Big Second Half Lifts Oklahoma State to Win over Kansas

The Cowboys' offense 28 second-half points to notch their 10th win of the season.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 12:03 pm

By: News On 6

Big Second Half Lifts Oklahoma State to Win over Kansas

Originally Published: Nov 20, 2010 12:48 PM CDT

Gerald Goodridge
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

LAWRENCE, Kansas -- The Oklahoma State Cowboys struggled early, but cruised in the second half, led by quarterback Brandon Weeden, to a 48-14 victory Saturday.

The win marked the Cowboys’ tenth of the season, the first time the Cowboys have passed 10 wins in the regular season.

OSU’s first two drives of the third quarter went scoreless, including a miss on a 46-yard field goal attempt by Dan Bailey – his first miss on an attempt longer than 40 yards. The Cowboys’ next drive saw Weeden connect on two long passes, a 35 yard completion to Isaiah Anderson and a 10-yard strike to Justin Blackmon, to set up a five-yard touchdown run by Jeremy Smith to take a 27-14 lead.

Two drives later, Kansas attempted to punt on 4th and 17, but Michael Harrison came in untouched to block it. The freshman recovered the ball and took it 20 yards for a touchdown to push the OSU lead to 20 points.

The fourth quarter was dominated by Weeden, who threw two touchdown strikes in the closing 15 minutes of the game. The first came on the second play of the fourth quarter, a 13-yard touchdown strike to Blackmon to push the advantage to 41-14.

The score marked Blackmon's ninth consecutive game with a touchdown reception.

The Cowboys’ next drive, the junior signal caller went 6-of-7 for 43 yards and finished the drive with a three-yard touchdown completion to Tracy Moore to take a 48-14 lead.

Weeden finished the game with 398 yards, putting him at 3,778 total offensive yards for the season, breaking Zac Robinson’s record of 3,671 set in 2007. His three touchdown strikes gave him 30 for the season, one behind Josh Fields’ record set in 2002.

Kendall Hunter once again quietly amassed 105 yards on 22 rushes, while Blackmon hauled in 10 passes for 130 yards and a touchdown.

However, it wasn’t always smooth sailing for the Cowboys, who had to battle back in the opening minutes of the game

On the Jayhawks’ first play from scrimmage, quarterback Quinn Meachem connected with Chris Omigie for a 36-yard completion to move the Jayhawks into Oklahoma State territory. Six plays later, Meachem hit Tim Biere for a 12-yard touchdown to take a 7-0 lead.

Oklahoma State responded on their next possession. Running back Joseph Randle scored from 14 yards out to cap off a six play, 69-yard drive to tie the game 7-7. Bailey tacked on three points on OSU’s next drive to take a 10-7 lead.

Kansas moved the ball seemingly at will on their next drive and finished with a 24-yard touchdown rush by James Sims to take a 14-10 lead.

The Cowboys came to life in the second quarter, and Weeden hooked up with Josh Cooper for a 21-yard touchdown pass to take a 17-14 advantage.

On its next drive, OSU took over with the ball on their four-yard line and narrowly avoided a safety early on the first play. The Cowboys then strung together a 96-yard drive, finished off by a 21-yard Bailey field goal.

Oklahoma State now has one more obstacle between them and their first Big 12 Championship Game appearance, a Bedlam game at home in Stillwater.