3 Cowboy Takeaways: South Alabama Outplays, Outcoaches Cowboys In 33-7 Blowout

An evening kickoff in Stillwater for the Cowboys quickly turned into a nightmare for Oklahoma St. on Saturday.

The Jaguars of Mobile, Alabama, jumped out to a 10-0 lead and never looked back. It was 23-0 at halftime and 33-7 when the clock hit 0:00.

The Cowboys were incompetent on Saturday. OSU's passing trio mainly consisting of Gunnar Gundy and Alan Bowman only managed 114 passing yards against South Alabama's Sun Belt defense.

The running game had five players combine for 94 yards on 3.2 yards per carry.

The offense turned the ball over twice and the Jaguars got four sacks and four tackles for loss.

There was also a muffed punt by Braylin Presley that led to points for South Alabama.

The defense for Oklahoma St. gave up big plays including touchdowns of 65 and 57 yards. Jaguar receivers averaged 15.2 yards per catch and the running game put up 243 yards of offense.

It wasn't close in Stillwater.

First Takeaway: 2-0 Was A Mirage

South Alabama is a solid football team, no doubt about it, but it's a team that Oklahoma St. should beat no matter the circumstance.

They won 10 games in 2022 and went to a bowl game. This year they were defeated by a scrappy Tulane team and came to Stillwater 1-1.

“I mentioned during the week this is a good football team,” Coach Gundy said. “Our team was made aware of that. I told them multiple times during the week this is a really, really good football team. They’re physical, they play good and their coaches do a good job. So there’s no surprise at what happened.”

The Cowboys squeaked by Central Arkansas and Arizona State, but it's looking like the Sun Devils may be one of the worst teams in Power 5 College Football.

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The vision of a 4-0 trot into the bye week for OSU is nothing but a mirage left in the desert of Arizona last week. The next matchup with Iowa State, who just lost to the other Ohio team that isn't the Buckeyes, is no-gimme.

The Cowboys need an answer at offense and fast. A commitment to one quarterback could provide some stability and maybe enough consistency with receivers to link up on more downfield throws.

A certain former quarterback at Ole Miss would do wonders in Stillwater.

Second Takeaway: Poor Coaching, Poor Execution

Oklahoma St. Head Coach Mike Gundy described it all during his opening statement of the post-game press conference Saturday night.

"I feel bad for our fans, the way we coached and played. I apologize to them," Coach Gundy said. "We lost the turnover battle, had way too many penalties and we couldn't rush the ball well enough to amount to anything."

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To be dominated in all facets of the game by a Sun Belt opponent raises questions about OSU's coaching staff.

A mass exodus of players to the transfer portal last year doesn't excuse a 26-point home loss on Saturday.

"Let me make this real clear. They outcoached us, they out-executed us, but we didn't get any breaks," Coach Gundy said.

It's difficult to pinpoint what needs the most improvement on this team when everything seems to be going wrong, but that's why coaches get paid the big bucks.

The 19-year veteran coach has to retool and get back to winning football next week.

Third Takeaway: Rough Day In The Big 12

One of the few positive takeaways from Saturday's game is that the Big 12 as a whole laid an egg, so not all blame can be placed on the Cowboys.

A rough start to the season for the conference only got worse this weekend, beginning with ranked Kansas St. losing to unranked Missouri on a 61-yard field goal as time expired.

Former G5 powerhouse Cincinnati is long past their College Football Playoff appearance season, falling to Miami (OH) 31-24 in overtime.

OSU's next opponent Iowa State lost to Ohio 10-7, gross.

Kansas, Texas and West Virginia all sloppily played their way into wins over Nevada, Wyoming and Pittsburgh.

Houston even lost its opening Big 12 game against TCU. So it could be worse for Oklahoma State. A still-favorable schedule and an early loss could allow for some improvement down the stretch.

Expectations should be limited though, from here forward.

NEXT UP: Oklahoma St. travels to face Iowa State at 3 p.m. on FS1 to open Big 12 conference play.