Here Come Bullets: Recapping West Virginia

See below for recaps, highlights and thoughts on the Cowboys’ matchup against the West Virginia Mountaineers.

Around the Media:

Gundy on the milestone 100th victory: "It's special for all of us. For me to say 100 wins isn't special for me would not be fair, because it means that we're doing well here and having success. The players know that at the end of the day, were responsible for putting out a product that fans and people around the country want to see." - Tulsa World

Photo gallery courtesy of the Tulsa World.

In addition, here’s a photo gallery of the Homecoming parade.

Cowboy linebacker Chad Whitener on turnovers: “Whenever we don’t run back the ball in practice we do up-downs. We get punished for it,” Whitener said. “Whenever we have opportunities to make plays, we make plays. When we don’t, we have to do push-ups and all this other stuff.”

Impressive stat right here provided by the Tulsa World’s Mark Cooper on home victories versus highly ranked teams: In the last four years, three undefeated, top-10 teams have come to Boone Pickens Stadium. Those teams — No. 3 Baylor in 2013, No. 5 TCU last year and the No. 10 Mountaineers — lost by a combined score of 135-66.

Unsung Hero: WR Chris Lacy - The junior wide receiver caught three passes for 31 yards, including his first two TD receptions of the season. His 7-yard TD catch with 5:15 to go in the game gave the Cowboys a two-touchdown lead. - Tulsa World

I was really happy to see Washington involved in the game again after Kansas completely took him out of the game: One week after being limited to one catch at Kansas, OSU ace receiver James Washington grabbed six passes for 117 yards. Mason Rudolph connected with Washington for a 33-yard slant to convert the Cowboys’ first third down, and the play helped Rudolph settle into a strong performance (26-of-36 for 273 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions). Jalen McCleskey made 11 catches Saturday. Chris Lacy scored a pair of touchdowns. But Washington remains OSU’s most important, most dynamic weapon in the passing game. The Cowboys must keep him involved to stay in the Big 12 race. - Tulsa World

10 Thoughts and the Game Notebook from Pistols Firing Blog.

11 Best Stats of the Game - Pistols Firing Blog

Les Miles and Larry Fedora reflect on Gundy’s 100th win - NewsOK

West Virginia defensive coordinator Tony Gibson on James Washington: “He's really good. He is by far the best kid we've faced all year.”

James Washington on the Cowboys’ game plan against West Virginia’s 3-3-5 defense: “Before the game, I told all the receivers, ‘With this 3-3 stack how they play, we're not getting any deep balls today. So we're going to have to catch the short stuff and make something happen out of it. I feel like that's exactly what we did.” - NewsOK

Vincent Taylor on his big forced fumble: “Really, I'm out there having fun. Our senior safety Jordan Sterns came up to us on the sideline. He said, ‘Somebody gotta make a play,’ and that just stuck in my head, and I was able to make a play.” - The O’Colly

Photo album via OSU Athletics

Bleacher Report’s game recap.

The game recap from West Virginia’s SBNation site, The Smoking Musket.

Cinematic highlights from the game:

Plays of the game:

This video is awesome!

#GundyDance:

Gundy’s weekly press conference from Monday:

Cowboys Ride for Free:

Joel Penfield’s unsung hero of the game is Kevin Henry: The final of those three turnovers sealed the game for the Cowboys. Skylar Howard threw an interception right into the hands of Kevin Henry. Henry returned the ball inside the Mountaineer 10 yard line which led to an OSU field goal. For that reason, Henry is my unsung hero for this past week. He came in after injuries to Jordan Burton and Calvin Bundage. Even though he was thrown into duty, that did not prevent him from making an impact on the game. He dropped back into coverage on that play and was in the right place at the right time.

Play of the Game

What we learned: Mike Yurcich can make adjustments! Stop rolling your eyes. Look, we’ve seen the defensive game plan against this Cowboy offense - limit James Washington and make someone else produce. Against Kansas, Washington was held to one catch. One. Fortunately for the Pokes, other guys produced and it was more than enough to beat the Jayhawks. West Virginia came in with a similar plan, but a MUCH better defense with which to execute that plan. The Mountaineers rolled their coverage to Washington’s side and did everything they could to take away the deep ball, which they actually succeeding in doing. So the fact that Washington ended the game with six catches for 117 yards is absolutely a credit to Yurcich. He was more creative in getting Washington the ball and showed defensive coordinators that they’ll have to do a lot more than just avoid the types of bombs we saw against Pitt and Texas if they want to stop Washington going forward.

MVP Draft Recap... there’s a new leader

The Morning After and the official CRFF game recap.

Phillip Slavin takes a look at how impressive 100 wins really are.