Bedlam: Turnovers The Difference

Oklahoma entered Saturday night’s 103rd Bedlam meeting as the nation’s leader in turnover margin, and the Sooners got three turnovers that they converted into 16 points en route to a 61-41 victory over Oklahoma State before a crowd of 49,031 at Boone Pickens Stadium. The turnovers were the difference as the third-ranked Sooners improved to 11-1, while the 12th-ranked Cowboys fell to 9-3.

Oklahoma State’s three losses this season have been to No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Texas Tech and No. 3 Oklahoma.

“It was a very disappointed team in that locker room, and they’ve very emotional right now and justly so,” Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy said. “This football game came down to the team that made the most mistakes. We made some crucial errors and turned the ball over several times.

“When you play a football team that is as good as Oklahoma is right now, you can’t turn the football over and expect to find ways to win. I thought our team played extremely hard. We were down a number of times and fought back, drove down the field and scored,” Gundy continued.

Quarterback Zac Robinson was outstanding for the Cowboys, completing 17 of 26 passes for 254 yards and three touchdowns and leading the team with 90 rushing yards but he also committed three costly turnovers. A first quarter interception led to OU’s first touchdown, his fourth quarter fumble while being sacked led to a late TD for the Sooners, and a third quarter fumble on a two-point conversion attempt turned disastrous for the Cowboys.

OSU had pulled within 21-19 early in the third quarter on Robinson’s 6-yard touchdown pass to Dez Bryant. Gundy decided to go for the two-point conversion to tie the game, but the Sooners instead would up with the two points when Robinson stumbled and fumbled the ball which was picked up by OU defensive end Frank Alexander who returned it the length of the field for two points.

“Obviously you’d like to not fumble the ball and give them two points,” Gundy said. “That’s one of the mistakes. We fumbled the ball and it cost us points on turnovers. Then we threw the interception early. Zac (Robinson) made some great plays. They run well on defense. The margin of error is much smaller when you play teams who are very fast.

“There were some crucial errors but there were also some guys who made some great plays that kept us in the game.”

Bryant was sensational with six catches for 91 yards and two touchdowns, and an amazing two-point conversion catch in triple coverage. The two scoring catches gives him 18 on the season, which breaks the previous single-season record of 17 set by Rashaun Woods in 2002.

Perrish Cox’s 90-yard kickoff return was the second for a score this season and the fourth of his career. Sophomore receiver Damian Davis had a career-best five catches for 79 yards.

But none of those were enough for the Cowboys, although they did make a favorable impression on OU head coach Bob Stoops.

“I give credit to Mike Gundy and the Oklahoma State staff and their players,” Stoops said. “They’re a very good football team. We did something that no one else was able to do this year, come in here and win, because they’re a very good football team.

“Give Zac Robinson some credit. He played an excellent game. Just frustrated us so many times because you thought you had him sacked, and he’d break through or throw the ball and make plays or he’d run for a first down. That kind of play really threw us off some. You know, he made some plays on us but we hung in there and made some plays.”