Oklahoma State Drubs Purdue In Heart Of Dallas Bowl

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Six plays. That’s all it took to turn a potentially close game into a blowout in the Heart of Dallas Bowl on New Year’s Day at Cotton Bowl Stadium.

All six of those plays went in favor of Oklahoma State, and the Cowboys took full advantage, jumping out to a 28-0 halftime lead on the way to a 58-14 victory over Purdue. But it easily could have been much different if not for a half dozen moments in the first half:

● OSU’s Josh Stewart returned a punt 64 yards to the Purdue 19-yard line. The Cowboys scored a touchdown four plays later on a 4-yard pass from Clint Chelf to Charlie Moore, giving OSU a 7-0 lead six minutes into the game.

● Two plays later, OSU safety Shamiel Gary intercepted a pass and returned the ball to the Purdue 26, setting up a 7-yard touchdown pass from Chelf to Blake Jackson. Just like that, the Cowboys led 14-0 with 6:43 left in the first quarter, despite having gained a total of only 45 yards on their two scoring possessions.

● The Boilermakers responded with a nice 10-play, 57-yard drive. But any momentum they had established ended when Sam McCartney sent a 34-yard field-goal attempt wide right.

● On OSU’s ensuing possessions, the Cowboys drove to the Purdue 16-yard line where they faced a fourth-and-1. A stop here would have given the Boilermakers renewed hope. Instead, J.W. Walsh connected with Jeremy Seaton for a touchdown pass that sent OSU to a 21-0 lead less than a minute into the second quarter.

● The Boilermakers faced a fourth-and-2 situation of their own at the OSU 28-yard line midway through the quarter. Fullback Kurt Freytag came out of the backfield and was wide open on

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the right side of the field for the first down, but Robert Marve’s pass was slightly high and Freytag was unable to haul in the catch.

● Finally, with the score 28-0, Purdue tried to go for the quick strike and Marve lofted a long pass to Akeem Hunt, who had gotten behind the OSU secondary. The ball went through Hunt’s hands near the OSU 30-yard line.

Had those six plays gone in favor of Purdue instead of OSU, the Boilermakers actually could have

led at halftime or at least been close. The stat sheet certainly did not indicate a four-touchdown margin. The Cowboys had 201s yard in total offense and 11 first downs, while Purdue had 172 yards and nine first downs.

Any chance the Boilermakers had of getting back into the game quickly disappeared in the second half. On the third play of the half, Justin Gilbert forced a Purdue fumble and Daytawion Lowe picked up the ball and returned it 37 yards for a touchdown and a 35-0 OSU lead 51 seconds into the second half.

For the game, Purdue committed six fumbles, lost three of them and threw two interceptions. Those five turnovers led directly to 24 OSU points.

“When you’re playing a quality opponent like Oklahoma State and you turn the ball over five times and you don’t take advantage of your opportunities, then the game can turn out like this,” Purude coach Patrick Higgins said. “Anytime you put an offense like Oklahoma State’s in position to score quickly, that’s hard. We needed to keep the field long today.”

The Cowboys’ defense had allowed a total of 92 points in their final two games of the regular season, both losses. Against Purdue, however, OSU gave up only seven points before the Boilermakers picked up a late touchdown with less than three minutes left in the game.

“Our defense was really good,” OSU coach Mike Gundy said. “Purdue got some yards in the first half, but our defense played very opportunistic. There were some times where our players made plays at key points in the game, and we were able to force those turnovers and get off the field.”

Clint Chelf, who began the season as the Cowboys’ third-team quarterback, was named the game’s most valuable player after completing 17-of-22 passes for 197 yards and three touchdowns. But he also gave quick credit to the OSU defense for coming up with so many turnovers.

“The defense kept giving us a short field, and we tried to capitalize on that,” Chelf said. “Anytime you get a short field with the punt return and then the interception, it makes it easy on an offense. That kind of got the ball rolling, and then we were off.”

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