The hype around Oklahoma State quarterback Drew Mestemaker has been immense this offseason. The edge came off that hype on Saturday.
The Cowboys lost to the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, 24-10, in the season opener for both teams. Mestemaker has been seen as a difference maker all offseason, a quarterback better than any of the signal-callers Oklahoma State (0-1) had a year ago.
Like most of the Cowboys , he had a rough game. But it was magnified for Mestemaker because of the expectations of playing the game's most important positions and a fan base craving an end to its 11-game losing streak.
Well, now it's 12 games, including 21 straight against FBS opponents, the latter of which is the longest current streak in FBS.
"That was honestly embarrassing," Mestemaker said to reporters, including Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman .
The redshirt sophomore finished 29-of-49 for 241 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. One of those interceptions was a last-ditch effort to try and cut the Tulsa lead to one touchdown as he tried to connect with a receiver in the end zone only to have it picked off by Golden Hurricane safety Zach Williams. As he was for much of the game, Mestemaker was under pressure.
The offensive line in front of him had a rough game. It lost left tackle Jacob Sexton in the first quarter to a lower leg injury. That forced head coach Eric Morris and his staff to shuffle a couple of players around, including moving backup right tackle Shaun Torgeson to left tackle.
He was only sacked twice on Saturday. But he was consistently pressured and the Golden Hurricane didn't need to blitz often to create pressure. Tulsa handled a brand-new offensive line with four down lineman and the occasional extra rusher.
The Cowboys were only 2-for-4 in the red zone, including the first drive of the game in which Oklahoma State failed to score from inside the 5-yard line. OSU was awful on both third down (5-of-16) and on fourth down (2-of-6), something Morris referenced after the game but pinned more on his play calling than execution.
But execution had something to do with it. The offense was out of sync the entire afternoon and Mestemaker was at a loss to explain why.
"Yeah, it sucked honestly," he said. "You know that wasn't our brand of football that we play and everyone knows that. So, it sucked, not getting rolling."
For a team with buzz going into the opener, the loss was a healthy dose of reality - for Mestemaker, for Morris and the rest of the roster.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/oklahomastate as Oklahoma State's Drew Mestemaker on Tulsa Loss: 'That Was Honestly Embarrassing' .
