STILLWATER, Okla. — Oh let us count the times this game had us fooled.
Like when thousands fled Boone Pickens Stadium at halftime, convinced the 17-point deficit looked too daunting. Or that time Oklahoma State faced third-and-20 with its comeback hanging by a thread. Or the moment when Will Grier rebooted his Horns-Down keeper and put West Virginia up 10 in the fourth quarter.
On each occasion, the Mountaineers wielded the leverage of a day and a season. It was just a matter of finishing.
But like elections in Broward County, Big 12 outcomes are never finalized at first blush.
West Virginia needed only to finish off a .500 team that was missing its best running back, its No. 1 tight end and its starting center. As road obstacles go, that’s not too much to ask from a championship-caliber group.
Instead, the Mountaineers choked on a 6-foot-6 Corndog.
Taylor Cornelius won’t be remembered among OSU’s celebrated greats, but on Senior Day of an otherwise lamentable season, he momentarily climbed into their realm.
Five touchdown passes, including the go-ahead strike to Tylan Wallace with 42 seconds left. Just as important was his rushing touchdown with 4:47 remaining, a third-down option keeper on which Cornelius dodged one defender and lumbered through two more.
Call him “The Stillwater Statue” if you must, but West Virginia’s defense — alleged to be the fastest Tony Gibson has ever fielded — couldn’t gain ground on him in crucial situations. The big guy proved too savvy with his tuck-it timing, and OSU’s four-receiver sets spread the defense too thin.
Cornelius ran for 106 yards (three times his season average), and the man’s mojo spread throughout a team we wrongly presumed to be catatonic after losing at Oklahoma. And the Cowboys sure looked out of sorts when they fell behind 31-14 at the half.
“A team can get in the situation and think ‘Here we go again,’ and not come through,” OSU offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich said. “But our guys punched through. They broke through the glass.”
With No. 2 running back Chuba Hubbard cranking up, Wallace being Wallace, and Dillon Stoner evolving into a nemesis, Oklahoma State became unstoppable. Four touchdowns and a field goal on six possessions in the second half.
West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen — already burned on a fourth-down gamble inside the OSU 5-yard line — could only pray that his offense could retaliate, because the defense had become a leaky, obliterated mess.
Gibson confided this to me after the game.
“I knew we were on the ropes, that we were struggling,” he said. “So yeah, Dana and I were communicating on the headsets. I was all for those fourth-down tries. Go for it and try to score some points.”
The desperation turned so palpable that Holgorsen, leading by three points inside the 3-minute mark, kept his offense on the field for a fourth-and-6 try in his own territory. We’ll never know the result of that decision because David Sills false-started, and Holgorsen couldn’t summon the nerve to try a fourth-and-11.
“It’s disappointing that we had a chance to close them out and we didn’t,” Holgorsen said.
The only door closed to West Virginia now is the College Football Playoff. A berth in the Big 12 title game remains achievable, though it demands beating Oklahoma next Friday.
Of course, in six tries as Big 12 members, the Mountaineers have never punched through the Sooners’ glass. But as this weekend’s painful lesson at Boone Pickens proved, breakthroughs can blind-side you.
