ORANGE PRATTLE: Jaylen Warren saves anemic Oklahoma State offense
Oct. 17—Spencer Sanders was off throwing the ball. Again.
FOX commentator Joel Klatt even questioned the throwing of the Oklahoma State quarterback at one point in the second half.
Despite the struggles from its signal caller — 19-of-32 passing (with a few dropped passes by receivers) for 178 yards with a late passing touchdown and first-half interception — Oklahoma State's offense found a different source to complete a comeback against Texas to remain undefeated.
Offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn went back to the well with what has been the most reliable cog of the Cowboy offense of late.
It was simple.
If the quarterback is throwing errant passes, take it out of his hands.
Jaylen Warren took over from there.
The running back transfer from Utah State rushed for over 100 yards for the fourth-straight game since taking over as the starting running back.
It was looking like a grind to get there in the first half, running the rock 13 times for 55 yards through the first 30 minutes.
But Oklahoma State's second half was all about the running game for both sides of the ball.
While the Cowboy defense held Texas' vaunted rushing attack featuring Bijan Robinson (who rushed for 135 yards) to just one yard in the fourth quarter, Warren finally broke free when the Cowboys needed it most.
With Oklahoma State trailing by eight heading into the fourth quarter, Warren was called upon and was directly responsible for the 16 unanswered by OSU to close the game — even though he didn't score a single touchdown.
On Oklahoma State's three scoring drives in the fourth quarter, Warren rushed the ball 10 times for 106 yards — with three attempts of 20 yards or more. More than half of his total for the game (193), came in the closer role for the Cowboys.
It was only appropriate then, that the game was ended by the two aspects that got the Cowboys ahead in the first place.
After an interception by Tanner McCalister to give the Cowboys the ball with two minutes remaining, Warren picked up a first down on an eight-yard run on third-and-six — bringing his fourth-quarter total to 13 carries for 118 yards — which allowed Oklahoma State to milk the remainder of the clock with Texas having no timeouts remaining.
Since taking over the leading role behind Sanders, Warren has rushed the ball 128 times for 659 yards (a 5.1 average per carry). His 164.75 yards average in those four games would be best in FBS based on the stats heading into Saturday's games.
Cowboy coach Mike Gundy may want to limit the beating Warren takes to have him fresh for the late-season grind, but if he continues to perform as he did Saturday — and Sanders continues to be inconsistent in the passing game — turning the ball over to the transfer 30 times a game may the answer to the Cowboys reaching the Big 12 Conference title game for the first time.
And if Warren continues to find late-game success like he did against Texas, he will find himself playing on Sundays next fall.
"I'll be shocked if he doesn't play on Sundays," Gundy said after the game.
Jason Elmquist is sports editor of The Stillwater News Press. He can be contacted at jelmquist@stwnewspress.com.
