Sea of Orange Overwhelms Buffaloes in Second Half
· Yahoo Sports
At Oklahoma State, the Homecoming parade is referred to as the Sea of Orange Parade due to the thousands clad in orange that line Main Street in Stillwater. For the Colorado Buffaloes, that sea of orange felt like a tsunami in the second half as the Cowboys engulfed their old Big 12 foe with 24 second half points for a 57-24 victory Saturday evening.
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But the first half for the Cowboys left a lot to desire trailing a bottom dwelling Colorado, 24-23 at halftime.
“We challenged them at halftime,” said first-year Cowboys head coach Eric Morris. “I thought we were sloppy in a lot of areas in the first half and to come out in the second half and go 34-to-0. I’m super proud of them, and we’ve talked about how resilient this group is.”
The Cowboy defense set the tone on the Buffaloes first offensive play of the second half as defensive lineman Jerry Lawson forced a fumble of Buffs quarterback Isaac Wilson that was recovered by safety Quinton Hammonds and returned nine yards to the CU 13. The short field resulted in points as Drew Mestemaker found Morgan McPhaul in the flat at the two and McPhaul went into the end zone to start the wave of second-half scoring for the Cowboys.
“When you come back out after the half, and you’re fired up and you’re ready to go, and you have a turnover immediately – that’s like adversity, man,” said Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders. “And when adversity hit right after halftime, we didn’t handle it whatsoever, and it just snowballed.”
“We start slow some of the time, which isn’t good. We need to start fast and get on pace and work together more and communicate more,” explained Lawson. “There were some times in the first half where we had a lack of communication, and then in the second half we started clicking and communicating and executing plays.”
OSU’s defense allowed 222 passing yards and two touchdowns to Isaac Wilson and the Colorado Buffaloes air attack in the first half before applying the clamps to limit the Buffaloes to just 121 yards passing forcing three sacks in the second half and Del City, Okla. native LaDainian Fields intercepting two passes in the second half.
Cowboy defensive lineman was complimentary of his secondary, “They definitely stepped their game up this week, all around. They helped us out a lot, and it takes all of us to win a game.”
The Cowboy defensive front held their own setting a season high wiht nine tackles for loss.
Colorado head coach Deion Sanders explained the second half, “They doubled down on it and came back in the second half and really turned it on.”
It wasn’t a clean performance for the Buffaloes who led at halftime after a strong offensive performance. The Buffaloes, who ranked among the worst in penalties and penalty yards per game entering the contest, were their own worst enemies, committing 11 penalties for 84 yards, including six penalties in the third quarter alone.
“It’s just totally undisciplined, especially when you start out being truly disciplined and you go on tit for tat,” coach Sanders described his team’s penalties.
The 34 second-half points resulted in 37 unanswered points by the Cowboys, who finished the game scoring on 11 of its 13 offensive possessions with six touchdowns and five field goals.
Despite the high scoring performance there still is reason for caution for this Cowboy squad. An OSU defense that struggled in the first half and gave up 24 points to a Colorado team that is averaging just 19.5 points per game entering tonight’s game. 222 first half passing yards allowed to a Colorado passing attack that averaged around 250 this season. Question marks regarding this defense still linger.
There is no denying this offense led by Drew Mestemaker is one of the most dynamic in the nation.Fifty-seven points doesn’t just happen and to think 15 of those points came off the foot of Sam Keltner that otherwise could have, and probably should have been touchdowns, makes this Cowboy offense something that will keep opposing defensive coordinators left on the schedule up at night.
“I feel we can beat any team we play against if we put four quarters together,” said Pokes quarterback Drew Mestemaker.
The Sea of Orange that lined Main Street before heading to pack Boone Pickens Stadium is still waiting on a wave of orange across all four quarters.