Cowboys Seek To Close Deals, Close In On Big 12 South's Elite

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) _ With one heartbreaking loss after another, Oklahoma State's players came to understand exactly how close they were to pushing their team into the upper echelon of the Big 12

Tuesday, August 28th 2007, 12:18 pm

By: News On 6

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) _ With one heartbreaking loss after another, Oklahoma State's players came to understand exactly how close they were to pushing their team into the upper echelon of the Big 12 South.

So what will it take to cover that last bit of ground and move the Cowboys across the fine line between defeat and victory?

``More preparation, more hard work,'' linebacker Donovan Woods said. ``And some luck.''

In Mike Gundy's second season as head coach, Oklahoma State improved enough to earn its fourth bowl berth in the past five years and finish with a 7-6 record. But the Cowboys could easily have made it an even more remarkable turnaround, if not for five losses by a combined 26 points.

``It's pretty easy to think that, but you still have to finish and win them,'' Gundy said. ``There's not much you can do to go back and change them.''

The Cowboys either led or had possession of the ball with a chance to go ahead in the final period of all five of those losses. Twice, they were unable to hold onto fourth-quarter leads _ including an overtime loss to Texas A&M decided on a blocked extra point.

Gundy recalled ``feeling pretty good about myself, just kind of easing through the rest of the fourth quarter and then it ended up being a tie game.'' The Cowboys hope to avoid such letdowns this season.

``We've been harping on finishing since the end of last year,'' defensive end Marque Fountain said. ``We had about four or five games that we didn't have a great finish and we lost within probably the last minute and a half or two minutes.''

The close calls have motivated the Cowboys to put in extra effort in practice, attempting to get in good enough condition that they'll be able to outplay opponents in crunch time.

``It's hard right now, but it's going to make us better,'' Fountain said.

If there's one thing the Cowboys have going for them, it's an offense that few could match last season. Oklahoma State ranked seventh in the nation in scoring, 16th in total offense and became one of only two programs to average at least 200 yards passing and rushing per game.

To duplicate that success, quarterback Bobby Reid will likely need to gain confidence in a second receiving option outside Adarius Bowman, who returns for his senior season after catching 60 passes for 1,181 yards and 12 touchdowns in a sensational debut with the Cowboys.

Dantrell Savage and Keith Toston, who powered the Big 12's top rushing offense a year ago, are back as well.

On defense, the Cowboys face losses along the line that include NFL draft pick Ryan McBean and sack leader Victor DeGrate.

If those holes can be filled, the Cowboys could be primed to finish above the bottom half of the Big 12 South Division standings for the first time since 2003. A big step would be winning close games against Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Oklahoma that were costly a year ago.

``Once we start finishing the big games, we can win them,'' Fountain said. ``We could end up being 10-and-whatever or 11-and-whatever.''

Oklahoma State showed signs of turning the corner in the Independence Bowl, when it allowed Alabama to erase a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter but responded for a 34-31 win. Gundy said the way to turn those narrow losses into victories is ``somebody's got to make a play,'' as Savage did by picking up 26 yards on a screen pass to set up the game-winning field goal.

And it certainly wouldn't hurt to get some breaks along the way.

``All of those good teams, in order to be great teams _ to go from 9-3 to 12-0 _ I'm pretty sure they had the ball bounce their way or something happen,'' Woods said. ``Quite a bit last year, the ball didn't quite bounce our way, along with some plays that we didn't make.

``Hopefully we've done enough to make those plays this year and just have luck on our side. Hopefully it'll turn out great for Oklahoma State.''