Mike Gundy Wraps Up Tulsa: Run Game on Offense, Run Stop on Defense
STILLWATER – The week or weeks (when their is a bye week on the schedule) between the end of non conference is a time where everybody takes stock in their team. Believe me, the coaching staff and players rode home from Tulsa feeling really good about a lot of things with this football team. They also rode back to Stillwater with some concerns knowing that a stout Utah team will be rolling into Stillwater this weekend for the Big 12 opener. It is a 3 p.m. game with FOX blasting the game nationally.
During his weekly news conference, head coach Mike Gundy addressed both the Utah game coming up and his thoughts on the Tulsa win in the rearview mirror.
The win over Tulsa represented a much better overall game than the week before in the 39-31 double overtime win over Arkansas. Now, it should because Tulsa doesn’t have the personnel near that the Razorbacks do. By my count, Tulsa has a handful of players that could potentially make the Arkansas two-deep. They have maybe two players that would be starters for Sam Pittman’s team in Fayetteville. One for sure, is at a position where Arkansas is already loaded and that is wide receiver Kam Benjamin.
You expected Oklahoma State to win at Tulsa with gusto. You expected Ollie Gordon to get untracked running the football at Tulsa. Gundy was asked about the lack of a running attack against Tulsa. I watched the game on coaches video. I counted four plays where the box count was either even or plus one for the Tulsa defense vs. the Cowboys offense. Hard to run there.
“We were pretty average, obviously, when they had an extra man. There was even times there were two extra people in the box,” Gundy said.
The first three games, all three opponents have played primarily with a heavy box. Gundy was asked about Ollie Gordon; the offensive line, which has not allowed a sack; the tight ends and fullbacks all combined. What could they do against an even or plus one box?
“I think we blocked it fine. You could go back in the game we just played, there was four times we rushed into an equal box,” Gundy started the answer. “I think we had 12 yards, 7 yards and 9 yards. And one of the plays, the wideout blocked the wrong guy or we would have had more yards. So, we actually blocked better in this game up front than we have. It’s just difficult when there’s an extra guy up there. Forces whoever’s got the ball to run through somebody.”
Watching the tape, I can tell you the fourth and one play was blown up when the middle linebacker did not get picked up on a blitz. There was a miss by the tight end on a counter that could have hit big but instead was ended in the backfield. in fact, Tulsa stemmed (shifted) a lot on defense and that created changes for blocking targets. The linemen picked up on these, but the tight ends, fullbacks, and at least once a wide receiver missed on those. There were few plays where a lineman for Tulsa was not blocked. It was the extra man or two that ended most of the plays, most of them inside or outside zone.
The passing game was clean, no sacks, and a high precentage of open receivers making catches. Bowman did have one interception where he tried to squeeze a ball in but the window was closed.
I agree, if you are good enough then an offense should be able to run the football even when everybody in the stadium knows that is what they are going to do. There are multiple ways to get that done. Oklahoma State did have a play in the run game where they completely caught Tulsa off guard. Back-up quarterback Garrett Rangel fillped the ball out to Sesi Vailahi on a fourth and goal at the one after everybody else in the offense went right, Vailahi on the counter pitch went left. Some old-fashioned Cowboy deception. Gundy even said he believes they can expand off that.
A very good offense day, but still the lack of a run game that everybody was hoping to see and still hopes to see with Ollie Gordon II this season.