliver a 57-yard punt.

Randle got a great hole up the middle on the Cowboys’ first offensive play, helped by a block by Kye Staley. But he was stuffed on the next two plays on second- and third-and-short. I was not surprised to see OSU go conservative on Lunt’s first series back from injury, and Mike Gundy said the Cowboys have to be better in short-yardage situations. Jonathan Rush got beat on the third-down play, and spent a lot of the game on the sideline. Not necessarily connecting the two, but an observation. Brandon Webb played a lot Saturday, though Rush did get snaps in both halves.

Sharp’s first punt may have been the worst I’ve personally seen from him.

Cooper Bassett lined up a fair amount at tackle, then looped around to the outside after the snap. One of those plays resulted in a pass break-up at the line of scrimmage when he jumped up to knock down the ball.

Lunt’s throw on the pick-six was a tad high and a tad late, but Stewart needs to make that catch. Even so, it was a heck of a play by Elisha Olabode. He never stopped or adjusted to the ball. Snagged it and scored in one smooth motion.