The difficulties for Oklahoma State endured Saturday in Stillwater, Okla. when the Houston Cougars defeated the Cowboys 39-17 in Big 12 play.
Conner Weigman led the Houston win with (5-1, 2-1 Big 12) two passing touchdowns on 306 passing yards and a three-yard rushing touchdown. The junior quarterback connected with Amare Thomas for 157 of those yards, including a 43-yard reception in the third quarter.
Houston scored on seven of their 10 drives and one of those drives only ended because of the expiration of the first half clock.
When Weigman was not finding his receivers, running back Dean Connors led the ground attack with 83 yards to go along with a rushing and receiving touchdown.
In the second quarter, Connors receiving touchdown came on a quarterback draw fake and Weigman threw the ball up to the running back who made a one-handed circus catch that ended up being the game-winning touchdown with 5:39 left in the first half.
For Oklahoma State (1-5, 0-3), they went with Sam Jackson V at quarterback, the former TCU Horned Frog who switched to wide receiver over the last two seasons before transferring to Oklahoma State. Jackson threw for 84 yards on 7-of-16 passing and one interception.
The loss was made worse by a late injury to cornerback Jaylin Davies who went down on a tackle with 8:37 remaining in the fourth quarter. The senior transfer from UCLA left the game on a medical cart.
The Cowboys’ first touchdown in the defeat came on the first drive of the game on a trick play. Jackson passed to Shamar Rigby on what looked like a receiver screen. Standing behind blockers, Rigby threw the ball downfield to Rodney Fields Jr. who ran 63 yards alone for the touchdown.
Weigman then answered with his rushing touchdown just 4:50 later to knot the game at seven-all. After field goals by both teams and Connor’s circus catch, Weigman led a 63-yard drive in just 64 seconds, capping it off by hitting Harvey Broussard II from 14 yards out. This pushed Hosuton’s lead to 24-10 with 3:20 left in the first half.
Three more field goals from Houston’s Ethan Sanchez and Connor’s rushing touchdown from 2 yards out extended the Cougars lead 36-10 with 7:43 left in the game.
With the game firmly out of the Cowboys’ hands, junior quarterback Noah Walters entered the game and gave Oklahoma State its most cohesive drive of the day with a nine-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a 33-yard touchdown pass to Gavin Freeman with 3:55 left.
