Dan Bailey is clutch. It's gotta be the shoes.

Recap: OSU came out flat against A&M and fell behind in a sloppy game due to a quick turnover deep in their own territory. But the Pokes stayed close and eventually exploded in the third quarter for 21 unanswered points. It looked like OSU would win easily, but – as predicted – A&M didn’t throw in the towel and they came back to tie the game late. A&M had the ball back with a few minutes in the game, but threw an interception to Shaun Lewis whose return put the Pokes in field goal range with 16 seconds to go. One Kendall Hunter run later, Dan Bailey put a 41-yard game winning field goal through the uprights and the Pokes escaped with a 38-35 win to push their record to 4-0. Bailey’s kick brings to mind the famous Mars Blackmon (no relation to Justin) quote, “It’s gotta be the shoes.”

QB Chris Masson hopes to engineer a surprise upset of the Pokes on ESPN2.

Preview: Up next for the undefeated Pokes is tonight’s opponent, Louisiana (formerly known as Southwestern Louisiana and sometimes referred to as ULL or Lafayette). The Rajin’ Cajuns are 2-2 on the season with narrow wins over Arkansas State at home and North Texas on the road. They were throttled by Georgia in the season opener, 55-7, and lost big to Middle Tennessee 34-17 in week three. Louisiana may be without its leading rusher for this game, but he only had 150 yards in just over three games of action. They don’t light it up through the air either as their starting QB only averages about 180 yards per game.

My Prediction: OSU 62, Louisiana 17. The Cowboys are 24 point favorites coming into this game. However, with narrow victory margins against Texas A&M and Troy, I don’t think this team will take the Cajuns lightly. Expect a long pass or two from Weeden in the first half, but most of the work goes to Kendall Hunter on the ground. I’m predicting 150 yards and 2 TDs before halftime. Expect the youngsters to get lots of 2nd half action. They’ll give up some points late, but OSU dominates this one on ESPN2.

That’s what Texas A&M has proved this year, at least to this blogger. That doesn’t mean they aren’t to be respected. They still boast an undefeated record, but the Aggies have been less than impressive this year. They drubbed Stephen F Austin and handled Louisiana Tech easily as expected. It was game three on their schedule that has Aggie faithful worried. A&M trailed Florida International, an FCS school 20-6 going into the final quarter of the game. It took three scores during that quarter to escape an upset that would have been embarrassing to such a proud program. But that brings us back to…

Nothing.

QB Jerrod Johnson will be looking to avenge last year's 36-31 loss.

That’s exactly what any of that has to do with the game in Stillwater this Thursday night, in front of the Sea of Orange and an even larger nation-wide audience tuning in to ESPN. The Aggies will be seeking revenge and they have quite an impressive offensive attack themselves. QB Jerrod Johnson, overrated by many of the national media, is a very athletic QB that can elude defenses and rack up the rushing yards too. A&M has two quality running backs in Christine Michael and Cyrus Gray. Johnson is not the best passer, but is dangerous out of the pocket looking to find favorite targets Ryan Swope and Jeff Fuller. While the Aggies prefer to grind it out on the ground, they’re not afraid to air it out against a defense that stacks the box. The Aggies’ young offensive line is suspect having given up an average of just over 3 sacks a game.

Miller is strong & quick off the corner.

Defensively, Texas A&M has always been tough. Future NFL’er Von Miller is hardly having the stellar season he had last year, but he is a speed-power combination player that will be tracking Kendall Hunter and hunting Brandon Weeden’s head. The Cowboys will have their hands full stopping him. A&M will have more athleticism than any defense the Pokes have played so far. A&M has recovered 10 fumbles in 3 games, picked off 4 passes, and notched 4 sacks (3 of those by Damontre Moore). The hawk the ball and, therefore, leave themselves open to giving up big plays. The Cowboys have to protect the ball and keep this edition of the Wrecking Crew defense on the field.

In the special teams, Dustin Harris is a dangerous punt returner for the Ags. A&M does not boast a great kicking game hitting only 75% of field goals including 2 misses within 40 yards, punting under 39 yards per boot, and never kicking off for a touchback. Cowboys returner Justin Gilbert may finally get his chance to take one to the house.

My prediction: OSU 41, Texas A&M 30. I predict that the Pokes passing game will generate a solid halftime lead similar to 28-10. However, Texas A&M is a strong second half team, so the Cowboys have to keep the pedal mashed down to the metal even if they jump out in front early. Gundy & Holgerson will wisely use their stable of tailbacks and the short passing game to manage the clock and stay in front of an Aggie squad that won’t quit.

However, when the Golden Hurricane rolled into the Sea of Orange last Saturday, that’s exactly what the Oklahoma State offense did. Brandon Weeden unleashed the Air Raid offense that OSU fans have been waiting to see as the Cowboys caned Tulsa, 65-28.

Justin Blackmon's Hurricane prevention methods helped OSU storm to a lopsided 65-28 victory. (Photo by James Shammerhorn of OStatePhoto.com)

Weeden only played for two and half quarters, but amassed a total of 409 yards through the air on 23 of 32 passes attempted. The Junior QB notched 6 touchdown passes, 3 of those to favorite target Justin Blackmon. Blackmon finished with 6 catches for 174 yards. Weeden’s passes took multiple flight paths, connecting with 13 different receivers, as they navigated the Hurricane defense with ease all night.

Kendall Hunter raced out to 59 yards on just 11 carries early in the game and then rested his legs for the onslaught of the impending Big XII season. Joseph Randle put in some work grounding out 72 yards on just 12 carries (6.0 yards per). Jeremy Smith also got in on the action with 6 carries for just over 30 yards.

OSU now has the nation’s #1 rated passing offense, #2 rated scoring offense, and #2 rated total yardage offense. The Cowboys are 29th in rushing in the nation after turning to the air game against Tulsa.

The Orange Crush defense dominated Tulsa’s athletic offense early, before the reserves began to work their way into the lineup. The defensive highlights included 3 pass interceptions, 1 sack and 3 tackles for losses.

OSU makes their season debut in the ESPN Coaches Poll at #25. In the AP and the ESPN Power Poll, the Pokes are ranked #32. A win against Texas A&M after a bye week should put the Pokes in everyone’s Top 25 and silence the nay-sayers in the media who said OSU would finish dead last in the conference.

By the way, Jerrod Johnson and the Aggies narrowly escaped disaster last week in College Station by scoring three 4th quarter TDs for a 27-20 comeback win against measly Florida International. They too have a bye week before coming to the Boone for a nationally televised ESPN game with the Cowboys. More on Texas A&M in next week’s Know The Foe post.

For now, the Cowboys will enjoy the calm after the storm and then get to work preparing for Big XII football.

It doesn’t get any better than that.

With three D-1 teams in the state of Oklahoma, bragging rights are on the line. Winner of this game will be in the driver’s seat for bragging rights to the title of “Best Team in the State.” Of course, OSU plays Oklahoma in a much bigger rivalry later in the season and that would put icing on the cake.

The Orange Crush will look to pressure heady Tulsa QB G.J. Kinne.

The Golden Hurricane hasn’t played the toughest of competition in their first two matchups, yet rolls into Boone Pickens Stadium with a record of 1-1. Week one was a tough 51-49 loss to East Carolina on a long TD pass as time expired. Tulsa got back on track with a 33-20 win over Bowling Green. Remember…Troy gave OSU a run for their money after edging Bowling Green in their opener. Can that be used as a barometer? Probably not an accurate one. Looking at Tulsa’s scores could prove to be a more precise measure of what lies ahead for the Pokes in Week 3.

On offense, the Hurricane have put up some great numbers. Lead by QB G.J. Kinne they are 4th in the nation right now in passing with 377 yards per game. Their run game isn’t too shabby either, posting 185 yards per game (39th in the country). They have some athletes on offense and will attack OSU’s suspect secondary aggressively on Saturday. Kinne is excellent at spreading the ball, so opponents can’t key on one stud and have to play honest defense. The signal caller has a 152 Efficiency Rating with 7 TDs to only 2 INTs.

The flip-side of the equation is that Tulsa hasn’t stopped anyone – and they haven’t played “anyone” yet either. Defensively, the Hurricane surrender an average of just over 5 TDs a game (35.5 ppg) to opponents. You can bet that the offenses of Eastern Carolina and Bowling Green don’t compare to the stampede that is known as Kendall Hunter and the Air Raid attack. In their first two games they averaged 3 sacks, 2 INTs, and have yet to force or recover a fumble. They give up just under 100 rushing yards per game; surrender 322 yards passing per game. Just like the offense the stats are spread out among players, so the Hurricane put forth a team effort.

Damaris = Dangerous (in the return game)

Tulsa is excellent in the special teams and has good team speed. Damaris Johnson is a speedster that they Pokes must lasso on kick and punt returns. The Hurricane is not a team the Cowboys can take lightly.

My predictions: OSU 45, Tulsa 28. Expect a big game from Kendall Hunter, around 200 yards rushing. Weeden will air it out to the tune of 300 yards and a couple of TDs too. If the Cowboys avoid repeating the turnovers and penalties they made against Troy last week, tack on 10 more Pokes points.

Mental mistakes can kill a team’s chances at wining. Luckily for Coach Gundy’s squad, they weren’t the difference between a win and loss this year. Last year, they spoiled the chances for a dream season following an impressive home opener when the Cowboys came up short against Houston. This year, the Pokes narrowly escaped the week 2 letdown with a 41-38 win over an athletic Troy team that wouldn’t go away without a fight.

Blackmon is separating himself as a star in the Air Raid offense. (Photo via NewsOK.com)

The offensive numbers were very good again. Kendall Hunter notched 157 yards rushing with 2 touchdowns on 28 carries. Justin Blackmon hauled in 10 passes for 132 yards and 2 touchdowns. Josh Cooper showed well with 8 receptions for 114 yards – and more impressively a 66 yard punt return for a touchdown. Brandon Weeden finished 29 of 39 for 348 yards and 2 touchdowns.

But it was turnovers, penalties, and lapses in special teams play that threatened OSU’s chances of a 2-0 start. Weeden tossed a pair of interceptions and fumbled the ball away on a sack  – and then again late in the game on a snap miscue trying to take a knee. As a team, the Pokes fumbled 5 times in the game and lost 3 of those to the speedy Trojan defense. The Cowboys were penalized 12 times for a total of 139 yards -  and a loss of over 300 potential offensive yards including a 100 yard kick return by Kendall Hunter. On special teams coverage, the orange and black let Jerrell Jernigan get out of the box on a 100 yard return for a TD. Luckily for the Pokes, Troy brought the butter-fingers too. The Trojans fumbled 6 times and lost 4 of them to the Cowboys defense – all four during the second half.

It was sloppy, but Coach Gundy will take the win and the opportunity to work on ball security and the mental game this week as the Pokes prepare for an impending Hurricane (vs. Tulsa next week).

It’s Turnpike Rivalry Week!