Originally published at: https://pistolsfiringblog.com/cowboys-offensive-numbers-among-worst-in-gundy-era/
This isn’t the OSU offense that anyone expected.
In reading this article I found it alarming the Kasey Dunn said “we came in at halftime and said alright everything is working”. Their is always something to correct and fact these coaches don’t realize it is scary.
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Three obvious points:
1)Everybody seems to think Spencer Sanders is a better QB and athlete than he actually is (including Spencer Sanders). He can’t read a defense, rarely looks for anyone beyond the primary target, is an inaccurate passer and has terrible pocket awareness.
2)Creative and effective offensive scheming left with Todd Monken. OSU has basically 5 plays and a couple offensive sets. And Gundy stubbornly runs the same predictable plays over and over and over.If everybody in the stands knows what’s coming, you can bet the opposing DC does. 1st down? Run Up the middle. 2nd down? Run off tackle. 3rd down? Throw a bomb and hope.
3) Gundy has redefined the term “conservative” to the point where he doesn’t even seem like he’s trying to win. Punting from the OU 39 with 12 min left! Running Sanders off tackle twice on 3rd and 13? Taking a knee with 3 time outs and 49 seconds left in a half? He’s basically telling the opposing team and his own, that he has no confidence in scoring.
Gundy has to go.
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This is spot on. TCU went into halftime and made adjustments. We went into halftime and Gundy/Dunn thought it best to leave ‘good enough’ alone. Is the gameplan seriously founded on the belief that other teams won’t adjust?!
I think the most troubling thing is that the only rumblings of a hot seat are on boards like this. I’m shocked that there doesn’t seem to be any reporting at all starting to ask if Gundy’s seat is getting hot, at least not that I’m seeing…
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Maybe in the first 7 minutes of the game but that’s really about it. After that this team looked like a 1991 Oklahoma State offense.
“The Cowboys have averaged 28.11 points a game this season, rivaling only OSU’s 2014 (27.62) and 2005 (20.18) for the lowest-scoring groups of the Gundy era.“
This isn’t true. We’ve averaged 27.4 ppg this season (75th nationally). Which is lower than the 2014 team. I’ve posted this in another forum.
So far since the 2018 season began Gundy has been the following:
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9th (2018) , 5th (2019), and either 4th or 5th in the conference this season depending on if they win or lose against Baylor.
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Offensively speaking with points per game his team has averaged 38.4 (2018), 32.5 (2019), and so far this season 27.4 points per game.
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Since 2018 his total conference record to date is 13-13. If he loses to Baylor Saturday he will having a losing conference record over the last three seasons.
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Since the end of the 2011 season he’s been 1-8 against OU and 2-6 against Baylor (and he hasn’t played Baylor yet this season).
So for all you maniac Gundy supporters out there that keep chomping at the bit to keep around the “Greatest coach in school history!!!” And are afraid the program will fail without his presence just know that it’s already failing. If you think recruiting is hard now then wait and see how tough it is when Gundy brings it back to the 1994 days.
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Gundy is the reason for the poor team performance rather than the massive amount of injuries to so many key players being the reason for the season going south? That is reasoning I fail to understand.
With that kind of logic we can look at the Steelers when Mason Rudolph took over for an injured Big Ben. Would anyone blame the Steeler’s poor season that year on their coach, or would they attribute the lack of success to their star QB not being able to play because he was inured?
I don’t know how good of a coach Gundy is. I have no investment in whether he stays or moves on or wants to devote his time to farming, I just know its not fair to make Gundy the scapegoat for a disappointing season when expectations were realistically very high and then took a nose dive as soon as we heard about the departure of 2 guys who were to be starters on the O line. And if the writing was not seen on the wall from that, then surely it was more visible after the injuries during the Tulsa game.
Have any of the major critics on this blog made the effort to email Gundy to ask him why he sticks with his outdated playbook or why he chooses to play conservatively? Over the years I have sent questions to some of the coaches and the A.D. and I have received replies. Some in great detail. I felt better after I understood their reasoning. It’s easy to judge, much harder to understand someone else.
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Please!!! Enlighten us…all of us!!!
Have any of you guys watched good 7th grade football? How many of those coaches would run play action on 4 and 11, behind late in a game?
Just these two statements have answered your own questions. What should we do if injuries do occur? You make adjustments based on the strengths of the team you currently have. You complain about the playbook needing to be rewritten, and I agree but team’s have injuries all the time and see it through.
They don’t keep running plays that they know their players can’t execute. What is the point of watching film or prepping in practice for a certain opponent if you are intent on doing the same thing? That is considered lazy, complacent, and bad coaching. That was all but evident in the TCU game. OSU forced 5 turnovers and the offense had 15 total points. Oh you don’t like it when player’s turn the ball over? That goes back to making sure the coach instills that discipline in the player. Since this coaching staff doesn’t like to change their playbook, maybe they should just focus an entire week on ball security?
You asked if anyone emails the coaches and asks questions. Why would we need to do that? Gundy already stated on national television in 2018 after the Texas game he doesn’t “give a rat’s a**” what the players think. So why would he care what the fans think? How do you know the coaches that email you back aren’t just blowing smoke up your a**?
There was a time he praised the fans and now he sees them as the enemy because some of them are seeing this writing on the wall. He has a job making 5.1 mil a year. Just as human nature is designed he’ll do whatever he can to keep that pay and continue with mediocre seasons. He has a 13-13 conference record since 2018 dude. If he didn’t want people to expect him to compete for 2nd place in the conference then he shouldn’t have been so successful in 2010-2011.
Mike Gundy has become his own enemy by going away from what originally made him successful. He essentially has been trying to fix something since 2011 that wasn’t broken. He’s began to slowly dismantle it and can’t figure out how to piece it back together now.
I watched my nephew’s freshman down by 14 with 5 minutes left in the game go for it on 4th and 5 from the 50 yard line. I was really surprised the coach just didn’t punt it and try to pin the other team deep.
As much as I think that Gundy has become entirely too predictable in the playbook and play calling and the coaches’ inability to make adjustments at halftime, I would like to address another issue: Sanders.
He is a barely mediocre QB. Having Wallace as a superb WR has bailed Sanders out of his inability to make consistently accurate throws. Wallace’s ability to turn a poorly thrown pass into an artful reception has made Sanders look much better than he actually is. Losing Wallace exposed Sanders for the poor passer that he is. At the snap he starts staring at his primary receiver. He never ever looks off the DB’s. You don’t think the opposing DC doesn’t study the films and sees this defect in Sanders? It is easy for the DB to follow his eyes and key on the likely receiver. Depending upon the coverage there is always the possibility that a WR is open in spite of Sanders staring at him. That is luck, not talent in the QB.
If the OL is having trouble blocking for rushing plays, Sanders is going to have trouble scrambling. TCU ran him down time after time. Poor play calling didn’t help him at all. The plays were so predictable that you just knew what was coming and so did the TCU coaches and defense.
One of the worst games I have ever watched. Lots of injuries, sure…but a mediocre QB and poor coaching were the major problems.
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Gundy has been paid as an elite HC. Yet he acts and coaches like he knows all OSU will ever be is a bowl eligible team. Winning the conference and beating OU is a happy accident to him.
And this season, it looks like he has phoned in his effort after surrendering his dignity and convictions to nothing more than player extortion. Truth be told, I’ll bet Gundy still loses sleep over letting a bunch of ignorant petulant prima-donna brats dictate to him not only his own beliefs, but who is really in charge of the team. And I’d be willing to bet that mess fractured the locker room too. I’d have a ton more respect for Gundy had he said “First of all I don’t negotiate with terrorists. You want to quit? Then quit. This is America. You have the right to your beliefs just as I do. If I want to support Trump and wear an OAN T-shirt thats my business. So do you want to play football or politics? If it’s politics, then you can leave. Make up your mind. Right now. Coaches coach. Players play. Players DO NOT run the team.” Gundy should have made that whole incident his last stand with OSU. Instead he laid down for them, just like he did at OU and like he’s done all year.
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According to USA today Highest paid college coaches, Gundy has the lowest buyout of any coach in the top 30. Only 6 million compared to the others…
I really think Coaching has more to do with Sanders woes than we think. He’s averaging 153 ypg on 74% completion percentage in the first half of games this season. That’s borderline elite. He’s averaging ~70 yards on 52% completions in the 2nd half of games this season. That’s putrid. The halftime adjustments are terribly poor. In the Tech game, we had over 300 yards of offense at halftime and the passing game was humming. In the 2nd half, we called 5 pass plays. FIVE! 4 of which were go routes to Tylan. The inability to scheme at halftime is glaring. I figured too at first that coaching was conservative due to sanders play, but after bedlam I realized it’s the opposite. They brought Shane in after sanders had struggled, or “got hurt”, and Shane had an even worse time finding guys downfield. At one point he completed 1 single pass in a 15-pass attempt stretch. And I’m not blaming that all on him, I’m just saying he had no help either. His one TD pass was nice but was gifted by a dumb dead ball PF on bookie. Without that penalty, he would have gone about 2-19 for about 20 yards. No QB is going to have any sort of sustained success in this offense until schemes change, and fast.
Another good example is corn dog in 2018. In aggressive play called games (texas, bedlam, WVU) corn was excellent. In conservative called games (basically any game we played vs an unranked team) he was terrible. Coaches should coach players to success. Players shouldn’t have to perform coaches into success. Which is Why OU can throw just about anyone in the world that they want back there at QB and it won’t matter, they will still score on you. The playcalling is elite.
Very well said. Couldn’t agree more. My only concern is I am not sure that Spencer could perform even if the play calling were more aggressive. He is just too erratic in his accuracy. More often than not he is off target and the WR has to make amazing adjustments to make him look good. Wallace does that often. Even when the WR is wide open they have to adjust to complete the reception. And, on long bombs the WR has to stop and wait for the ball because Sanders just doesn’t have the arm.
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I agree. I think that Chuba went off the rails on that one, and it not only effected his play but also the cohesiveness of the entire team/coaches. You hit the nail on the head with what you said Gundy should have done, and the season has paid the price for it. I don’t look at the extorting players as brats as much as I see them as being badly misinformed. Even the best networks can have erroneous info on them, but only the “fake news” bunch consistently come across as pontificates of BS. You have to make an effort to find the truth in this political storm. You have to separate the wheat from the BS.
I have to add that PFB did not help the situation with their adding fuel to the fire. Very poor reporting. They got caught with their a$$ hanging out.
I completely agree on those short and intermediate throws, he hasn’t been on point pretty often. But I think he’s actually not doing bad on his deep throws. He almost always hits Tylan on the outside shoulder, which is tylan’s specialty move for jump ball catches, and he put one on the money deep Saturday to Tylan. They just call that play way too often for defenses not to be prepared for it.