Originally published at: https://pistolsfiringblog.com/10-thoughts-on-oklahoma-states-49-21-loss-to-texas-in-the-big-12-title-game/
On the blowout and the future.
Nowhere in the top 10 do you mention the abysmal play calling and coaching failures. Not even the joke of running up the middle on 3rd and 8.
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Good job Marshall. I think you summed it up nicely. We expected a tough year, had a tough year, still beat OU and still went to the B12 title game against a possible National Champion.
Now with the portal, who knows what next year holds. No team does, and thatās not the way it should be.
Which bowl pays the most? Cotton, Poptart, Alamo, and Texas bowl in that order would be my guess. I like most money and toughest opponent for my choice.
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Dunn is in his fourth year, and guess what? He still sucks!!! He needs to be fired. If youāre a top 15 paid OC you need to be giving me at least top 25 results. Dunn hasnāt had a team so far thatās been above 49th in total offense.
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Backfoot is an average QB. The lesson learned here is you NEVER make a 3rd string QB your starter. Rangel is better. However, for the sake of Gundy not wanting to be wrong heāll remain on the bench, and eventually, the transfer portal.
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I think Nardo is in way over his head. In Knowles first season as DC we were 97th in total defense. Currently, weāre 112th (second worst in the conference). Iām sure that will be changed for the worst this upcoming week.
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While weāre on Nardo. I told you guys (wellā¦ā¦really Robert) that a D2 DC would take time to adjust to the D1 level. Of course, as you can imagine, he told me I was wrong and football is football
. I guess 112th doesnāt mean anything . -
I said weāve sucked for the last three weeks and I thought we would get blown out. Looks like I was right.
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This 3-3-5 defense is an absolute joke. Texas easily got 8-12 yards on almost every play. Weāre not Alabama (as most have vehemently mentioned). So why in the hell are we running a defense we donāt have good enough players to run?
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One team wanted to win a conference title. The other pretty much told you they were just happy to be there. Thatās the most loser mentality I can think of honestly. Donāt ask me why. Ask the man in charge of the football program.
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Letās just face facts. We were literally the 5th or 6th best team in the conference. In some way, we found ourselves in a CCG. Iowa State, K State, and TCU ALL played Texas a hell of a lot closer than we did. So spare me whatever arguments you have.
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Go hire the UNLV OC. Do something different for God sakes!!! Iām so dam sick and tired of seeing the same BS over and over again by Dunn. Send his @55 back to Idaho!!! Their expectations are rather low.
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You orange koolaid drinkers need a reality check
drop.
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I think I just need to block your comments as a self preservation measure because when I read them all I want to do is insult your intelligence which goes against my parents #1 rule stating if you donāt have anything good to say about some one then say nothing. That rule is tuff to abide by when reading your comments.
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Also sorry for the the rough english, I graduated from OSU after all lol.
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Iāll actually respond to your comments. I agree with some and not with others.
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No argument. Dunn needs to go. We ran 1 misdirection play (which worked by the way). I want to know where the offensive playcalling and schemes we saw in the Bedlam game went? Did Presley go in motion at all in that game? Did we run the diamond backfield?
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I struggle with this. I think our QB is a D1 level guy. Not a future NFLer, but someone we can win with, if weāre willing to call a good game. I donāt think Rangel brings anything different to the table that offsets the weakness at OC.
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Nardo is in over his head, but Iāll give him some benefit of the doubt. The players we have arenāt built for Nardoās defense. Youāve got a Defensive End trying to play LB and consistently lost in coverage (including on the Big man TD in this game). Our DEs lack the ability to get any kind of real push.
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Iām not sure if its D2 vs. D1 or just a mismatch of talent for the system as detailed above. But we forced a total of 1 punt in the game, so it was clear he was way outmatched by an elite D1 playcaller.
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Bedlam was our Super Bowl. Once we won it, everything else was just going through the motions. And we arenāt good enough to just āgo through the motionsā.
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Its funny, because we spent half the time in a 4-2-5, as he tried to keep Oliver as a pass rusher because of his coverage liabilities. At the end of the day, the 3-3-5 is just a permanent 3-4 nickle package. But we lack depth on the back end, and it showed.
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Canāt argue here. Thatās exactly what this game looked like. Texas was playing to earn a right to the CFP and we were happy to be there.
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Its clear we played way over our heads in the Bedlam and KSU games. Having those games at home and combined with one of the easier conference schedules allowed us to win a couple more games than we probably should have.
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I agree with the do something. We need an OC who has the feel for actually calling a game. Iād personally prefer to not go back to Holgy or Yurcich, but Iād accept either of those options vs. running it back with Dunn. But as Traber said on the post-game. Dunn aināt going anywhere. They didnāt let him go last year when half the offense transferred and we tanked the back half the season, so thereās no chance heās exiting after a 9-win season with a CCG appearance.
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As Bill Parcells says, we are what are record says we are. Weāre a 9-4 team likely going to play in the Pop-Tart bowl. Thatās exactly who we are. We need orange koolaid drinkers, but I wish there were a few more fans, coaches, and administrators who arenāt satisfied with just making the Pop-tart bowl (or equivalent) every year.
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It was interesting year for sure and here are a few thoughts:
- Nardo will be better for this type of loss. Next time will be much different.
- Stars emerged in front of our eyes - Martin, Ollie, Daniels
- Need improvement in the QB room. To me itās weak. I like Smith but thatās it.
- Have to develop young lineman and get a much more technical oline coach. These old school grinders donāt work in these new offenses.
- Work the transfer portal even more.
- Fans & Boosters need to be more engaged in NIL or these enticing offers from other schools will continue to keep the talent limited.
- This was One of Gundyās best coaching performances in my opinion. No one thought the Cowboys would be in the Championship game.
- Gundy needs to bring in more fresh blood like Nardo on the offensive side of the ball.
Then just scroll on by. Even if someone points out when youāre wrong on some things you never acknowledge it anyway.
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His deeper throws are more accurate than Bowmanās, and he actually has better pocket awareness and agility than Bowman. Of course, weāll never no because:
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We barely got to see him play
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Gundy doesnāt like to be wrong on a QB
He uses the argument of āexperience mattersā. Wellā¦if thatās the case then Rangel had more experience in the last year than Bowman did in almost three years.
Same. I understand itās his first year, but I simply did not like being in a D2 guy with no experience at this level. If weāre going to talk about how important experience is for players, then how come that doesnāt apply to the coaches with Gundy?
I appreciate your honesty and respectful reply. THIS is exactly what Iāve been talking about!!! The orange koolaid drinkers just want to do one of two things:
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Try to say your wrong without giving any credible counter argument
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Block you because they donāt like hearing the truth in some things
Yep going to fix things here in a second so I wonāt have to do any scrolling at all.
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Lots of good stuff here @bill18
Also you havenāt ābludgeonedā everyone if theyāve failed to agree completely. See 10.
- Yes, Dunn needs to be our WR coach, not our OC nor play caller. Would love Yurcich rehired
- No, Backfoot is not average. Heās at the bottom statistically in every meaningful measure. But credit to him, he did play one of his best games for us in the loss to Whorns. And yes, Rangel is a better QB in every way. Even his ālack of experienceā is better than Bowmanās plethora of horrific fundamental deficiencies. Rangel and Gunnar are both still developing.
- No, Nardo is not in over his head. See 4.
- Exactly almost. Itās not that Nardo has to adjust. Nardo needs to get his Defense installed. Itās new for our entire Defense, not just Nardo
- I too thought we would be ārun out of the houseā. But also had $30 moon shot for $1200 payout if we won.
- No, the 3-3-5 is not a joke. It works.
- Agreed. And I point to the spiritual leader of the team - our QB. He was/is a washed up one-and-done scabby that just wanted to get a bit more experience before he becomes an NIL agent/pimp.
- Wrong. The team that wins the games is the better team, on that day. You could argue that at end of season we werenāt as good as we were when we played Bedlam, but we won games. No amount of frustration takes away those Wās, or the skull crushing Lās.
- See 1.
- Here is your issue. Donāt bludgeon the other fans or they will shut you out.
You ever notice how gundy has a hard time getting his teams coached up ready for the first few games of the season the last decade? I have a feeling that the portal will not treat him well. He will be starting basically a new team every year and that means many decisions will have to be made pretty fast and Iām not quit sure gundy is capable of keeping up. We shall see. It was a complete mismatch out there on size speed coaching all the above. We just donāt have good coaching and recruiting looked like it was in the mid 40ās in the nation. Iām not sure anymore that having a new OC will even matters as long as gundy is on staff. Dunn told us all in the first of the year that he was calling what he was told. Iām trying to find some positives but Iām having a hard time seeing many. Recruiting will take a hit in this new conference as well.
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I donāt. I give my opinion, and sometimes facts. If they donāt like it, then thereās nothing I can do about that. To suggest that making the CCG is better than winning it might be one of the most ridiculous comments Iāve ever seen a person say. Then they wonder why I canāt take them seriously .
I think its actually funny to hear all the whining on these posts. Knowles defense gave up 48 points twice in his maiden year, the last one included over 700 yards as well. Truth is we donāt know what Nardoās defense will become. But back to the incessant whining. Itās amazing to hear how entitled certain fans are. That they expect a certain amount of success just because they wear the team colors. They rant about how much someone is paid and so forth. The best is when they want to convince everyone that all of their comments are not just true, but the Spoken Word. They act like they can rally this extremely small segment of fans who post on social media into a group that can raise pitchforks and torches and actually run someone out of town. Chad Weigberg is the only person who makes these decisions and he doesnāt read these posts. The interesting part is when these fans feel hurt, I guess emotionally, because they have invested too much in a game played by 20 year olds. If the NFL rewarded the Super Bowl champion with not only the first pick in the next draft but 3-6 first rounders, who would watch it or put much belief in the fairness of the sport. But I guess some fans are just always going to complain. If I didnāt like something as much as some of these fans, I would stop attending or watching the games. Get a life.
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iām no kasey dunn apologist - but play calling wasnāt why OSU got throat punched yesterday. The one 3rd down play call made absolutely no sense but other than that - texas just had better players (athletes) at every position. We beat this same texas team last season because we caught some breaks and we had one hell of a mobile QB (didnāt need average or good run blocking). Our line couldnāt move their D line - not a shocker. Which made us one dimensional - and that isnāt our strong suit. (also why OSU struggled late in the season - teams stacked the box. We got lucky in bedlam and OU had a horrible game (so many fumbled snaps, etc). Anyway, on to the Poptart bowl
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Iām in agreement with you Mullet that we were mismatched up front against Texas. Their D-Line outclassed our O-Line. But what did Mr. Dunn try to mitigate that? Did we try any jet sweeps or even jet motion to help hold the D-ends? Ollie ran exactly 1 outside zone run (which went for 8 yards). Did we use our TEs to attack their LBs and make them play back? Did we attack the middle of the field? 75% of our playcalls were one of 3 plays: WR Screen, RB up the middle (mix of zone and gap blocking), and the deep ball outside the numbers. We didnāt run a single fake-WR screen. We ran a total of 1 TE Seam route. We ran a total of 1 misdirection play (which went for a first down). There are things a good OC can do to help offset mismatches in the O-Line, but much like last year, Kasey demonstrated that he doesnāt understand that which is why I donāt believe heās a good OC/playcaller. To those who disagree, I emplore you to go back and rewatch our offense in the Bedlam game. We lined up in the diamond formation for half the snaps, then shifted into a different formation, forcing the defenses to declare strong/weak side, and making reads much easier for Bowman and as well as getting the opposition out of position. We motioned players who are threats (Owens, Presley and OG2) which meant that corners and linebackers had to shift out of their normal positions/roles. In this game, when we ran motion, most of the time it was just our TE (#16) motioning back to help seal an edge of the line of scrimmage. It was never threatening to the defense, and thus they never had to adjust for it.
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Itās funny that the Pop Tart bowl is actually a real bowl to be played in and not the name fans are just coming up with for a crappy bowl. LOL
I donāt have 10 thoughts about this game or the season, even. Just wish weād have shown out a little better. 9 wins, maybe 10, after starting 2-2 is insane. Weaker big 12 and easier schedule, sure, but after losing to South Alabama, I know the majority probably thought weād barely be bowl eligible, like I did. Some, Iām sure wanted 2-10 for their own weird narratives, but thats neither here nor there.
Getting a 10th win would mean 8 under Gundy. We had 3 the previous 100 years of the program so I think we should mostly count our blessings, while understanding some things should change. I really donāt think Dunn should be OC anymore and I guess the jury is still out on Nardo. Depending on how the players want to play the NIL or the draft, we potentially still have stars coming back next year in Daniels, Oliver and Martin, with solid to really good guys in Mckinney, the Smithās and Epps in the defensive backfield. GO POKES
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i honestly think weād had better luck throwing downfield as far as bowman could throw it (and probably getting dPI call on 1/3rd of them) instead of every one of the runs into the line. Or on that 3rd and 8 - where we ran into the lineā¦ especially on that play, launch it. if itās picked off, same as a punt. but it PROBABLY would have been underthrown and a good chance of getting the call. Better chance than a run up the middle actually picking up the needed yardage. but again - we just got smoked by a better team. wanna beat teams like that? then WE need better players.
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Not sure why everyone is wanting pile on coach Dunn regarding this loss. Bottom line our D couldnāt stop the Texas O from scoring at will. Nothing Dunn could do about that.
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