Oklahoma State coach Eric Morris said the Cowboys “kind of let them linger around” in the first half, which is a polite way to describe a Colorado team that walked into the locker room with the lead. The Colorado Buffaloes led 24-23 at halftime in Stillwater, then lost the second half 34-0 and fell 57-24.

“We started extremely fast, three plays, touchdown. And then got them to a fourth down, and then just got them in some third and long situations, and weren’t able to get off the field there in the first half,” Morris said in his postgame press conference.

“And so, kind of let them linger around, and they did some good stuff, right? They got some good players. Like, that team’s battled some teams here the last couple weeks,” he continued.

Isaac Wilson did more than linger around

Honestly, lingering undersells it. Colorado quarterback Isaac Wilson threw touchdown passes to running back JaQuail Smith and wide receiver DeAndre Moore Jr., ran one in himself, and Colorado put up 24 points before halftime, more than it scored in four of its first six games.

Morris saying “they got some good players” was the closest thing to praise Colorado got all night, and the first half earned it.

Colorado’s pass rush met a screen-game answer

Morris also explained how his staff handled Colorado’s front. 

“They pressured us early, and we hit them with some screens and things of that nature that I think slowed them down a little bit,” he said.

Colorado still got home three times, but the screens did their job. Oklahoma State threw for 410 yards and never turned the ball over, so the pressure that has carried Colorado’s defense all season never turned into the game-changing plays it needed.

A loud third quarter knocked Colorado off track

The turning point, in Morris’s eyes, came from the stands. 

“Our crowd was phenomenal, especially there in the third quarter. It was so loud in there and we caused them to get into a really third and long situation just because how loud we were,” he said.

From what it seems like, the noise only explains part of it. Colorado gave the ball away on the first play of the second half, Oklahoma State needed just two plays to score off it, and the Buffaloes finished with 11 penalties for 84 yards and three turnovers. A road team that keeps backing itself up cannot survive a crowd that loud.

Colorado’s run game gave Oklahoma State a simple plan

Morris also made a point that should sting the most in Boulder.

“Thought we stopped the run pretty much the whole entire night,” he said.

He was right, though. Colorado ran 30 times for 56 yards, under 2 yards a carry, which let Oklahoma State tighten up on the back end. Morris said his staff “trusted our corners a little bit more” after halftime and played tighter coverage, and it paid off with two interceptions of Wilson from Oklahoma State cornerback LaDainian Fields.

Colorado finished with 343 passing yards, more than six times its rushing total. With no ground game to lean on, Oklahoma State knew where the ball was going, and Morris’s corners got the last word.

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