CFB Blitz Week 2: Cowboys' stunner headlines early takeaways

The weekly CFB Blitz is the spot to catch up on the most important developments from the day's action and examine their significance moving forward.

What a difference a year makes

Just 371 days ago, Oregon walked off the field at Autzen Stadium having lit up the scoreboard with a 69-3 beatdown of Oklahoma State. The embarrassing loss essentially ended Mike Gundy's lengthy tenure with the program and showed the massive gap between the two programs in today's college football. Fast forward a year, and we can safely say Eric Morris and Drew Mestemaker are a tandem worth 74 points.

The Cowboys' stunning win over the Ducks isn't the biggest point-spread upset of the college football season - congratulations to Rutgers on its Week 1 setback to UMass for that - but it's without question the most shocking. Oklahoma State hadn't won an FBS contest in two years and just lost to Tulsa last week. Meanwhile, Oregon had won 41 straight against unranked teams and had previously lost its last five games against programs that went on to win the national title that year.

The Ducks also entered among the favorites for the national championship this season with an NFL-bound quarterback leading the offense. Turns out, Oklahoma State has one of those two things, as the competition between Dante Moore and Mestemaker wasn't even close. Mestemaker put up 426 yards of total offense - 145 more than the entire Oregon team - and made play after play to keep Oklahoma State in front.

Morris, Mestemaker, and the influx of North Texas transfers that came to Oklahoma State have immediately injected life into the program. That seemed almost fully extinguished after last week's loss to Tulsa. However, Boone Pickens Stadium is rocking once again, and it looks like the Cowboys will be serious threats in the Big 12.

Oregon misses its coordinators

Lanning is without question one of the top coaches in college football, but it appears even he can't immediately overcome the loss of both coordinators. With Will Stein coaching Kentucky and Tosh Lupoi running Cal, Lanning promoted both offensive and defensive coordinators from within. Through two weeks, it's safe to say it hasn't worked. Oregon escaped against Boise State despite being outplayed for a large portion of the game, but it couldn't save itself Saturday.

The Ducks' offense looked out of sync time and again, with penalties, drops, and missed blocking assignments popping up all over the place. Moore has an NFL arm, but he completed just 14-of-29 passes for 191 yards in the loss. Oregon's running game was also barely alive, finishing with 90 yards on 30 carries. The defense supplied two interceptions - including one for a pick-6 - but posted zero sacks and just one tackle-for-loss. All the talk of the nation's best defensive line residing in Eugene can officially be put to bed after that stat line.

"It wasn't close in a lot of ways," Lanning said afterwards, according to Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian. "We got our ass kicked in a lot of areas."

Oregon will improve as the roster gets more reps under the new coaching staff, but we've seen enough bad football this season to admit the coordinator losses have hurt more than we expected.

Michigan and Oklahoma are the same team

Fire up the famous pointing Spider-Man meme because Michigan and Oklahoma showed us Saturday that they're essentially the same team. Both have elite defenses, and their quarterbacks have proven they can't be trusted to throw against top competition. The difference is that Michigan knows it, while the Sooners don't - and that's the reason the Wolverines won.

Kyle Whittingham's lukewarm endorsement of Bryce Underwood as Michigan's QB1 this week led to a change in the offense's game plan, with coordinator Jason Beck running the sophomore and running him often. Notably, Whittingham and Beck utilized quarterback Devon Dampier as a runner last year to help Utah lead the nation in rushing. Underwood showed a lot of promise with the ball in his hands Saturday, finishing with 87 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown. The game plan also kept him to just 17 passing attempts, a safe approach given his accuracy issues.

Oklahoma took the opposite approach, with John Mateer attempting 33 throws and completing only 17. Outside of a 43-yard completion to Rocky Beers, Mateer threw for just 146 total yards at a minuscule 4.5 yards per attempt. Even his most explosive play - a 22-yard TD pass - was largely made possible by a terrible Michigan coverage bust. However, Mateer's most consequential miscue was an interception, with Jyaire Hill setting up the eventual game-winning touchdown with the pick.

Mateer's struggles with Oklahoma last season were widely attributed to his thumb injury, which he should be commended for playing through. On Saturday, he sailed pass after pass despite being healthy.

Michigan's gotta clean it up

The Wolverines' first home win over an SEC opponent since 2008 should be celebrated and should help them build momentum for the Big Ten portion of their schedule. But Michigan still has plenty to clean up. Whittingham was supposed to be the adult in the room who brought discipline to the program. Although that may be true off the field, the Wolverines' on-field performance has been reckless at times. With 11 more penalties for 90 yards against Oklahoma, the flag count is reaching historic levels.

Two massive unsportsmanlike conduct penalties helped Oklahoma sustain drives in the second half, with one hit after the whistle and one facemask penalty moving the ball for the Sooners. The Wolverines got away with it Saturday, but that won't be the case every week.

15 minutes of fury delivers win for Texas A&M

If you missed the Texas A&M-Arizona State contest and just checked the final score, you'd think it was a comfortable 48-20 win for the Aggies with no stress throughout. However, it was a four-point game heading into the fourth quarter before the A&M closers arrived.

The final 15 minutes were a tour de force by the Aggies, as they recorded a turnover on all four Sun Devils' possessions, including picking Cutter Boley off twice. Three of those turnovers came within a six-play span for the visitors - and that's how a four-point game ends up a 28-point blowout despite Arizona State outgaining Texas A&M by over 100 yards.

An opportunistic defense is a luxury, but the Aggies need to sort out the ground game heading into SEC play. A 2.6-yard-per-carry average against Arizona State is concerning for a team that wants to run the ball as often as Texas A&M.