STEPHEN HAWKINS
AP Sports Writer
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy may have given his offense too much credit when he called it “just very average.”
The defense for the No. 15 Cowboys certainly didn’t help out giving up three long touchdown plays in a span of four snaps in the first quarter of a 42-9 loss at No. 12 TCU on Saturday.
“We just got our butts kicked. There’s really not anything else I can say,” Gundy said. “We gave up two big plays in the first quarter. Offensively, we couldn’t make plays. … We never could get out of a jam after we got behind.”
In the same week as Gundy’s less-than-flattering assessment, Oklahoma State (5-2, 3-1 Big 12) was outgained 676-258 and held without a touchdown for the first time since a 27-0 loss to Oklahoma in the 2009 regular-season finale.
The Cowboys had won five in a row since losing their opener 37-31 to defending national champion Florida State, but now have their most lopsided loss since 56-20 at Texas Tech in 2008.
Trevone Boykin threw for a career-high 410 yards, including catch-and-run TD plays of 77 and 84 yards by Josh Doctson in a 3-minute span in the first quarter to go ahead 21-3. The Frogs (5-1, 2-1) never trailed after B.J. Catalon spun away from a defender on a 34-yard scoring run for the first touchdown.
“The defense gave up too many big plays. You never want to do that,” cornerback Kevin Peterson said.
“It’s eye-opening,” linebacker Ryan Simmons said.
The Cowboys entered the game matched with No. 4 Baylor as the only teams that were 3-0 in the Big 12, but their wins had come against Iowa State, Kansas and Texas Tech — all 0-3 in the league going into Saturday. Baylor suffered its first loss overall, 41-27 at West Virginia, which will be in Stillwater, Oklahoma next week.
TCU bounced back emphatically from its wild 61-58 loss a week earlier at Baylor, when the Frogs blew a 21-point lead in the final 11 minutes.
“We knew that taste in the back of our mouth and in the locker room after the Baylor game,” Boykin said. “We basically made a promise to ourselves that we really don’t want that anymore. We just came out today and played for four quarters.”
Oklahoma State got inside the TCU 20 three times — all in the first half, and each time they had to kick field goals.
When Ben Grogan kicked a 28-yarder midway in the second quarter, the Cowboys were down 21-9.
“If we score a TD, it’s 21-13 and maybe we’re in a little better shape,” Gundy said. “But from that point on, we weren’t in the game, anyway.”
Down 35-9 after TCU opened the second half with another touchdown, the Cowboys had only 51 total yards on 18 plays after that. That included 0-of-6 passing by Daxx Garman, who finished 10-of-25 for 132 yards and two interceptions.
Doctson finished with seven catches for 225 yards, a yard short of TCU’s school record. B.J. Catalon had 10 rushes for 102 yards and two touchdowns.
Boykin hit Doctson in stride near the TCU 40 on a slant route on the first play after a punt. The receiver made the grab in front of freshman cornerback Ramon Richards and sprinted by him the final 60 yards for the 77-yard touchdown.
Garman had a 57-yard pass to Brandon Shepard to the TCU 12 before the Cowboys settled for Grogan’s 30-yard field goal.
Two plays after Grogan’s first field goal, Doctson got behind Richards and then outleaped safety Jordan Sterns for the catch. Doctson caught that pass about the same place as the previous one, again sprinting untouched to the end zone.
“Definitely a lot of tape for learning,” Peterson said. “We haven’t lost like this, we don’t know what it’s like, so we’ve just got to get everybody behind each other.”
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