Pokes pursuing perfect game with Longhorns

AUSTIN, Texas — Today’s task is daunting.

Oklahoma State faces the nation’s No. 1 team led by the nation’s hottest quarterback in front of nearly 100,000 national championship-hungry fans at a place it hasn’t won since 1944 against a team it hasn’t beaten in the last 10 meetings.

Sounds pretty scary, doesn’t it?

It is, but the No. 7 Cowboys have two things going for them in today’s 2:30 p.m. game at top-ranked Texas:

1. OSU has played Texas tough, often gaining a considerable lead, in several games during the last 10 years.

2. OSU has had relative success scoring points in Austin over the last decade.

And those are two of the three ingredients for an upset today. The third is good defense, which has been a little harder to come by for the Cowboys at Texas.

Still, the Pokes are playing their best defense of the season right now. They derailed Heisman hopes for Missouri’s Chase Daniel two weeks ago. They gave up only a touchdown to Baylor last week.

With that momentum behind them, they take on another Heisman hopeful. Texas QB Colt McCoy guides an offense averaging more than 50 points per game against top-15 competition the last two weeks.

"I don’t think you’re just gonna put the breaks on an offense that’s having as much success as they are,” OSU coach Mike Gundy said. "I think our players have confidence because they’ve played well the past few years.”

There’s a good chance today that we’ll get the game we expected at Missouri — a full-fledged shootout of two quick-strike offenses.

Every offensive mistake will be crucial to the outcome; every defensive stop even more so. The winner of those two categories will walk out of Royal-Memorial Stadium still unbeaten.