Tulsa Puts Scare into #11 OSU, Falls 16-7

Saturday, September 19

Stillwater, Okla.

11:00 am (CT)

Tulsa

#11-Ranked Oklahoma State

Photo by: Brett Rojo

Tulsa Puts Scare into #11 OSU, Falls 16-7

9/19/2020 5:21:00 PM | Football

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POST-GAME BOOK I POST-GAME NOTES I POST-GAME QUOTES I PHOTO GALLERY I SEASON STATS I PRESS CONFERENCE

STILLWATER, Okla. –– The 11^th-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys scored 13 4^th quarter points to pull out a 16-7 victory over Tulsa Saturday afternoon at Boone Pickens Stadium in front of a COVID altered crowd of 14,668 fans.

Tulsa held a 4-point lead, 7-3, heading into the final quarter, a lead the Hurricane took with just under 2 minutes remaining before halftime.

"I am really proud of our football team. We had a tremendous game plan," said Tulsa's Philip Montgomery. "We played extremely hard, and obviously we needed to just get over the hump right there at the very end. We had the opportunity to go down and take the lead back but ended up just not executing at a good enough level."

For most of the game it was the defenses that starred as the two units combined to allow only 555 total yards, 278 for Tulsa and 277 for OSU. The Golden Hurricane defense totaled a whopping 15 tackles for 69 lost yards, had six quarterback sacks, caused two turnovers and held the nation's leading returning rusher Chuba Hubbard to his first sub-100-yard rushing game in his last 12 contests.

The Hurricane limited Hubbard to 93 yards and a 3.4 average per carry and held OSU as a team to just 139 on the ground and 138 passing.

Tulsa's Kendarin Ray had 11 tackles, all solos, to lead the Hurricane, while linebackers Zaven Collins and Grant Sawyer were menaces for the OSU offense. Collins totaled 4 TFLs for -24 yards, including 3 sacks for -16 yards. Sawyer came off the bench and tallied 3.5 TFLs among his seven tackles.

"OSU just has so many weapons offensively. I thought for the most part, as a defense, we did a great job of running to the football, tackling and eliminating some of those explosive plays. I'm very, very proud of their effort.

For Tulsa's offense, newcomer Deneric Prince gained 82 yards on 13 carries for a 6.3 average. Prince carried the biggest load of Tulsa's 31 carries. He received the start in place of Shamari Brooks who missed the game with a knee injury that will sideline him for the remainder of the season.

Zach Smith completed 18-of-28 passes for 166 yards and connected with Josh Johnson for one touchdown. Johnson ended the game with 63 yards on 5 grabs, while Keylon Stokes added 55 yards on 4 catches.

Josh Johnson grabs TD — Josh Johnson hauls in a 16-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter.

"Offensively we have some work to do. We hurt ourselves with too many unforced penalties. We had too many penalties as a team today. Some of that is first game nerves that we have to get corrected. We are going to learn a lot off of this tape," added Montgomery. "At times we made big plays and had explosive runs. We just did not put things away when we had opportunities."

OSU threatened in the 3^rd stanza getting to the Tulsa 29-yard line when Allie Green intercepted an Ethan Bullock pass.

Trailing 7-3 at the start of the 4^th quarter, the Cowboys used a 3-yard Hubbard run on the first play of the period to take a 10-7 advantage, capping a 6-play, 81-yard drive that took only 2:06 off the clock. The drive was engineered by OSU true freshman quarterback Shane Illingworth on his first collegiate series.

Tulsa put together a 67-yard, 11-play drive of its own marching to the OSU 3-yard line before a false start penalty on 3^rd and goal moved the Hurricane back to thee 8-yard line. Tulsa had to rely on a 26-yard field goal attempt that went wide left.

The Cowboys added two field goals on its next two possessions in the final 4:27 for the win.

On the first possession of the game, OSU marched 77 yards in 18 plays, but the Hurricane defense stiffened inside the 20-yard line and stopped the Cowboys at the 10 for a 27-yard field goal.

After that opening 74-yard drive, the Hurricane defense held OSU to just 17 total yards the remainder of the first half.

Tulsa took its 7-3 lead on a 3-play, 56-yard drive that took just 0:56 off the clock in the second quarter as the Smith found Josh Johnson in the front corner of the end zone for 16 yards. The drive was set up by Smith's 41-yard toss to Keylon Stokes advancing to the OSU 15-yard line with just 1:38 left in the first half.

In the first period, Tulsa gained 154 yards on 33 plays and the Cowboys had 94 yards also on 33 plays. Tulsa's defense totaled 8 tackles for lost yardage and had a fumble recovery from Cristian Williams at the intermission.

In the first 30 minutes, Tulsa's Smith completed 11-of-15 passes for 106 yards, while Stokes had 2 receptions for 41 yards. Tulsa rushed for 48 first-half yards and OSU totaled 68 on the ground and 26 through the air.

Tulsa will be on the road again next Saturday when the Hurricane travels to face the 1-1 Arkansas State Red Wolves in Jonesboro, Ark. The game will kick-off at 2:30 p.m. and aired on ESPN2.