Ok. St.'s Final Possession Was Alternatingly Electric And Maddening

For three quarters, the Cotton Bowl was a defensive game. In the fourth quarter, both offensives exploded and began trading touchdowns. The fire inside Gus Johnson that had been contained all night, was slowly rising for what we surely all knew was going to happen. Missouri took a 34-31 lead with three minutes left and it seemed a certainty that Oklahoma State would at least tie, if not take the lead outright in dramatic fashion. OSU started eating up chunks of yardage and then—bam—Missouri won 41-31. The Law of Gus.

The Cowboys started on their own 25 and quickly found themselves with fourth-and-long with two minutes to go, still inside their own 30-yard line. Then, a huge conversion to midfield. Then, some more early-down screwing around until what looked to be a long strike on third down, to put them inside field goal range. This is exciting! But it was overturned as incomplete on review.

No matter, Clint Chelf took off on the next play to the Mizzou 26; OSU was in field goal range with a minute and a half left to go. They took a shot into the endzone to no avail and just had to not screw up on third down. At the very least, we're going to overtime.

Yeah. Chelf was strip-sacked on a play action drop back—maybe Gundy felt he needed to pick up some more yardage to safely get the field goal—and Mizzou scooped up the ball and (very, very slowly) returned it for a touchdown. Game over.

This is the argument against just picking whatever team is losing and pulling for them in a late, close game in which you have nothing personally invested. The best way to watch a game like that is to hope for unadulterated chaos, not chaos to reach a specific end. If you were pulling for the Okies there, you saw the strip sack happen in slow motion and, like the broadcast, you were left momentarily speechless. It was still a thrilling finish but it tripped you up because it didn't end according to the plan.

[FOX]