It’s no secret that OSU played very poorly Saturday against UCF. It was disappointing, to say the least, considering a trip to the Big 12 Championship was on the line.

And, still is, but in a much more complicated way.

OSU had a very unimpressive start to the season against UCA and Arizona State before taking a dive in the deep end for a couple weeks losing to South Alabama and Iowa State.

But, to the surprise of, well, everyone, including Head Coach Mike Gundy, this club regrouped, then re surfaced to win 5 games in a row against 4 of the best teams they had played all year. In baseball terms, because every life lesson can be compared to baseball, this OSU team either hits a homerun or strikes out. 

And, they either look really good hitting long balls, or really bad swinging and missing.

So, where is this club at right now, the week after the Florida raindrops have stopped dropping?

Here are just some of my thoughts.

Alan Bowman

Alan Bowman had, easily, his worst game of the season Saturday throwing 3 interceptions and posting a QB rating of just 35.7. He was not good, point blank, period, end of discussion.

I don’t mean that to be negative, overly criticial, or to throw him or his performance under the bus, it just is what it is, and it would be, at the very least, inaccurate, to describe it any differently.

But, OSU fans, despite the their most recent memories of his QB play, should be thankful for what he has done for this team. And, honestly, OSU, and this program. 

Bowman has done an outstanding job rallying the troops, providing leadership, and then performing. And, he did it amongst a situation that was very dire at the time he took over.

He had a bad game Saturday, but had a great game against OU with a QB Rating of 91.2. Amongst Big 12 QBs that have played at least 300 plays, he has the 6th highest QBR rating in the Big 12, and that’s with 4 receivers, 3 of which were our top receivers, out.

That’s not eye poppingly awesome, or anything like that, but his play has dang sure been good enough to put his team in position to compete for a Big 12 Championship.

Even if we lose these last 2 games, and go 7-5, and extend the bowl streak, OSU fans should be thankful that he provided a good bridge to the next full time, multi year starter at OSU. If we win out, and having beaten OU, OSU fans should have nothing but great thanks to him.

Bowman distributes the ball to the playmakers he has available, can make the sideline throws this offense needs him to make and is an extremely positive, motivating and very effective leader.

Next Man Up

OSU is playing with a receiver that transferred from a DIII school, a receiver that was 3rd on the depth chart to start the season (per Mike Gundy), and Brennan Presley. They are good, but Owens was supposed to be depth, not the primary playmaker, and LJII wasn’t even supposed to play this year.

And, with them having to play primary positions, it also means there is 0 depth behind them.

Presley is very talented, but isn’t the big physical receiver teams need to win 50/50 balls against press man coverage. Because of injury, we don’t currently have that guy, and, as a result, when we aren’t balanced, this offense is going to slow to a halt because teams can stack the box and play us 1 on 1 on the corners. 

It just is what it is, and they’ve done a great job using “smoke and mirrors” to get to the point that we are at.

Let’s Move On

It’s time now to turn our sites to Houston, then BYU, 2 winnable games. Likely, if we win both, we’ll be in the Big 12 Championship game with 4 receivers on the shelf and a transfer QB that wasn’t even the starter until the 4th game of the season.

That’s a lot to be thankful for, in my opinion.

And, if you follow my thoughts much at all, nobody bitches and moans about Mike Gundy, his conservative nature, OSU football, etc… more than I do.

I just don’t think this is a year to bitch and moan about. Instead, to this point, it’s been one to enjoy the roller coaster and appreciate.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and give us your thoughts.

Go Pokes!

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