Unbeaten path

Published Oct. 20, 2010 2:06 a.m. ET

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Related Stories: Guess who's undefeated for OSU-Nebraska clash OSU defense comes up big OSU: Report card OSU: How they scored OSU notebook: Blatnick serves as captain LUBBOCK, Texas - For the first time in 66 years, an Oklahoma State football team can savor a victory on Texas Tech's home turf. Strengthening his status as the most prolific pass-catcher in college football, Cowboy sophomore Justin Blackmon established a new career-high for receiving yards as 20th-ranked Oklahoma State rocked the Red Raiders 34-17 before a sold-out Jones AT&T Stadium crowd of 60,454. With a balanced performance that included 581 total yards offensively, 130 rushing yards from Kendall Hunter, 95 rushing yards from freshman Joseph Randle and a mostly excellent defensive afternoon, OSU ended an 11-game losing streak in Lubbock. The Cowboys had not won here since 1944. "I've been out here with good football teams and had my butt kicked," OSU coach Mike Gundy said. "To (say) that (the Lubbock drought) wasn't in the back of my mind - I wouldn't be shooting you straight.

We've been ahead 17-0 (at Texas Tech in 2006) and got beat." And for only the fourth time in school history, the Cowboys are 6-0. "A lot of people picked us sixth in the Big 12 South," OSU quarterback Brandon Weeden, who was 24-of-35 passing for 356 yards, reminded reporters while icing his elbow. Said OSU defensive tackle Chris Donaldson: "We've just got to keep working and get to 7-0 and 8-0 and 9-0 and 10-0." Reaching the 7-0 mark would require a win over fifth-ranked Nebraska. The Huskers, who lost 20-13 at home to Texas on Saturday, visit Stillwater next week for a 2:30 p.m., ABC-televised homecoming game. The national leader in receptions per game, receiving yards per game and touchdown catches, Blackmon had 10 catches for 207 yards on Saturday. His previous high of 190 yards was set last week at Louisiana-Lafayette. Blackmon scored one touchdown against Texas Tech. It was a big one - a 62-yard, catch-and-go play that gave OSU a 31-14 lead and resulted in a huge momentum swing. Moments earlier, the Red Raiders trailed 24-14 and had driven to the OSU 43-yard line. Cowboy defensive end Jamie Blatnick recovered a Baron Batch fumble that had been forced by safety Johnny Thomas. Two plays later, with 9:56 left in the third quarter, Weeden and Blackmon connected for the 62-yard score. Referring to the Blatnick fumble recovery and Blackmon TD, Gundy said, "Those plays took the wind out of (the Red Raiders') sails ... and neutralized their crowd." While the Cowboys improved to 2-0 (and share the South lead with Oklahoma), Texas Tech slumped to 3-3 overall, 1-3 in the conference. "When you can't stop either run or pass, it gets you in a tough situation," first-year Red Raider coach Tommy Tuberville said. The Cowboys rushed for 225 yards on 48 attempts. "Early in the game, the running game was (effective)," said Hunter, who has a six-game total of 830 rushing yards. "There wasn't any reason to get away from it." After OSU rolled to a 21-0, first-quarter cushion on touchdown runs by Hunter, Randle and Jeremy Smith, the Red Raiders answered with a pair of second-period scores - a 1-yard run by Batch and Taylor Potts' 28-yard pass to Cornelius Douglas. After halftime, the Red Raiders could manage only a Matt Williams field goal. Quarterback Taylor Potts, who passed for 226 yards, took a shot to the jaw and was taken to a hospital for postgame X-rays. Despite a 581-yard production, the Cowboys squandered scoring chances because of penalties and two Weeden interceptions. But nearly every time OSU needed something significant, the defense provided it. During the first period, the Cowboy defenders limited Tech to 38 total yards and forced five punts. Donaldson was a tone-setter with an early sack and a pass knock-down. And with 8:46 left to play, on fourth-and-1 from the OSU 4-yard line, Cowboy middle linebacker Orie Lemon stuffed Eric Stephens for no gain. Bill Young was asked whether Saturday's first quarter might have been OSU's best defensive quarter in 19 games since he became the coordinator. "No question," he replied. "The kids were really playing fast. We talked all week about the importance of being fast starters." Slide Show object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="443" height="350" id="soundslider"param name="movie" value="http://www.tulsaworld.com/webextra/content/2010/slideshows/OSU_TTU/soundslider.swf?size=2&format=xml&embed_width=443&embed_height=350" /param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /param name="quality" value="high" /param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /param name="menu" value="false" /param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" /embed src="http://www.tulsaworld.com/webextra/content/2010/slideshows/OSU_TTU/soundslider.swf?size=2&format=xml&embed_width=443&embed_height=350" quality="high" bgcolor="#000000" width="443" height="350" menu="false" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" allowFullScreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/embed/object Here is an explanation of the buttons on the player above. Play slide show with sound Next image / play slide show without sound Previous image Expand the slide show to full screen To see each slide To see all of the Tulsa World slide shows, go to tulsaworld.com/photos. Oklahoma State 34, Texas Tech 17 UP NEXT: Vs. Nebraska 2:30 p.m. Saturday TV: KTUL-8 Radio: KFAQ am1170, KRVT am1270 Bill Haisten 581-8397 bill.haisten@tulsaworld.com SUBHEAD: Blackmon sets record as OSU ends Lubbock skid, hits 6-0