STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) -There were times in Mike Gundy’s first three years as Oklahoma State’s head coach that he thought he might have been making matters worse when he decided to chime in on defense.
He can’t take much of the blame for what went wrong when the Cowboys gave up touchdowns on seven straight possessions in a 56-20 loss to No. 2 Texas Tech on Saturday.
The mismatch knocked No. 11 Oklahoma State (8-2, 4-2 Big 12) out of the Big 12 championship race, and likely eliminated any BCS chances, too.
But as a former offensive coordinator who has helped create the sixth-highest scoring offense in the nation, Gundy focused his criticism Monday on the unit that had its least productive game of the season.
“Where I was disappointed was offensively. We had a couple chances there to go strike-for-strike with them when they were scoring and we didn’t do that,” Gundy said. “So, I was disappointed in us as a group because we didn’t go match them.”
preparations this year, focusing instead on his area of expertise as a former quarterback and longtime offensive coach. He placed coordinator Tim Beckman in charge of the defense and tries not to interfere.
“My first thought is I don’t specialize in defense. I don’t spend the time in there. I don’t study it. I never have, and I’m not so sure that as a head coach before this year … I may have been worse to the defense by clicking over and saying, ‘Do this, do this, do this,’ when I didn’t know,” Gundy said.
“And now, I’m not involved at all and they’re the ones who put the time and effort into it. I think it may be better, but we’re going to sit down as a group and talk about it after the season and see where we’re at.”
The new coaching arrangement seemed to be working well as an improving defense helped Oklahoma State to its first 7-0 start since 1945, and the unit was still effective in the Cowboys’ 28-24 loss at then-No. 1 Texas earlier this season.
The first major flaws came out against Tech, which used the nation’s second-rated offense to rack up 629 yards – including 516 through the air. It was still nearly 100 yards less than in last year’s 49-45 Cowboys win against the Red Raiders,
ly it’s been the opposite way. That was not a good thing.”
Gundy said the coaching staff would also meet at the end of the season to review their game plan against the Red Raiders, and perhaps spend several days trying to develop new defensive strategies.
To Beckman, the Cowboys’ failings came down to execution. On consecutive first-half possessions, he saw his players miss a tackle that would have brought up a fourth down, miss a sack and miss an interception. Instead of ending those drives, Oklahoma State gave up touchdowns on all three.
“When you’re playing in those types of games, you’ve got to make those plays,” Beckman said. “That’s the bottom line.”
The next defensive stop didn’t come until Tech was up 49-20 and easily in control.
“I’d like to sit up here and say that we’ll play here for as long as I’m the head coach here and not get in a game where you can’t stop the bleeding, but sometimes that happens in college football,” Gundy said. “As a football team, you have to see why it happened and correct it.”
Beckman also said credit is due to Texas’ Colt McCoy and Tech’s Graham Harrell, who are both Heisman Trophy contenders at quarterback, for finding ways to make the Cowboys’ defense look bad. They’re the only two teams to top 500 yards against Oklahoma State this season.
n an average game this season, and nearly half of the Red Raiders’ yardage came after contact.
“You can’t do that and be successful and play good defense,” Beckman said. “It all comes down to the basics. We’ve got to get better at the fundamentals.”
Although he called it a “devastating feeling and loss,” Beckman said the Cowboys must not let their confidence be shaken heading into their next game Saturday at Colorado (5-5, 2-4).
Players were still wearing their orange wristbands stating their preseason goal of being Big 12 champions, even though that’s no longer possible. Instead, the Cowboys can only focus on earning their way into the best bowl possible.
“You start the season with certain goals, and then as long as you can keep your sights on those goals, they stay focused and in the right frame of mind. If a goal changes, that’s not what you wanted but it’s OK,” Gundy said. “Now what the new goal is for us is to win nine games.”
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