By JOHN KLEIN Sr. Sports Columnist on Dec 1, 2012, at 4:33 PM Updated on 12/01 at 4:33 PM
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Oklahoma State did not finish strong at the end of a season that appeared to be on a upswing as recently as two weeks ago.
The Cowboys followed up an overtime loss at Oklahoma with an ugly loss at Baylor to end the season on Saturday.
OSU’s defense was hammered and OSU’s offense was not its usual self in a 41-34 loss.
That dragged the Cowboys down to 7-5 on the season.
Just two weeks ago, after victories over West Virginia and Texas Tech, hopes were much higher.
But, it appeared a series of injuries may have finally caught up with OSU.
The Cowboys are down to their third-team quarterback, Clint Chelf, and he finally played like it. He was inaccurate and failed to make plays to keep OSU in the game.
In addition, OSU was playing with a set of receivers that no one would have expected in the preseason, a position that has been virtually wiped out by injuries.
Then, the defense took some injury hits in the OU game that showed up big at Baylor.
Injuries are no excuse. They happen to everyone, especially in a tough and physical league like the Big 12.
However, the Cowboys may have simply run out of gas and luck at the end of the season.
Now, OSU will have some time to regroup for a bowl game where coach Mike Gundy will hope to get O-State up to eight victories.
Eight victories, considering the injuries and the unlucky close calls with Texas and Oklahoma, would be a good rescue of the season.
In a balanced league, where every week is a struggle, finishing no worse than fourth isn’t great but not bad, either.
“There is a battle week to week and you are going to see more teams that finish in that six, seven, eight-win category and not as many in that 10-11 category,” said Gundy.
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