No Words
He couldn't find the words.
Oklahoma State quarterback J.W. Walsh sat in a ring of reporters and cameras, politely answering every question to the best of his ability, but he couldn't convey what he was feeling.
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Walsh had just finished his first collegiate start, and performed strongly. He completed 18 of his 27 attempted pass for 301 yards, two touchdowns and a first-quarter interception.
"You move forward," he said softly when asked what he was thinking. "When we're playing, we move on to the next play. Right now, we move on to the next game."
Oklahoma State (2-2) took a tough blow from conference foe Texas on Saturday night.
56,709 screaming Cowboy fans packed Boone Pickens Stadium, but in the end it just wasn't enough as UT coach Mack Brown and his Longhorns left Stillwater victorious.
In the fourth quarter, Oklahoma State took a 36-34 lead over the Horns, but Texas quarterback David Ash would answer by leading his team down the field to score a controversial touchdown with 29 seconds left.
The controversy came when UT running back Joe Bergeron appeared to lose control of the ball amidst the goal line pile-up, but the play was reviewed and the referees confirmed that Bergeron had indeed scored.
"All I know is what people told me," OSU coach Mike Gundy said. "I'm not commenting on officiating. All I know is one of my guys told me he got the ball out. Somebody took a look at it and obviously didn't think it was a fumble."
The fumble would have been huge, but it didn't work out in the Cowboys' favor. That seemed to be the trend of Saturday night, as the defense just couldn't find "the play" to swing momentum fully back in their direction.
They gave up a whopping 440 total yards to a slow-play style Texas offense, including 304 of them through the air to Texas quarterback David Ash.
No play was bigger than a play on the Longhorns' game-winning drive, when Ash threw a fade up the left sideline and Justin Gilbert turned to find it. It was reminiscent of the cornerback's interception in the 2011 Bedlam game, but this time he came up short, and Texas ripped off a huge gain from the catch.
"We feel good about them," defensive coordinator Bill Young said. "We're stinging right now, that one hurt, but at the same time we have to regroup and stick together, and that's exactly what our guys are doing."
Oklahoma State has a bye week this week, and will resume action when they visit Kansas on October 13th. A kickoff time has not yet been announced.