Tulsa World: Cowboys clobber Cyclones

TULSA WORLD HOMEPAGE | Tuesday, February 09, 2010 | WIRELESS

OU | OSU | TU | ORU | HIGH SCHOOLS | COLLEGE FOOTBALL | COLLEGE BASKETBALL | NFL | FANTASY | OUTDOORS | GOLF | PROS | ALL

HOMEPAGES

SPORTS EXTRA BLOGS

		Sports Editor Mike Strain
		Sports Columnist Dave Sittler
		The Picker Entertaining & Infuriating

LOCAL PROS

ALL SPORTS

PHOTOS & VIDEOS

OUTDOORS

FIND A STORY

Search the World's archives

EMAIL ALERTS

SOCIAL MEDIA

RSS FEEDS

CONTACT US

BUY PHOTOS & PAGES

Buy a published photo by clicking the "Order this Picture" link on the photo. For a full-color page reprint, call 732-8198 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday or order online.

TULSA WORLD

ADVERTISE ON SPORTS EXTRA

Learn more about the site.

Newspaper View Print this story

Bookmark

Cowboys clobber Cyclones
Dez Bryant has four touchdown receptions.

OSU's Dez Bryant catches a touchdown pass over an Iowa State defender in the second Saturday in Stillwater. Bryant had four touchdowns in OSU's 59-17 win. STEPHEN HOLMAN/Tulsa World

By BILL HAISTEN World Sports Writer
Published: 11/2/2008 2:10 AM
Last Modified: 11/2/2008 4:42 AM

Slideshow: Check out photos from the OSU-ISU game.

Dez Bryant has four touchdown receptions.

STILLWATER — This Oklahoma State blowout — 59-17 over Iowa State — was defined by the statistics.

The ninth-ranked Cowboys, now 8-1 overall and 4-1 for the first time ever in the Big 12, rolled for 682 total yards.

Wide receiver Dez Bryant, only a sophomore but firmly established as one of the more sensational playmakers ever to wear Cowboy colors, staggered the Cyclone secondary with a nine-catch, 171-yard, four-touchdown performance. Among his TDs was an 80-yarder, and that wasn't even the biggest play on a 79-degree Saturday afternoon at Boone Pickens Stadium.

Wide receiver Jeremy Broadway collected a short Zac Robinson throw and raced to the east end zone for a 95-yard touchdown. By 10 yards, it was the longest pass play in OSU football history.

On only 18 completions, Robinson passed for 395 yards. He also rushed for 66 yards, making his total-offense performance 461 yards the second-best in school history. He was 25 yards shy of matching the single-game record he set last year against Texas.

"We thought we might have a chance to hit on some deep throws," Robinson said. "We had a good day."

OSU rushed for 263 yards. Big 12 rushing leader Kendall Hunter had 104 yards on 13 attempts and scored on a 36-yard option dash.

Explaining OSU's ability to connect on home-run pass plays, coach Mike Gundy said, "We were effective running the ball, and (the Cyclones) had really strong safety support. When that happens, it makes you somewhat vulnerable to a play-action pass."

OSU is 8-1 for only the third time in school history. The 1984 and 1985 Cowboys also had nine-game marks of 8-1.

Next week, the Cowboys take their 8-1 record to Lubbock and a meeting with the sixth-ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders. OSU has not won on Tech's home field since 1944.

There was one glaring flaw on Saturday. OSU's kickoff-coverage unit usually is solid, but against the Cyclones it was dismal. With 319 yards on nine returns, Iowa State freshman Leonard Johnson broke the NCAA Division I-A record for single-game kickoff-return yardage. He burned OSU for returns of 73, 72 and 48 yards.

"We'll work hard to get that corrected this week," Gundy said.

The Cyclones are 2-7 overall, 0-5 in conference play. They were dealt their seventh consecutive loss of the season and, dating to 2005, their 15th straight road loss.

During the first half, Oklahoma State committed a pair of turnovers (Robinson was intercepted and Hunter lost a fumble). The Cowboy defense responded by forcing three turnovers, getting interceptions from cornerbacks Perrish Cox and Terrance Anderson, along with a fumble recovery by tackle Jeray Chatham.

"We couldn't capitalize on anything," Iowa State coach Gene Chizik said. "(The Cowboys) played great, and I thought we played really bad defensively."

Fifty game minutes elapsed between the Cyclones' first touchdown (Alexander Robinson's 1-yard run) and their second touchdown (Sedrick Johnson's 1-yard reception).

Now with a season total of 60 catches for 1,054 yards and 15 receiving touchdowns, Bryant has qualified for membership among Cowboy royalty. He becomes only the fourth Oklahoma State wide receiver to have reached the 1,000 mark in single-season receiving yards. Rashaun Woods did it in 2001, 2002 and 2003, while Hart Lee Dykes did it in 1988 and Adarius Bowman did it in 2006 and '07.

Cowboy co-offensive coordinator Gunter Brewer's assessment of Bryant's ability: "He's unlimited."

"Dez has been good," Gundy said. "It's a little unique each week, what teams do to try to stop him, but he has played well. We just need him to continue on."

Bryant's 80-yard touchdown play was made possible when an Iowa State safety inexplicably abandoned coverage on Bryant and went to help on coverage of Cowboy tight end Brandon Pettigrew. The wide-open Bryant caught Robinson's pass at the Cyclone 38-yard line and scored easily.

The 95-yard Broadway play occurred on a second-and-13 snap. Lined up in the left slot, Broadway executed a simple slant pattern, received the Robinson fastball at the OSU 17 and ran away from the Cyclone defense for the record-setting TD.

DEZ BRYANT: BY THE NUMBERS

A review of the nine-game statistics of Oklahoma State sophomore wide receiver Dez Bryant:

Saturday: Nine catches, 171 yards, four TDs in 59-17 victory over Iowa State. Among the four TD receptions was an 80-yarder.

Season totals: 60 catches, 1,054 yards, 17 TDs (15 receiving, two on punt returns).

Bryant joins Hart Lee Dykes, Rashaun Woods and Adarius Bowman as the only OSU players with single-season totals of at least 1,000 receiving yards.

Bryant has 60 catches. No other Cowboy wide receiver has more than nine.

Bryant needs two more TD catches to match the single-season school record of 17, set in 2002 by Rashaun Woods.

Bill Haisten 581-8397
bill.haisten@tulsaworld.com By BILL HAISTEN World Sports Writer

Newspaper View Print this story

Bookmark

COMMENTS

Add your comment

Show: Most Recent Comment First

0 comments have been made for this team so far. Tell us what you think below!

Reporting Comments

If you see a comment that violates our terms and conditions, please help us by clicking the "Report this Comment" link next to a comment. That will alert the web staff to review the comment. Thank you. -- Web Editor Jason Collington

Add Your Comment
In order to post a comment on this article, you must sign in to Tulsaworld.com. If you do not have a site account, you can create an account for free.