Brandon Chatmon, OSU Insider
The fumble that wasn’t changed momentum
By Brandon Chatmon
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19
Published: November 1, 2009
STILLWATER — Andre Sexton leaped around with joy and jubilation, full of excitement after making what he thought was a key fumble recovery in Oklahoma State’s Big 12 battle with Texas on Saturday night.
Then OSU’s senior linebacker looked at the official, and a general feeling of disbelief flowed throughout his body as Sexton realized the Longhorns would keep the ball.
Eight plays later, Texas scored with nine seconds left before halftime and catapulted itself to a 41-14 win over Oklahoma State at
Boone Pickens Stadium.
Sexton’s non-fumble was a huge momentum-changing play from which the Cowboys never seemed to recover as Texas ran away and hid from the Pokes in the second half.
"They (Texas) were able to go down and score,” OSU coach
Mike Gundy said. "That was a big momentum swing.”
Sexton came in and stripped
James Kirkendoll and appeared to have the ball before the Longhorn receiver’s forward momentum had been stopped, but the officials ruled Texas would maintain possession because the play was blown dead.
"I’m pretty sure they blew the whistle after I had possession of the ball,” Sexton said. "Someone stood him up, and I came in and stripped him outright and tried to run with the ball.”
On the next play, McCoy found
John Chiles for a 16-yard completion on third-and-six. Then a few plays later, McCoy scrambled for 19 yards on third-and-eight to move the ball to the OSU 21. Three plays later, McCoy found
Malcolm Williams for an 11-yard touchdown which gave the Longhorns a 24-7 halftime lead.
"It hurt a lot,” Sexton said of the momentum lost on his non-fumble recovery. "It was hard for a lot of players to let that go, and they ended up driving it down and scoring on us.
"I wish it would have went our way, but it didn’t.”
The play seemingly sucked the life out of the Cowboys and the record-setting Boone Pickens Stadium crowd as McCoy and Texas put together their best drive of the game on their final drive of the half. OSU never seemed to mentally recover after halftime as the Longhorns scored 17 unanswered third-quarter points.
"I was right there,” defensive tackle
Nigel Nicholas said of Sexton’s play. "I saw him strip it and rip it. But the officials made a call. It would have changed the momentum, but that one play wouldn’t have won us the game.”
Gundy consistently talks to his team about putting the last play behind them and moving forward. In this instance, displaying that mental toughness was something they struggled to do, and it cost them a momentum-changing touchdown just before the end of the first half.
It’s the exact type of situation the Cowboys need to learn from as they enter the stretch run of conference play with hopes of at least a second-place finish in the Big 12 South.
"As we grow as a football team, we have to learn to overcome those situations,” Gundy said.
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doing and why did Hunter come in just for one play (that I know of)?
Good for OU to win. I like to hear you guys bash each other over your teams greatness. Funny.
Hook 'Em!
It sure seems like the league is oh so ready to protect Texas, making sure the Horns get the benefit of every doubt so they can represent the Big 12.
Sure, the Horns are the best team by far in the conference, but let the player play the game. Those calls were big momentum changers.
Obviously Texas had the better team and may have won without the referees favor, but it sure is hard to beat a team with an extra 4 people on the field.
Now Texas has no one that should stop them on their way toward the National Championship game.
At least ou won't backdoor it's way into another championship this year.
But I do disagree about one thing. The OSU fans were louder on that drive than I have ever heard them. They were FURIOUS! It was awesome! So, I agree it took the team out of it just because TX marched down on them, but I'm pretty sure everyone on the field was well aware that there was a crowd there...