Opinion: Oklahoma State's hurt is deep after loss to Baylor in Big 12 title game
ARLINGTON, Texas — Brock Martin pulled a chair from the bench area to the edge of the field, then as the Oklahoma State defensive end sat removing tape from his wrists, he watched Baylor celebrate a Big 12 championship.
Like he wanted to sear the disappointment into his memory.
Like he didn’t want to forget how close the Cowboys had come.
Baylor 21, OSU 16.
Martin wasn’t the only Cowboy to linger a long time on the JerryWorld turf on Saturday afternoon. Wide receiver Brennan Presley and others sat unmoving on the bench. Reserve linebacker Lamont Bishop stood near midfield like he was planted to the spot. Defensive tackle Jayden Jernigan wandered aimlessly around the field.
Eventually, Cowboy coach Mike Gundy had to walk from one player to another, pat them on the helmet or shoulder and tell them it was time to go to the locker room.
“They don’t want it to be over,” Gundy said. “They want another play.”
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Cowboys everywhere wanted that on a day Oklahoma State was oh so close to glory. There would be no Big 12 title. No College Football Playoff berth either. No giant celebration with the orange-clad masses after a comeback for the ages.
So many opportunities lost.
“I’m heartsick for the guys,” Cowboys defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said. “They’re hurting. A deep hurt.”
It hurts worse when the stakes are biggest, and never before had Oklahoma State played a football game with bigger stakes. Frankly, no team in any sport at the school had ever played a game of this magnitude; the possible benefits of a victory were unlike anything any other program had ever experienced.
That’s why Cowboys fans turned JerryWorld orange. Long before kickoff, the stadium crackled with electricity as the Oklahoma State faithful filled the parking lots, then the concourses and finally the seats.
A crowd of 65,771 was two-thirds orange.
“I thought the atmosphere was unbelievable for the championship game,” Gundy said. “The Oklahoma State people, the way they showed up, they were awesome.”
The Cowboys even brought their biggest little fan. Warren Clay, the 4-year-old who became a viral sensation for his chant leading, sat in front of the OSU marching band. Before the game when he flashed on the jumbotron for the first time, OSU fans went bonkers.
Every time the cameras cut to him, the reaction was the same.
Cowboys fans dominated play like no other fan base has since the Big 12 title game returned in 2017.
“Couldn’t ask for anything else,” Gundy said.
Except, of course, a win.
The Cowboys almost delivered on that, too. While everyone will long talk about Dezmon Jackson’s last-second, fourth-down sprint around the left edge of the line that came up only inches short of the pylon, it was the defense that made this one of the games of the season.
The defense struggled early. Baylor quarterback Blake Shapen completed his first 17 passes, and after fumbling, then punting on their first two possessions, the Bears went touchdown, touchdown, punt, touchdown.
But two of those touchdowns came after OSU turnovers gave Baylor short fields, starting on the Cowboy 11- and 37-yard lines. The third touchdown didn’t come after a turnover, but it, too, started on the OSU side of midfield.
“We made it easy on them,” Gundy said. “Then once we kind of figured it out in the second quarter and then in the second half, we did a good job shutting them down.”
The Cowboys allowed the Bears only three first downs and 36 yards of offense after halftime.
“We got more aggressive in the second half,” Knowles said. “We talked at halftime, and we knew we had to step up. You could sense the flow of the game, that our team didn’t have any momentum, and we were determined to get it back on defense.
“I thought we did that.”
The defense gave the offense a chance, and after a struggle of a day, darned if the Cowboys didn’t almost get it done.
“Maybe have been the hardest game I’ve ever been a part of,” Cowboy offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn said of his disappointment. “Should have won that game, plain and simple.
“I’m struggling big time.”
Cowboys everywhere were, but none more than the players. That’s why so many lingered on the field after the final seconds ticked away. Why they had to be ushered off the turf. Why they had to be told by their head coach that it was time to go.
Devin Harper stood there thinking about not winning the Big 12, not making the playoff, not achieving something never before done at OSU.
“It’s all of it,” the Cowboy linebacker said. “We all want to win. That’s the goal. We are all competitive, and not coming out on top, it sucks.
“Everybody poured their hearts out.”
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com.