Inept run game hurt OSU more than Sanders’ shoulder
FORT WORTH, Texas — Quarterback Spencer Sanders sat encircled by media outside the Oklahoma State locker room, answering questions as best he could following the eighth-ranked Cowboys’ collapse in a 43-40 double-overtime loss to No. 13 TCU on Saturday at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
His gray tank top showed off the circular bruises on his right shoulder, typical of those caused by cupping therapy, a pain treatment method that has grown popular with athletes in recent years.
The television broadcast reported that Sanders hadn’t practiced all week. Pain in his throwing shoulder lingered from last week’s game against Texas Tech.
Sanders’ dinged-up shoulder wasn’t the reason the Cowboys (5-1, 2-1 Big 12) saw their undefeated season turn to vapor. An inept run game and a defense that lost its bite must be dealt their share of responsibility.
But how thorough is a week of preparation without the starting quarterback on the field?
Of course, Sanders, who is always intensely self-critical, wasn’t about to bite on the idea that his practice absences or shoulder injury were the cause of his mediocre statistics or the offense that went flat after building a 24-7 lead in the second quarter.
“It didn’t,” Sanders said when asked how his missed practice time impacted the game. “It’s just football at the end of the day. I just physically have to come out and play better.”
While it’s easy to wonder how Saturday would’ve gone had Sanders been playing with a healthy right shoulder, the more concerning issue in the bigpicture view of the rest of OSU’s season rests with the Cowboy run game.
“Couldn’t rush the ball,” head coach Mike Gundy said matter-of-factly when asked why the Cowboys failed to regain their offensive rhythm of the early drives. “Not effective running the football.”
Gundy said he’d have to review the tape to know exactly where the breakdowns were in the rushing attack.
OSU averaged 3.4 yards per rush, nearly a yard short of Gundy’s desired average of 4.2 per carry. Yet when you take away Sanders’ 68 yards on 11 attempts, the rest of the team managed 2.4 yards over 30 carries.
And often, OSU was struggling to produce when TCU (6-0, 3-0) wasn’t heavily defending the run. That enabled the Horned Frogs to sink more bodies into pass coverage and clot throwing lanes.
In previous weeks, Baylor and Texas Tech also managed to slow the Cowboy run game without committing heavily to doing so.
If the offensive line — which was without regular center Preston Wilson because of a lower leg injury on Saturday — can’t open holes more frequently going forward, Sanders’ shoulder becomes a side note to a glaring offensive deficiency.
Gundy says they must “keep working on things we’re good at, covering guys up and running your feet and breaking tackles. Just basic stuff. You can’t change. Can’t change where you’re at. Just gotta keep working on it.”
Dominic Richardson had 72 hardearned yards on 22 carries for a 3.3-yard average — decent numbers based on the running room he saw on Saturday, yet the Cowboys will need more production to make defenses concerned about stopping them.
“Obviously, we’d like to rush the ball better than we did,” offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn said. “If we could get that part of it going, then we’re rolling.
“We’ve got to get those guys more in the box and trying to stop the run. We’ve got to take advantage of it, though. They played us in some man today, and we’ve got to make plays out there. We’ve got to go and rip it down the field.”
Dunn sidestepped the question about Sanders’ health and his lack of practice time impacting the offense, saying it was a question for Gundy. Dunn, of course, didn’t know that Gundy had already waved off the question earlier, declining to talk about “injuries directly related to players and how much the practice.”
Dunn, however, did drop some hints about the challenges they faced without Sanders on the practice field, referring to “a long week of practice.”
Asked how Sanders performed on Saturday, Dunn said, “Fantastic,” before pausing and rephrasing. “All things considered, fantastic.”
Sanders finished 16-of-36 passing for 245 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for two first-quarter scores that helped the Cowboys take early control.
Sanders zipped a pass to sophomore receiver John Paul Richardson, who made a difficult catch in coverage at the back of the end zone for that 17-point advantage with 10:04 left in the second quarter. At that point, Sanders was 8of-15 passing for 129 yards. The rest of the day, he was 8-of-21 for 116.
And over those final eight possessions in regulation, OSU managed just two field goals, failing to land a knockout punch.
This was Sanders’ second straight game completing less than half his passes, something he had only done in two games his entire career before last week.
Richardson said he saw no ill effects from having gone all week with backups Gunnar Gundy and Garret Rangel piloting the first-team offense.
“No, Spencer’s been around here a really long time and he knows the offense,” Richardson said. “Our timing with him had nothing to do with what went on today. They made some plays. They’re a really good football team. You just gotta tip your cap to them.”
Knowing what his quarterback had gone through, Richardson approached Sanders prior to the game.
“You all right?” Richardson asked. “Don’t ever question me,” Sanders replied. “C’mon, man, you know the drill.”
The Cowboys turn their focus to next weekend’s homecoming game against Texas, a 2:30 p.m. kickoff.
And Sanders, the redshirt senior leader, believes his team will be in the right mindset after the first loss of the season. And he even hinted at a possible rematch in the Big 12 Championship Game.
“I gotta come out and play better next week,” Sanders said. “You know, this game’s behind us. Can’t do anything about it now.
“We’ll meet ‘em in Arlington.”