This is our quick recap, for the other side of things, check out AZDesertswarm. And if you are an Arizona fan that for some reason DVR'd the game and is going to watch today... I will save you a lot of time. Instead of watching your team make (and be forced into) mistake after mistake, just hit yourself in the face with something hard and go to bed. If the performances would have been reversed, I think I would have switched the game off early in the 4th out of frustration.
Solid win for the Pokes over an over-matched team. All the stats were in Arizona's favor except turnovers and final score... and I'm sure this might lead many who didn't watch the game to think that these were two evenly matched teams, just one killed themselves with mistakes while the other didn't, but that would be flat out wrong. Oklahoma State controlled this game from the beginning and looked like the better team throughout. And as a fan it is a great feeling to go out on a high like this. For as much as we (we=I) like to think the bowl games don't matter, they do. The collective feelings of the team and the fans right now compared to last off-season prove that.
As for the game itself, the defense was all you could ask for, and the offense (while dominated at the line for much of the game) did everything it needed to, putting up 3 TDs and getting Dan Bailey in position to knock 3 FGs through. And speaking of Mr. Bailey... how about all the work he did? Dude made 3 FGs, averaged 40 yards per punt (all of which had nice hang time), and handled the kickoff duties admirably. I guess we didn't miss Sharp as much as much as it was assumed we would.
A lot of the seniors went out with solid performances. Orie Lemon closed out his career with a nice game as it seemed like either he or Markelle Martin were involved at the end of every single play. Ugo Chinasa had a sack, Bailey's performance was already mentioned, Shane Jarka was disruptive in the middle all game, and Bo Bowling finished with a few nice catches. The elephant in the room is Kendall Hunter's 10 for 32 with the Cowboys content to take to the air after the first few runs were shut down. We got the win, and I am sure Kendall is happy about that, but it would have been sweet to send off one of the best in Cowboy history with a 100 yard game...oh well, great career Kendall, be seeing you on Sunday's next fall.
In all, with all the hype coming in about the two offenses, Dana's scheme and him leaving, and the futures of MDM Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon, it was nice to see the Cowboy defense be the one unit in this game that made a statement. Ten points allowed to a good offense with the biggest achievement being the 4 forced turnovers. On top of that, they were all over the field delivering huge hits (4 of them deemed illegal), wrapping up, and gang tackling... and I'm sure it happened, but off hand I can't remember a single missed tackle. Great performance by Bill Young's unit.
Good game, good win, good season... leave your thoughts in the comments.