Cowboys Face Critical Crossroads

PHOTO/Randy Renner

From 2009 to 2017 Mike Gundy's Oklahoma State Cowboys dominated Iowa State, Texas Tech and Baylor. During the time the Cyclones were always tough in Ames and the Red Raiders and Bears were among the best teams in the Big 12.

No matter, the Cowboys won 21 of the 26 games they played against those three teams during that time frame.

Ah those were the days.

Now days the Cowboys will need to upset the Cyclones in Ames to avoid being 0-6 against that threesome of Iowa State, Baylor and Tech over the the last two seasons.

The Cowboys are 4-3 right now, exact same record OSU had last season after seven games. That 2018 team lost three of their last five to finish 6-6. Without a win on Saturday this 2019 squad will likely share that record, if not worse.

Fans aren't happy. Social media has been burning with a bright orange blaze since that disastrous 4th quarter against Baylor on Saturday. Mike Gundy has noticed.

Turnovers have been by far the biggest problem. Redshirt freshman quarterback Spencer Sanders has put the ball in the hands of opponents a whopping eight times in the last two games, both losses.

“To play quarterback at any level, you have to have good ball security in the pocket," Gundy said about Sanders' play. "We worked hard on it for two weeks and he was better. He put one on the ground in the fourth and (Baylor) picked it up for a touchdown, made it look worse. If they recovered it and just get on the ball and we hold them to a field goal, then it’s different. That’s his responsibility, he knows that and he understands that. We will continue to work and get him better.”

Gundy has indicated he and the coaching staff have no plans to bench Sanders in favor of Dru Brown. For now and most likely the rest of the season the plan is to stay the course and allow the Cowboys young players to develop, learn from their mistakes and get better.

You can watch Mike Gundy's entire Monday news conference in the block below.


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