FULL RECAP: Oklahoma State 55, West Virginia 34

I was busy putting together my full recap when I ran across this pic tweeted by Cory Brown, showing Siri's response when he asked for the result of the OSU-WV game...

Then I watched this:

...and I immediately scrapped everything I had written. Well, not quite everything, just the really ultra critical parts.

My instant analysis from yesterday was pretty harsh on Monken and what felt like a pretty conservative game plan. Then I stepped back, a little bit, and remembered how OSU had lost some games this year.

It is always easy to parse out elements of the game to show how WELL the Cowboys played in defeat. I have been particularly expert at doing that.

But in the end, those elements we like to parse are part of the game, and Saturday at BPS OSU was the beneficiary for the first time this year.

AND I'M REALLY GLAD THEY WERE.

Monken and the offense will not totally escape, as they only produced 31 points completely on their own against the 2nd worst defense in the Big 12. The game was about extremes for this group...take away the 3 "short field" possessions, and 5 of 11 drives ended in punts. The ungodly conservative play calling when OSU took over on downs at their own 2 yard line said to me "I'd rather give up a safety than a pick 6." I was shocked at how many times WV ended up in the OSU backfield, whether on running or passing plays.

That being said, the Cowboys averaged 6.7 yards per play, and had only one TD play shorter than 20 yards. Chelf's interception is ALL on Charlie Moore. Chelf made good decisions all day, but constantly struggled with high throws. Two targets of Blake Jackson probably should have been intercepted, and Josh Stewart made several great catches. To his credit, Chelf was on the money on OSU's TD drive to start the 4th quarter, going 5-7 to cover 78 of the 80 yards. The Cowboys only rushed once on that drive.

I also can't say enough about Josh Stewart:

• His 218 total yards were almost half of OSU's total for the day (443);
• 13 receptions were 4 more than the rest of the team COMBINED;
• had the longest rush of the day, 46 yards on a reverse for a TD;