OSU recap: We Came, We Vowed, We Conquered

The curse has been broken!  It was one of the sloppiest performances of the year, but at least we didn't need 3 overtimes to do it.  A win is a win, but let's go ahead and work on improving this week anyway.  Just for kicks.

 One is the loneliest number

Some things that were good

Chris Harper - Chris had another great day, making catches out of bad passes, making plays when we needed them, and sealing off the edges for Pease and Sams later in the game.  His part in the trick play was magnificent too.  This is the second week in a row that he's ended the game as our top receiver.  Slowly but surely, he's putting together that senior season he dreamed about.

John Hubert - Hubert's star is continuing to fade a bit, but he helped when we needed him the most.  I'm a little bit concerned that Pease did more for us this week, especially with Collin out, but his option chemistry with Collin is unmatched.  I'm starting to wonder if he's a little bit banged up.

Daniel Sams - Sams has looked more mediocre as the season goes on, but I am impressed with his throwing motion.  I think he suffers from conservative play calling more than anything else, but those spin moves are frustrating.  It's probably a good thing for him to get more game experience, but probably a bad thing for opposing teams to see just how steep the drop-off is without Klein in the game.

Angelo Pease - Pease was a beast tonight and seemed to get stronger as the game went on.  I was impressed with him in the wildcat and thought he showed tremendous vision in the first half when Hubert couldn't get anything going in the run game.  He's becoming a very reliable option on offense.  If he hadn't come to life in the fourth quarter and converted third downs and got us into field goal position, the game would've been a lot closer.

 

I love that Quinn Sharp sprinted out of the way.  I'm happy for Tyler, but I'm mostly thrilled with Sharp.

Some things that were great


Run defense - The pass defense had a tough day, but the run defense came up huge, holding Joseph Randle to only 43 yards and forcing a fumble.  Oklahoma State had plenty of firepower, but they never really fell into a comfortable rhythm because they couldn't get the running game going.  If they had... I'm not sure we could have won this game.

Jarell Childs - Jarell ended up handling most of Tre Walker's duties this week (in lieu of Johnathan Truman, as previously predicted).  He did a great job with the extra playing time, ending the game with 8 tackles and 1.5 for loss.  He was a presence all day long and didn't make the big mistakes.  Since the OU game, he's really taken Tuggle's place as the rising star of this linebacker group.

Bubba Chapman - Bubba had an insane game, ending with 3 interceptions that came at opportune times.  His second looked a little like he stole it from Zimmerman, but there seemed to be no hard feelings.  For the second year in a row, Bubba took a pick six from OSU and made sure the momentum stayed with the Cats.  His interception in the end zone in the fourth quarter effectively iced the game and helped the fans, coaches and players breathe a sigh of relief.  He made his mistakes, and plenty of those long scores were made because he was out of position, but when we needed a big play - he was there.

Tyler Lockett - Lockett could've easily had two kick-off returns for touchdowns in this game.  The second one would've been harder, because I think Quinn Sharp would have been required to at least attempt to tackle him, but he would've made it.  He looked about a million times faster running the kick-off back this year than he did in last year's game, didn't he?  He beat up Justin Gilbert all day long and looked like a fifth year senior doing it.  Baby Lockett is something special.

Cantele picked a bad time to miss.

Some things that were bad

Pass rush - We got one half sack the entire game.  Now, OSU's O-Line had only given up 3 sacks prior to this game, so I knew it would be tough.  But most of the time they didn't even get close.  Randall had a couple of tips at the line of scrimmage and Adam Davis led the team in tackles, but Lunt still had way more time than he should have.  We'll need to tighten that up this weekend against TCU.  Our defense is certainly better than West Virginia's, but I don't want to take any chances against Gary Patterson and Josh Boyce.

Special Teams - For the first half of the game, the kick-off coverage unit was embarrassing.  OSU's kick-off return for a touchdown was the result of an extremely short kick, into sleepy coverage, that simply got blown out of the way.  Sloppy play by the whole unit.  As for Anthony Cantele, he had several short kick-offs, a kick out of bounds to start the third quarter and then he missed a field goal in the fourth that could've been a huge momentum swing for OSU, if not for Bubba's epic day.  They all need to wake up and prepare a little better.  It's only going to get harder. 

Pass Defense - Oh dear.  Here I go again, quibbling with the secondary.  I'm sorry guys.  I would've loved to give you credit last week for shutting down Doege and Torres and Zouzalik, but you gave up more than 21 points.  Then, in this game, you gave up a 50 yard TD pass on OSU's first offensive possession of the game.  You did a good job of creating turnovers, which is nice, considering you left the middle of the field open all day long again.  And you didn't rise to the challenge in the third quarter, when your quarterback went out and you realized it would be up to you to preserve the type of beat downs you've grown accustomed to.  No, Chelf came in and you all relaxed, and at the end of the day, you gave up 417 passing yards.  417!  Don't you remember we're playing for tenths of a point in a BCS poll that determines your fate?  This was bad, and unfocused, and selfish, and sloppy and bad.  Never again.

Collin's injury.  From everything I've read and seen and puzzled over, it seems to me that he had some sort of head/neck injury that kept him out of the game.  If it were a simple wrist/knee/shoulder/hand/internal organ other than his head or neck, he would've stayed in the game.  My guess is that he'll be fine for Saturday and we can all breathe easy again.  I didn't like how rushed he was in the pocket and how long it took for them to get plays checked and communicated in the first quarter.  The O-Line needs to give him a bit more time and everyone needs to be more focused at the beginning of the game.  Still, there's no way to protect Collin all the time, and the hits are sure to keep on coming.  We just have to get him through 4 more games.