'They Won, But We Did A Lot To Help Them:' Oklahoma St. Coach Mike Gundy On Cowboys' Loss To Utah Utes

Oklahoma St. dropped its Big 12 conference opener on Saturday, falling to Utah 22-19. With the loss, the Pokes are now 3-1 on the season, 0-1 in the Big 12. The Utes are 4-0, 1-0 in the Big 12.

Oklahoma State forced three turnovers in the first half against Utah. It's the first time the Cowboys have done that since 2022. Trey Rucker nabbed the fifth interception of his career in the first quarter and added his second interception of the game late in the first half.

Related: No. 14 Oklahoma St. Falls To No. 12 Utah In Big 12 Opener, 22-19

The OSU offensive line has allowed only one sack in the last five games, dating back to last season. 

After the game, OSU head coach Mike Gundy met with the media to breakdown the loss to Utah.

Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy

On the defense… 

“I told you guys earlier in the week, the thing I was concerned about was being able to stop the run. We gave up about 5.7 yards per carry. We only rushed for 3.1 per carry, which makes it difficult to win. I will say this. The defense was on the field all day, which made it extremely difficult for them. Honestly, I thought they played really well. You can only be out there so much. It made it really difficult. The one statistic that is going to stand out more than anything is fourth down. They weren't any good on third down and we weren't good on third down, but on fourth down, they were good. They had a couple of busted plays for conversions on fourth down and kept drives alive. But what I told the players is the same thing that I've told you guys – early in the season, college football, in my opinion, about half the games are given away. Teams don't win, the other team just gives it to them. I have a ton of respect for them. Ton of class in that organization. Well-coached, great guys after the game. Very class, first class, all the way and came and played physical and ran the ball, but I felt like, I told the team, ‘You guys gave them a game.’”

 On pulling Alan Bowman for Garrett Rangel…

“Sometimes, we don't do it a lot here, but sometimes, you’ve got to get a guy out of there and calm him down a little bit… Things move so fast during the game that it's hard to get that part of it, but I just felt like we weren't getting good play, and we needed a relief pitcher and get somebody else in there. And Garrett had a tough day. So we switched back. But as I said, we haven't done that a lot here, but sometimes you’ve got to get a guy out and clear your mind a little.”

 On the offense’s struggles running the ball…

“We kept running it, and the crowd was frustrated. They were booing, I mean, I understand, but we didn't get away from it. But the reason we didn't is because it was still, for a long time, a one-score game, and then it was only a, what, a 10-point game or something. So, you can't get away from it, which we didn't. The reason it felt like we did is because we didn’t have very many plays. We had 59 plays. So that's like 25 plays less, or 30 plays less, than normal. So that's why it looked that way. We didn't abandon it.”

 On if he saw any quit in his defense…

“Not their faces ever. The guys did a good job. But I know it's in their bodies, like Ruck (Trey Rucker), Ruck cramped up and he was out in a while. The guys did a great job. Like, I'll just tell you what I told them. I told him that I saw leaders today. I saw guys on defense, that I saw five (Kendal Daniels), and I saw four (Nick Martin) and I saw three (Cam Smith) and I saw 99 (Iman Oates) and 33 (Obi Ezeigbo) and some guys trying to be leaders on defense. Because when you get off the field and then you're back up, you get back up and you get off the field and then you're back up, it gets frustrating. They didn't even faze, it didn't faze them. They kept going in that huddle, and I walked in there to be a cheerleader. I didn't need to be a cheerleader. They were good. They said, ‘Coach, we're good.’ I said,’ Well try to get another stop. I need one more stop.’ They were good.”

 On Utah’s defensive success…

“I didn't think that our plan for attacking their style of play was good, but I'll be very honest with you here, it's like people talk about our program a lot, and they'll say, ‘They win a lot.’ You can talk about them a lot, and their defense always plays good, right? They did today. We could have been better. We could have attacked them better and could have gotten better play. But I'm going to give them credit because somehow that seems to happen a lot with them, and I'm going to say that it's probably not by accident.”

Related: Sooners, Cowboys Fall 6 Spots In Latest AP Top 25 After Conference Opener Losses