How Legit is This Oklahoma State Football Team?

The Oklahoma State Cowboys have made a miraculous turnaround this season. When they suffered a 33-7 home loss to South Alabama in Week 3, people were calling for Mike Gundy and his coordinator's jobs. 

A few weeks later, these guys are thriving in their roles, and all three facets of the Cowboys game seem to be in a good place or rapidly improving. The offense has found life while playing through Ollie Gordon, who has been incredible this season. 

Defensively, the Pokes had struggles tackling early in the season. This, along with a few blown coverages, had the defense looking quite poor in the early stages of the season. Even with this, the defense showed promise. Now, things are coming together. Against Kansas, the Cowboys missed just three tackles, and the coverage is much, much improved over recent weeks.

Is the Cowboys' season turnaround real, though?

Looking at the win, beating both Kansas State and Kansas was impressive. The Wildcats won the conference championship game a year ago, and they still had the make and mold of a very solid team while coming into the season ranked. The Jayhawks, though without Jalon Daniels, are still a tough matchup and were ranked No. 23 at the time of Oklahoma State defeating them. 

The wins were impressive, but given the fact of early signs showing early of a stifling defense, and applying a full-time quarterback while handing Ollie Gordon the ball, this Cowboys team looks like the team they should've been coming into this season.

Even if narrowly missing out on a conference championship appearance, building on this season could be huge as the Big 12 gets a fresh look next season, and progressing from this year to next will be huge as there will be a big opportunity available. 

With the Pokes' remaining schedule, it seems that they're on their way to bowl eligibility, and they could reasonably take care of every remaining game and will only be underdogs to West Virginia and Oklahoma. 

This Oklahoma State team feels legit and even the loss to Iowa State looks much, much better as the season rolls on. 

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