Final thoughts on Heart of Dallas Bowl: Calling off dogs, LeBron and grass hex
Published: 1/2/2013 7:53 PM
Last Modified: 1/2/2013 7:59 PM
Wrapping up the Heart of Dallas Bowl:
--It’s the best kind of problem to have in a bowl game when a coach has to decide when to call off the dogs. At some point, the question in the Heart of Dallas Bowl became when will Mike Gundy have a heart?
The answer came in the third quarter. Oklahoma State went up 45-0 at 4:28 of the quarter when Clint Chelf threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Anderson. Purdue responded with a touchdown drive to get within 45-7, but the quarterback who trotted out for the next OSU possession was backup J.W. Walsh.
“We really called (off the dogs) pretty early, the middle or late third quarter,” Gundy said.
OSU ran 25 plays in the fourth quarter, rushing 15 times and passing 10 times. Gundy reportedly caught some run-up-the-score criticism from the ESPNU crew (I wouldn’t know. I was watching from the press box) because Walsh threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to Blake Webb with 8:32 remaining.
I think Gundy was referring to that play when he told me this: “We called one play and they lined up in a look that we had a check into (a pass) and we ended up making a big throw. But, for the most part, after that it became really quick passes and things like that.”
Third-team quarterback Wes Lunt (who began the season as the starter) entered the game after Walsh’s pass to Webb and directed the offense during the final two series. OSU’s last six snaps were running plays with the ball being handed off to third-teamer Desmond Roland and Caleb Muncrief, who wasn’t listed on the pre-game depth chart.
Could Gundy have done a better job of keeping the score more respectable? Or was that his responsibility? An OSU fan sent me a Twitter message that it was Purdue’s responsibility to keep the score closer.
It was shades of 1988 for Gundy. He was OSU’s starting quarterback in a 62-14 Holiday Bowl victory over Wyoming that still stands as the most lopsided bowl triumph ever for the Cowboys. Like Chelf, he got yanked before the end of the game. Would Gundy have preferred to stay on the field? He said everybody wants to play in those kind of games.
--Gundy overcame his kryptonite (or at least something green) in the Heart of Dallas Bowl. OSU was 0-2 on grass this season and 7-14 in the eight-season Gundy era when playing on grass. Obviously, grass was not an obstacle in the bowl game.
--Taking his talents to South Beach? OSU running back Joseph Randle got peppered with questions about his stay-or-NFL future during a press conference on the eve of the bowl. Randle urged reporters to ask him after the bowl.
When the subject was broached after the bowl, Randle said he meant that people should ask him “later, later” after the bowl.
Randle said he has no desire to make his decision dramatic and he referenced the infamous LeBron James press conference. He suggested he’s not interested in that kind of situation.
--Probably, Purdue’s best hope was for OSU's excitement level for the Heart of Dallas Bowl to match USC's excitement level for the Sun Bowl. (The Trojans tweeted uncomplimentary things about El Paso and then played like they didn't want to be there.)
But Randle said he knew the Cowboys would play well. He said they had practiced well and he said team captains did a good job of providing leadership.
--Josh Stewart’s 64-yard punt return set up OSU’s first touchdown and triggered an avalanche. It was Stewart’s first punt return of the season and it happened because he asked coaches to use him as a return man.
Stewart returned kickoffs last season and auditioned as a punt returner in the spring. Because of spring game drops, the audition did not go well. Said Gundy during a post-spring press conference, “He has been fairly sure-handed. You guys have watched him ... and he has the ability to make people miss, but he won’t return any if he does that. He’ll get his fair shot in August, but otherwise we won’t put a guy back there that won’t catch one.”
The Cowboys, who didn’t want to risk injury to a go-to playmaker during the regular season, put Stewart “back there” in the bowl game and he was a tone-setter.
--Because of Tyler Johnson’s background, he probably hears the words “second sacker” and thinks someone is referring to a second baseman. Johnson, a backup defense end and former minor league baseball player, gave new meaning to the phrase in the Heart of Dallas Bowl. He logged two sacks and forced two fumbles.
--The day before the bowl, Gundy suggested that Purdue sort of lives up to what the perception of a Big Ten team is. He never used the word “slow,” but draw your own conclusions.
Said Gundy after the game, “I think the overall speed of our football team was considerably different and that’s what made the difference in the football game.”
--Bottom line: A 58-14 bowl score is what you get when the best team also gets (or makes) all the breaks. The Cowboys forced five takeaways. The Boilermakers dropped passes and dropped balls on running plays, fumbling six times and losing three.
“It was all about really just executing our game plan,” Johnson said. “We weren’t even worried about Purdue and what they had to do to us. We felt like if we executed what we needed to, it would work out fine.”
Written by
Jimmie Tramel
Sports Writer
