Bowl season can be tricky in that bad games on paper can end up being great on the field and interesting match-ups turn into blowouts.
Then there was the Heart of Dallas Bowl between Oklahoma State and Purdue.
If you had a million confidence points on your Oklahoma State pick, congratulations. The Cowboys showed they were a little a lot a heck of a lot better than their 7-5 record indicated -- also, Purdue was a mess -- and took it to the Boilermakers, 58-14.
Oklahoma State moved the ball just fine, but a mix of turnovers and failed conversions from Purdue allowed the Cowboys to work with a short field for much of the game and jump out to an early lead. Oklahoma State had three touchdown drives under 30 yards and a fourth from 55 yards away, but when Mike Gundy‘s team had to drive the length of the field, it didn’t have any trouble either.
Gundy also showed zero mercy for the coachless Boilermakers -- Purdue fired Danny Hope this year and hired Kent State’s Darrell Hazell -- by running trick plays and throwing it deep long after the game was decided. Was he expressing his displeasure in his program’s bowl destination, or is Gundy sincerely a heartless snake that doesn’t give a single damn? It’s tough to tell, but I may or may not have enjoyed watching it happen because I have issues.
To Purdue’s credit, the Boilermakers converted not one, but two fake punts today. In the process, they won our hearts (of Dallas) and proved it doesn’t matter what the scoreboard says when you have Texas-sized cojones. Or whatever it is that possesses one to attempt multiple fake punts.