Oklahoma State at Kansas State football: Five takeaways from Cowboys' win against Wildcats

STILLWATER — Another week, another scoreless second half.

But more importantly for Oklahoma State, another victory.

The Cowboys held off Kansas State with a 31-20 victory on Saturday night at Boone Pickens Stadium.

Spencer Sanders had one of his more efficient efforts as the Cowboy quarterback, finishing with 344 passing yards and two touchdowns on 22-of-34 passing. The redshirt junior also rushed for 18 yards and a touchdown.

Here are four more takeaways from the Cowboys’ victory:

'First half was Cowboy football':Oklahoma State scores high marks for first-half offense, run defense

Tay Martin returns with 100-yard game

OSU got three receivers back on Saturday who had missed time because of injury. Tay Martin and Blaine Green — both of whom were expected to be the starting outside receivers when the season began — played on Saturday. 

Martin was targeted 12 times and caught nine passes for 100 yards and a touchdown in his first significant action in weeks. 

Martin played one game, plus two plays in the second game of the year before stepping aside with an ankle injury. Green had not played all season with an undisclosed injury. 

With tight ends Logan Carter and Quinton Stewart both out with injury, freshman offensive lineman Silas Barr changed to jersey No. 48 and moved to tight end, seeing spot action as an extra blocker.

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Over 200 yards for Warren again

OSU running back Jaylen Warren followed up his 218-yard rushing performance at Boise State a week ago with another triple-digit effort.

Warren rushed for 123 yards and added 81 yards for a total of 204 yards from scrimmage. In all, Warren had 31 total touches, with 27 rushing attempts and four receptions.

Warren briefly missed time in the third quarter with what appeared to be a cramping issue, but returned for the fourth quarter to help the Cowboys ice the game.

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Defense scores, swings momentum

It appeared that Kansas State had the big momentum-swinging play early in the game with Malik Knowles’ 99-yard kickoff return touchdown that gave the Wildcats a 10-7 lead.

But the OSU offense answered with a touchdown drive for a 14-10 advantage. After Knowles was stopped deep in K-State territory on the following kickoff, Wildcat quarterback Will Howard fumbled a shotgun snap, which squirted loose in the end zone. It was recovered by Malcolm Rodriguez for a touchdown and a 21-10 Cowboy lead.

Late in the second quarter, OSU safety Kolby Harvell-Peel had his second interception in as many weeks, turning away a K-State drive that had entered Cowboy territory.

After failing to record a turnover against Tulsa, the Pokes have two takeaways in each of the last two games. 

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Honoring Chester Pittman

The Cowboys found multiple ways to honor Chester Pittman, the first black player to letter in football at Oklahoma State. He broke the program’s color barrier in 1957 and helped OSU to its first Big Eight victory in 1960. He died late last year.

The Cowboys wore uniforms to match the color combination of the Pittman teams with white helmets, black jerseys and white pants. They had a No. 23 sticker — Pittman’s jersey number — on the back of the helmet with Pittman’s name and initials. 

During the walk to the stadium, OSU players wore gray hoodies with a white helmet and black No. 23 on the side in honor of Pittman as well. 

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