Oklahoma State opened their season with a 27-7 victory over UT Martin Thursday. Here are four plays that were important in determining the outcome or could be sequences to remember for later in the year.
- First Quarter, 13:57 to play, First and 10 for OSU. RESULT: FIRST DOWN. Hauss Hejny’s much heralded athleticism became apparent in the early stages of this game, including this play where he scrambled to his left and hit Terill Davis for a 34-yard completion. With the performance of the offensive line this season, Hejny or Zane Flores will need to extend plays like this where they face pressure.
- First Quarter, 1:56 to play, Third and 10 for OSU. RESULT: INCOMPLETION. This seemed like in innocuous drive at the time, but this would be the final action Hauss Hejny will see for quite some time. It was during this three-and-out that the young transfer suffered a broken foot after a collision with a pass rusher.
- Third Quarter, 7:07 to play, First and 10 for OSU. RESULT: TWO YARD LOSS. This is the sequence that is classic recent OSU, infuriating to fans (not as important) and potential drive killers in close games (quite important). After finally trusting Zane Flores to throw downfield the previous play, which resulted in a long completion to Terill Davis, the Cowboys ran the ball up the middle three consecutive plays, stalling the drive and resulting in a field goal instead of more points.
- Third Quarter, 4:00 to play, Third and 8 for UTM. RESULT: FIRST DOWN. This 17-yard completion is part of a curious picture for the Oklahoma State defense. My contention is that while there were some nice performances, this group is completely and utterly untested by a team that outside of a trick play showed zero initiative to test them vertically or play anything other than conservative football. The few times they even ran or threw outside of the tackle box resulted in some nice plays, like this one.
Oklahoma State travels to Oregon September 6th.
