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Thursday night was supposed to be a time for OSU fans to honor the outgoing seniors in their final home game.
Instead, they found themselves holding their breath over one senior’s absence.
Senior quarterback Zac Robinson did not play in Oklahoma State’s 31-28 victory against Colorado (3-8, 2-5 Big 12) on Thursday, and the effect was painfully obvious for much of the game.
“His head is clear somewhat, and he’s got a sore shoulder,” coach Mike Gundy said. “It was a combination of both of those. It just wasn’t the time to put him out there to play.
“Could he have been 80 percent? 75 percent? Not (Thursday night).”
Junior Alex Cate got to start in Robinson’s place for the Cowboys (9-2, 6-1) and failed to produce a completion in the first half.
He went 0-for-9 with one interception and got pulled at halftime in favor of sophomore Brandon Weeden who played the entire second half and finished 10-of-15 for 168 yards passing and two touchdowns.
“At halftime we felt like we needed a spark, so we made the change and put Brandon in,” Gundy said. “He made some nice plays for us and put us in position and gave us a chance to win the game.”
Although Weeden had not seen significant playing time against a conference opponent, he did not take very long to connect on a pass.
On his fourth play, he dumped off a short pass to running back Kendall Hunter for a gain of eight.
Weeden said it didn’t take him long to get used to the pressure and the importance of the situation.
“I’m more of a game- type player,” he said. “It’s just more fun. You get there and everything happens so fast and you just try to stay in the flow of things, and I feel like I did a pretty good job of that tonight.”
Something clicked for Weeden with just less than six minutes to go in the third quarter.
He completed three straight passes for 33 yards, opening up the field for Keith Toston to break a 45-yard touchdown run to put OSU up 21-17.
The Buffaloes took the ensuing kickoff back 98 yards for a touchdown — their longest kick return in more than a decade.
But Weeden returned and commanded another scoring drive, taking the Cowboys 73 yards and capping it with a 28-yard touchdown to Justin Blackmon.
“When I let it go, I actually thought it was going to float out of bounds,” Weeden said. “Blackmon’s one of those players who makes plays when the ball is in his area and he did that tonight.”
It turned out to be the game-winning touchdown because the Cowboy defense pulled off two straight stops to seal the contest.
Gundy said he was proud of the determination his team showed overcoming its early adversity.
“It was really a good team effort,” he said. “We showed a lot of heart tonight coming back; obviously the first half wasn’t very good.”
OSU’s running backs produced mixed results on a day they were heavily relied on.
Keith Toston ran for 172 yards and two touchdowns, becoming the third Cowboy in three years to surpass 1,000 yards in a season.
But each of the Cowboys’ running backs that played (Toston, Kendall Hunter and Beau Johnson) had a fumble in the game.
Offensive coordinator Gunter Brewer said he was happy with Toston’s performance, but said the turnovers must be fixed if OSU wants to become a BCS-caliber team.
“We can run the ball, which we proved on the stat sheet,” Brewer said. “We just didn’t plan on running it and dropping it.”
Gundy said after the game that Robinson will likely begin taking reps in practice again and be ready to go for Bedlam.
“This staff does a great job with the testing. They put these young men through once they have had a blow to the head, and it’s gotten considerably better every day,” he said. “He’s got a sore shoulder from the hit he took and his range of motion gets better and better.
“I would expect when we work out Monday for him to be out there practicing and throwing the ball around.”
He said that despite the adversity, his team is continuing down the right track.
“Every week there’s a challenge,” Gundy said. “But these guys stand up and they fight through it, and I’m just really proud of them for what they are able to accomplish.”
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