Cowboys up, horns down in thrilling battle
Sanders and Green help lead Oklahoma State over Texas
STILLWATER, Okla. — Spencer Sanders fought through pain to deliver a key win for Oklahoma State.
The senior threw for 391 yards and hit Bryson Green with the game-winning touchdown pass with just over three minutes left, and the 11th-ranked Cowboys defeated No. 20 Texas 41-34 on Saturday.
Sanders passed for two touchdowns and ran for 43 yards on 11 carries. Gundy said Sanders is not at full strength while dealing with undisclosed injuries, making his performance all the more impressive.
“When your quarterback is a very competitive player, he’s willing to give his body up, play injured, never says a word, never complains, he just keeps playing, that makes my job easier,” Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said.
Green’s 41-yard touchdown came when he caught the ball on a slant, broke out of D’Shawn Jamison’s grasp just inside the 35 and made a move on Jerrin Thompson to break into the open field.
Oklahoma State’s Jason Taylor II intercepted two of Quinn Ewers’ passes for the Cowboys, and Kendal Daniels picked off Ewers in the final minute to end the Longhorns’ final threat. Green had five catches for a career-high 133 yards and Dominic Richardson had three short touchdown runs for Oklahoma State (6-1, 3-1 Big 12), which bounced back from a double-overtime loss to TCU the previous week.
Sanders struggled against TCU, completing just 16 of 36 passes for 245 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
“Coming into this week, I focused on the mistakes that I made last week,” he said. “That’s out of the way. We just have to make sure every play is a new play; every game is a new game. Can’t think about last week. Fix your mistakes and move forward.”
Texas committed 14 penalties for 119 yards while Oklahoma State went without a penalty.
“It’s very frustrating because for somewhere in there, we lose focus or mental intensity.” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “We just didn’t operate very good, and a lot of it was self-inflicted wounds.”
Bijan Robinson ran for 140 yards and a touchdown and caught a 41-yard touchdown pass for Texas (5-3, 3-2). Ewers passed for 319 yards and two touchdowns, but he went 6-for-18 with two interceptions in the fourth quarter.
Texas led 31-24 at halftime as both teams gained more than 300 yards before the break.