Oklahoma State football report card: Offensive line shines in grades in win at West Virginia

It was The Ollie Gordon II Show for Oklahoma State again.

With a third straight win — this time an impressive 48-34 victory at West Virginia — the Cowboys have turned their fortunes entirely around this season.

Gordon is a huge reason. Give him an A+ or even extra credit for his other-wordly performance.

But there are mostly strong marks elsewhere for the Cowboys. Let’s get to the grades.

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Offensive line: A

What is there to complain about up front when a running back rushes for 282 yards and four touchdowns? Very little, if anything at all.

The Cowboys’ offensive line was remarkably strong, even with injuries to Jason Brooks Jr. and Jake Springfield throughout the game.

Ollie Gordon II rushed for 9.7 yards per carry. And the Cowboys did not allow quarterback Alan Bowman to be sacked.

The line even got it done inside the 5, leading the way for a Gordon 2-yard score in the first quarter. More impressively, they opened massive holes for Gordon late in the game to allow the sophomore to break free for long touchdowns to seal the win.

And quite simply, it’s time to give it up for a unit that has completely flipped the season for the Cowboys since dropping two straight games to South Alabama and Iowa State.

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Special teams: D+

It was an up-and-down day for the Cowboys in a department they tend to thrive.

Let’s start with the positives: Kale Smith shoved a West Virginia player into his own return man early in the fourth quarter, which makes up for a similar play in the first that led to Brennan Presley muffing a punt.

But Presley made up for that by recovering an onside kick with 2:36 remaining.

Still, the list is longer for mistakes.

Presley’s muffed punt. Wes Pahl had a punt blocked by kicking it into his own teammate Quinton Stewart. Alex Hale missed a field goal right before halftime. Jaden Nixon unwisely returned a kick from deep inside the end zone and only reached WVU’s 17.

Just not a clean day all around.

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Red-zone offense: B

OSU still is not perfect in the red zone, though the Cowboys did score on 5 of 6 trips inside the 20.

That led to 27 points. The lone failure was the missed field goal by Hale. And OSU scored three touchdowns, with two coming from Gordon.

Still, the times the drives stalled left OSU again relying on the math to have an advantage over WVU, much like the Cowboys did against Kansas. When Hale missed, that nearly fell apart.

Fortunately, the Cowboys thrived in other ways.

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Defending Garrett Greene: B-

OSU coach Mike Gundy talked about the deceptive speed of West Virginia quarterback Garrett Greene leading up to the game.

And he lived up to the hype.

OSU sacked Greene just once — a combo by Collin Oliver and Collin Clay — and had just one quarterback hurry.

Greene shined with his legs, rushing for 117 yards on 16 carries, an average of 7.3 yards per carry. And he had a tendency to extend plays through the air.

But it’s hard to knock the Cowboys too hard considering he completed just 50% of his passes for 249 yards and two touchdowns.

More: What have been the biggest keys to Oklahoma State football's offensive turnaround?

Secondary: C

Even with a somewhat successful day against Greene, the Cowboys’ secondary had some issues.

WVU hit touchdown passes of 45 and 32 yards — both for go-ahead scores — as Greene scrambled around to extend the play and find open receivers.

Kansas’ Jason Bean made a living of that in the first half last week, throwing five touchdown passes mostly on the run.

OSU adjusted faster in this game. But it’s still a bit of an issue.

The Cowboys’ young secondary just struggles at times to stay with receivers as plays extend.

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Fourth-down defense: A+

The Cowboys were perfect on fourth-down attempts by the Mountaineers, who went for it twice late in the game in a comeback attempt.

Facing fourth-and-2 at midfield, OSU safety Kendal Daniels was not fooled on a designed quarterback run, tackling Garrett Greene for a 4-yard loss with 4:25 left.

And on West Virginia’s final drive, OSU cornerback D.J. McKinney swatted a Greene pass down on fourth-and-5 from OSU’s 12. That sealed the Cowboys’ win with 42 seconds remaining.

Jacob Unruh covers Oklahoma State athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Jacob? He can be reached at junruh@oklahoman.com or on X/Twitter at @jacobunruh. Sign up for the Oklahoma State Cowboys newsletter to access more OSU coverage. Support Jacob’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State football report card: Offensive line, Ollie Gordon shine