MANHATTAN, Kan. — With a bag of ice wrapped tightly around his left knee and a big bandage on his right, Ollie Gordon II backed up against an outside wall of Bill Snyder Family Stadium to answer questions from the approaching media.
It was a metaphor representative of Oklahoma State’s season following the painful 42-20 loss to Kansas State on Saturday.
Backs against the wall.
Wounded from battle.
Offering answers to questions that seem unanswerable.
Now 3-2 overall, the Cowboys have seen their goals crippled by two straight losses to start Big 12 play as the urgency of those unanswerable questions grows more intense.
What has happened to the OSU offense? Saturday brought more confusion, considering how strong the unit looked for the first 20 minutes, juxtaposed against how flat it looked the rest of the day.
Why can’t the defense figure out the run game? As simple as the answer sounds, OSU hasn’t found a method that solves it.
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Coach Mike Gundy frequently throws out the term “run fits,” or their schemes for getting a defender into each running lane. But the phrase seems to more aptly describe the condition of the Cowboy defenders: When teams run, it’s causing them fits.
Kansas State’s D.J. Giddens had 187 yards on 15 carries, but needed just nine carries to get his first 170 yards, running like he was in an open Kansas pasture.
And if things weren’t scary enough for the run defense, star linebacker Nick Martin limped off the field in the fourth quarter with what appeared to be a right lower leg injury. Gundy had no update on Martin’s condition after the game.
“The good news was that he was walking around on his own,” Gundy said. “The bad news was that he was limping.”
Standing next to that wall on Saturday afternoon, Gordon exuded the positivity his teammates needed to feel from one of its emotional leaders.
“Honestly, last year, we had two conference losses,” Gordon said. “That’s how I’m looking at it. We had two conference losses last year, so from here on out, we handle business, play to play, game to game, don’t let anything leak over to the next game and just be us.”
But on the field, Gordon can only do so much.
The junior running back looked like the 2023 version of himself throughout the first quarter on Saturday, producing 85 yards on 10 total touches (nine rushes, one reception). Two of his rushes were longer than any he had prior to Saturday.
“The first quarter coming out, throwing some haymakers, it felt good,” Gordon said. “It felt like the Oklahoma State we were. It felt good, but we’ll be fine. We’ve gotta continue to find that fire and continue using it.”
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Yet the rest of the game, he had 11 yards on eight touches, never seeing the field in the fourth quarter.
For the first time since the season opener, OSU found success running the ball, yet couldn’t keep the momentum to maintain it.
Of course, Gordon had little opportunity in the second quarter. He and quarterback Alan Bowman had the same number of rushing attempts in that period, even as the Cowboys had a chance to land a momentum-changing blow.
They scored on a 77-yard flea-flicker to De’Zhaun Stribling for a 10-7 lead, and on Kansas State’s next snap, Korie Black stepped in front of an Avery Johnson pass for his second interception of the season.
“I felt like it was gonna get us going, get us on our high horse like we needed,” super-senior safety Trey Rucker said. “So, I definitely felt like that was going to be a momentum-changer in the game.”
But after the interception, the OSU offense couldn’t land the big blow. In fact, it didn’t really take a swing.
Bowman threw a 13-yard pass to Ayo Shotomide-King to set up a first down at the K-State 20, but the next two play calls were designed quarterback runs with the not-so-speedy Bowman that combined for 4 yards.
“When you run the quarterback, then you equalize numbers,” Gundy said of the math game his offense continues to play with opposing defenses determined to stop the run. “We’ve had some quarterback-run stuff. We really haven’t gone to much of it.
“But on those run plays, you do have equal numbers. So, we’ve had some stuff for that if we wanted to run the ball without the one disadvantage in the running game.”
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Numbers aside, the execution fell short of what the Cowboys needed. Instead of getting a good look at a potential touchdown, they settled for a field goal and a 13-7 lead.
Kansas State needed two plays to reclaim the momentum, thanks to a 37-yard run, a 15-yard penalty for a horsecollar tackle and a 19-yard touchdown pass.
Even when K-State gifted the Cowboys a couple of penalties to jumpstart their next drive and helped them get into Wildcat territory again, a Joe Michalski snap went wide to Bowman’s right. The quarterback knocked the ball down but couldn’t recover the fumble.
Kansas State promptly scored again and the Cowboys never really threatened to regain momentum.
Gordon maintained his team-first attitude when asked about his lack of touches after the productive first quarter.
“This sport is a ‘we over me’ type of sport, so whatever was working, I was there for it,” Gordon said, adding that there’s no concern over his knee.
Bowman completed just over half his throws (26 of 50) for 364 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. Gundy described Bowman’s play as “OK” without the benefit of video review to further analyze his quarterback’s decisions and overall grade.
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But a week after he benched his seventh-year senior quarterback for 1 ½ quarters, Gundy remained confident in Bowman, going as far as to say he didn’t think benching him again would be beneficial.
“I don’t think that’s what’s best at times for what we’re trying to get accomplished offensively,” Gundy said.
With losses to two of the top contenders for spots in the Big 12 Championship Game, OSU couldn’t be in a worse spot two weeks into league play. And the Cowboys’ next opponent, West Virginia, will arrive in Stillwater following an open week with extra time to prepare for the Cowboys’ schemes.
“There’s a lot for us to work on, coaching-wise, players and the organization,” Gundy said. “I asked them to trust me as a leader. And then I explained to them what I’m gonna do and what I think is best for the team, and then they have a choice to make.
“I think they’ll come and they’ll work tomorrow, they’ll fight Monday and they’ll be excited to get out there and play and our coaches will be excited about coaching them. That’s really your only option, because we have a lot of games left. We need guys who wanna come out and compete and play hard.”
OSU vs. West Virginia
KICKOFF: 3 p.m. Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater (ESPN2)
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State football collapses vs Kansas State in Week 5 loss
