OKLAHOMA STATE SURVIVES MISTAKE PRONE TEXAS A&M

In many ways, Texas A&M quarterback Jerrod Johnson was as good as advertised on Thursday night as he threw for 409 yards and five touchdowns against the Oklahoma State Cowboys.  The problem was the four interceptions he threw, and these miscues eventually cost his team a 38-35 decision in a wild shootout in Stillwater, Oklahoma.  His Oklahoma State counterpart Brandon Weeden also played well—but threw two interceptions and lost a fumble.  Still, his teammates were able to take advantage of Johnson’s errors and got a 40 yard field goal from Dan Bailey as time expired to lock up the win.

The Cowboys improved to 4-0 SU while the Aggies dropped to 3-1 on the season.  Oklahoma State barely managed to cover the pointspread as a -2’ point college football betting favorite and improved to 3-1 ATS on the season.  Texas A&M is now 2-2 against the number.  The 73 combined points went OVER the posted total of 66.  The Cowboys have gone OVER in all three of their lined games this season, while the Aggies evened their totals record at 2-2.

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy admitted that it was a sloppy game, but praised his team for taking advantage of the opportunities when they presented themselves:

"It was just a very emotional game that had a number of mistakes and we were able to capitalize on the last one."

Cowboys’ kicker Dan Bailey gave his defense credit for coming up big when necessary:

"It was a roller coaster for sure. I thought maybe they were going to get a game-winning attempt. But our defense stepped up and made a big play and we got a chance to win it."

Texas A&M’s Johnson took the loss hard and admitted that it was a ‘circled’ game on his team’s schedule:

"This is a tough loss. Going into the season I circled this game on my calendar as a kind of catalyst for the season. We talked about it as a team. It was an opportunity for us to show something on national television. We came out and competed, we fought hard, but at the same time we have to find a way to win these type of games."

Cowboys’ quarterback Weeden took a more Zen approach to the sloppy turnover fest:

"This game is not going to be perfect all the time. You can't run perfect plays every time. You're not going to make good decisions every time. You've just got to live with it, put it behind you and move on to the next play."

Oklahoma State will attempt to remain undefeated when they play at Louisiana-Lafayette next Friday night.  That game will be followed by a much bigger test on the road against Texas Tech.  Texas A&M will face a tricky non conference game a week from Saturday as they play on the road against SEC entrant Arkansas.  They’ll then return home for a game against conference foe Missouri on October 16.