STILLWATER, Okla. South Dakota States 29-game win streak came to an end on Saturday afternoon as Oklahoma State took care of business and beat the Jackrabbits 44-20.
The No. 17 ranked Cowboys controlled most of the game and flexed their muscles in the third quarter en route to the victory.
I thought [Oklahoma State] played really well and they were as good as advertised, said head coach Jimmy Rogers. They did a lot of really good things offensively and then defensively, at times, they took the wind out of our sails. Were going to learn from the mistakes we made. This is a really good football team. We need to rebound and learn from our mistakes.
The Jacks got the ball first and made their way into OSU territory on their opening drive. They then went for it on fourth and two and Mark Gronowski tried to get it to sophomore tight end Greyton Gannon but a miscommunication led to the ball not being in the vicinity of Gannon.
OSU then marched into Jackrabbit territory but the SDSU defense forced a 42-yard field goal attempt. Logan Ward came on for the Cowboys and he put it through the uprights to give OSU a 3-0 lead with 8:15 left in the first quarter.
The Jacks picked up one first down on their next drive but then a pass to Graham Goering on third and eight was picked off by Korie Black near midfield. Gronowski said the interception was a misplaced ball.
[The ball] just kind of got away from me a bit. I was trying to put it a bit outside and get it to [Goering] but the DB ended up making a good play on it. He was sitting on that out route and jumped it pretty good and made a pretty good play, Gronowski said.
The Cowboys made the most of the turnover as seven plays later Alan Bowman hit Brennan Presley for a six-yard touchdown to put the Cowboys up 10-0 with just over two minutes left in the first quarter.
The Jacks faced a third and nine on the final play of the first quarter and Amar Johnson broke free for a 40-yard gain to set up the Jacks at the OSU 30 yard line at the beginning of the second. That set up a 31-yard field goal attempt from Hunter Dustman and he knocked it through to get SDSU on the board.
Oklahoma State then went 74 yards in 10 plays and went up 17-3 after Ollie Gordon II bounced off a couple of SDSU defenders en route to a 12-yard touchdown run.
SDSU was able to get three more points before halftime. The Jacks went 45 yards in eight plays and Dustman hit a 48-yard field goal to make the halftime score 17-6.
We killed ourselves [in the first half], Rogers said. Two of [Oklahoma States] first three drives were short fields. The first one was on me because of the call [to go for it]. We didnt get it and Im not going to apologize to anyone for going for it on fourth and one. The other one Mark threw an interception and hell learn from it.
OSU scored quickly out of the break. The Cowboys went 65 yards in 10 plays and Gordon took a swing pass 22 yards to the end zone to put OSU up 24-6 with 10:46 left in the third quarter.
That was the first of four touchdowns in the third quarter between the two teams. A 21-yard one-handed touchdown catch from Graham Goering capped off a three-play 75-yard drive from the Jacks. However, Oklahoma State answered with a 58-yard touchdown from Bowman to Rashod Owens to make it 31-13. Gordon then scored his third touchdown of the game the next drive, this one being from one yard out, making it 38-13 heading into the fourth.
Gordon, who was the Doak Walker Award (best running back in college football) winner last season, finished with 104 rush yards and 42 receiving yards. Gordon averaged 3.9 yards per carry on Saturday, which was 2.2 yards less than what he averaged in 2023, but it was Bowman and the receivers that hurt the Jacks.
Bowman finished 25-of-34 with 267 yards. DeZhaun Stribling led the Cowboys with six catches for 83 yards and Owens had three catches for 81 yards.
SDSU senior linebacker Adam Bock said the Jacks put an emphasis on stopping the nations leading rusher, but the Cowboys’ other weapons made plays.
They went in a different direction and spread us out. We stopped Ollie Gordon but other people made plays too. That was a key, to stop him, but they have other playmakers too and they found them, Bock said.
Ward hit his second field goal of the game early in the fourth. This one was from 52 yards out and that pushed the OSU lead to 41-13 with just under 14 minutes to play in the game.
Gronowski then threw his second touchdown of the game as he found Griffin Wilde for a 60-yard score to cut the lead to 41-20. Gronowski finished the game 20-of-36 with 264 yards through the air and 26 yards on the ground.
Rogers liked the way his quarterback played against a top-20 team in the FBS, but he said there were a few plays where he missed his receivers.
I thought he played solid. I thought he missed some throws. We have to protect him a little bit better. At times he got rushed when he didnt mean to get rushed. Theres a lot of plays that he did make though that if we didnt have a quarterback like that [the play wouldnt have been made], Rogers said.
Wilde led the Jacks in receiving with seven catches for 150 yards. Goering had four catches for 69 yards. Johnson led the SDSU rushing attack with 73 yards on nine carries.
Oklahoma State was just 4-of-15 on third down but the Cowboys were 2-for-2 on fourth down and the conversions came at opportune times in the third quarter. Bock said a lot of that came down to the Cowboys having an experienced offensive line.
They had a lot of time to extend plays on third [and fourth] down and that was really big for them. There were chances where we could have gotten off the field on a couple of those third downs, but credit to their O-line. If you have all sixth year guys, theyre probably cohesive and work together as a pretty good unit, Bock said.
SDSU had 13 players that were making their first start on Saturday. Even though most of them have played in games before, it was still a new experience and Rogers said he thought a lot of them did well but just didnt make enough plays in the end.
[The new guys] just have to grow with consistency. I felt like at times they really flashed and did a lot of really good things against a really good team that I thought defensively improved quite a bit. There were many plays that we were there defensively where we couldve made a tackle and we didnt make the tackle. We need to improve on that, Rogers said.
In the fourth quarter Rogers elected to call a fake punt on fourth down and went for it with his offense twice. He preached all week that his team was coming to Stillwater to win the game and after the game he said thats what went into those decisions.
I dont care if I lose by 50. The whole point was to come down here and win. Some of these [fourth quarter] decisions were to stay in the game. Im not trying to save face. Im not into saving face. Were into winning games, Rogers said.
This was SDSUs first loss since Sept. 3, 2022, and for some players on the team it was the first time that they have ever lost a game in college. Rogers said his team isnt going to think about the 29-game win streak that was snapped because in 2024 the Jacks have a zero in the win column.
Every year I say this team is different than last years team. This team hasnt won a game yet, Rogers said.
SDSUs home opener is Sept. 7 at 6 p.m. as the Jackrabbits host Incarnate-Word.
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