Oklahoma State Survives Again, Thinking 'Why Not Us' in Wild Big 12

It was a Saturday filled with survival all throughout the Top 25.

But for Oklahoma State, that's business as usual.

The No. 21 Cowboys improved to 6-0 on the season Saturday night with a 33-26 overtime win at West Virginia, which rallied from a 17-2 halftime deficit.

It was the third straight one-possession victory for Oklahoma State, which took advantage of a special-teams blunder by Texas two weeks ago and hit a late field goal to beat Kansas State last weekend.

But after blowing a second-half lead in a hostile environment, Oklahoma State didn't completely lose its composure and took care of business in overtime.

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"I was really proud of our team for coming back late," head coach Mike Gundy told ESPN after the game. "We didn't do much in the second half. Then we got into overtime and regrouped. Our offensive coaches came up with a good plan, and we were able to get a big stop at the end from our defense."

Part of that offensive plan was to use backup quarterback J.W. Walsh on a 4th-and-1 situation in overtime. If the Cowboys couldn't convert, West Virginia was an easy field goal away from a victory.

While Kansas State settled for a kick in a similar situation in the fourth quarter of its game against TCU, Oklahoma State put Walsh and the rest of the offense on the field.

It paid off. Walsh plunged into the end zone for a 2-yard score, which turned out to be the game-winning points.

"I felt like we had been good with J.W. in that package," Gundy said. "He's been a really effective player for us. We have a lot of faith in him, and we want to put the ball in his hands."

The Oklahoma State defense, which allowed 296 yards and 24 points to the Mountaineers in the second half, drilled West Virginia running back Rushel Shell in the backfield for a 7-yard loss on 3rd-and-goal.

The next pass fell incomplete for another survive-and-advance victory.

Oklahoma State is still undefeated—something rival Oklahoma can't say about itself after Week 6's mayhem.

With the Sooners falling to Texas in the Cotton Bowl on Saturday, Oklahoma State now stands as the No. 3 team in the Big 12 behind TCU and Baylor.

And although the Cowboys might be the least impressive of the undefeated Power Five teams in college football at this point in the season, they can still boast in the fact they have a zero in the loss column at the halfway point in 2015.

Oklahoma State's second half was far from convincing as the Mountaineers forced four punts and two interceptions from starting quarterback Mason Rudolph.

Jared Wickerham/Getty Images

To make matters worse, the Cowboys couldn't work the clock and keep the WVU offense off the field due to a lack of production in the ground game. Running backs Rennie Childs and Chris Carson combined for just 55 yards on 24 carries.

Rudolph, who surprisingly finished the game as Oklahoma State's leading rusher, completed 8 of 21 attempts in the second half for 93 yards. 

"Well, we're not a good enough running football team," Gundy said. "We have to come up with a way to rush the football. In order to win and have success moving forward, we've got to rush the football better than we did and just keep working."

While Oklahoma State clearly has issues to fix—ball control, rushing effectiveness and defensive consistency—it still could be a dangerous team in a crazy Big 12 race this season.

After taking a breather in Week 7, the Cowboys will host the worst Power Five team in the country in Kansas. The week after that, Oklahoma State travels to a Texas Tech team that is looking to spoil someone's undefeated season after back-to-back misses against TCU and Baylor.

If Oklahoma State can stay strong out of the bye week and pass those two challenges, it will be 8-0 heading into a brutal month of November.

Remember, the Cowboys have an advantage over the three other top guns in the Big 12. TCU, Baylor and Oklahoma all have to come to Stillwater.

Forget ruining a title chase. Oklahoma State could keep plugging away and find itself in the middle of one.

"

If #okstate beats Kansas at home in two weeks, it will have reached Halloween undefeated for the third time ever (2011, 1945).

— Pistols Firing (@pistolsguy) October 11, 2015"

After all, who has more experience at grinding out victories in a 2015 season that has featured so many close calls and upset losses for ranked teams?

"I'm really proud of our kids," Gundy said. "This is not an easy place to play... This is the way college football is. Each week's going to be a battle."

The Cowboys have shown flashes of being a dangerous and complete football team this season. The question now is if they can put it all together in order to knock off teams such as TCU, Baylor and Oklahoma.

And if things go down to the wire, it'll be hard to count Gundy's Cowboys out. They've shown a resolve that few teams have in this wild college football season. 

Game statistics courtesy of StatBroadcast. Unless otherwise noted, other statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com.

Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.