Originally published at: https://pistolsfiringblog.com/grades-oklahoma-state-fails-its-way-to-passing-grade-against-arkansas/
On the defense, Dunn, Bowman and officiating
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Bowman was OK - he made some good throws and ended up with over 300 yards passing.
The main issue with the offense was the horrific run blocking. All off season I heard how great our OLine should be since all of the starters were returning - I guess those people forgot how we struggled in short yardage running situations all last season. I noticed it late in the game last week, and today the Arkansas defensive line illustrated the lack of any push our OLine provides at the line of scrimmage.
So to me the blame starts with Charlie Dickey, and whomever is calling run plays in short yardage situations.
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Yes run blocking was horrific but so was bowman, however he decided to deliver the ball.
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Run blocking was the worst offender on offense. A quarterback isn’t going to be as effective, when the defense shuts down the run game. I thought Bowman played decently. He had 1 turnover in 48 pass attempts. Did he get sacked? I don’t remember one….
Defensively, we have no idea what we are doing. Run or pass, Razorbacks ran up and down the field. We did have 10 TFLs at key moments and SODs twice as well as pick 6 and a fumble recovery.
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We stole this one. Squinky got Arkansas BAD.
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Yep that is the best explanation of what happened
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We sucked and still won. Born under a special star.
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“ Kasey Dunn is in control of an offense that features the best running back in college football, a seven-year quarterback, the most experienced offensive line in the country and a wide receiver room that’s as full as can be. Yet, the Cowboys’ offense wasn’t responsible for a single point in the first half.”
Which is why NOBODY is coming to Stillwater to steal him. Also, if Nardo’s defense is going to drop eight in coverage and give up 3rd and long every single time then he might as well just rush six defenders on every 3rd down.
Gundy is surrounded by a bunch of YES men in Stillwater. Which is why you get chitty and inconsistent football at the beginning of the season. Luckily for us, Pittman and Petrino’s crew decided to be even more chitty when it came to penalties and turnovers, and they don’t have a kicker. Petrino was taking Nardo to school all game long.
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You don’t even have to go back to last season. There were several times on 3rd and short where we struggled against South Dakota State. Which is why I was telling everyone if you think we’re beating Arkansas by double digits you’re smoking crack.
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Defense deserves a D (as does Nardo), as does Bowman. He was off almost all day except at the start and picking up the UC penalty as an almost 30-year-old? C’mon, dude, he’s lucky to still be playing and I think Alan is a good dude but I wanted to p.u.n.c.h. him through the TV when he did that.
I was skeptical on Nardo, still am. He should go after this season if he doesn’t fix the middle. O-line can’t run block, where have we heard that before? Is Joe Wickline unemployed???
I think if Bowman is subpar in the first half of Tulsa game they need to bring Flores in, cause we’re not gonna beat the better teams in conference play and this team isn’t worthy of being anywhere around the 12-team playoffs. Lucky to come out w/ a W against the Swine…
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Bowman wasn’t OK at all.
My deal is he’s not even close to being good enough to do that. While I thought Baker Mayfield was a total tool he was at least good enough he could do stuff like that. It’s like Bowman forgot he was a third stringer at Michigan 
.
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If you can’t stop 3rd and long on a 7-8 man coverage or with a LB spying in the middle of the field then you might as well just rush six guys on every third down and mix your blitzes up some.
If you’re going to give up a 30-40 yard pass down the seam, or 15-20 a yard run up the gut you might as well make it worth your while. A 3-3-5 defense is trash and ineffective if you don’t have at least one NFL worthy guy on the DL.
Every orange bleeder on here is in denial and doesn’t want to admit Gundy misses Knowles A LOT. Which is why we wanted to switch to some four man fronts this season. Wanting is DC to learn a defense he doesn’t know during the season . It’s a mess on that side of the ball. I give Dunn hell, but I’ll give him credit that he didn’t look like a total disaster for nearly the entire games. His first half performances both past and present still leave a lot to be desired though.
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LOL! I read an article of him saying he was too hyped up but also there’s a receiver from USA who’s now at Ark, didn’t play though so why did dude get so triggered, and what that guy said was on the BB about how Ark was gonna drill us a new exit hole so to speak…but still, as you said… 
It would’ve been one thing if he had shot the pistol for a sec or two, but he did it for about 15. He was awful on some of the pass plays, started like he was gonna have a great game that first series.
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Right! I’d would’ve liked seeing us blitz more cause even if we kept LBs and DBs back they were still gashing us on long runs.
Regarding Dunn, I still think Gundy micromanages him on what he allows. I about had cardiac arrest when we ran the flea flicker, a TRICK PLAY???!!! 
He’s also handcuffed that our run blocking is below average for a team that some think will win the Big 12. We’re gonna have to see some major improvement for that to happen. I’m one of those who would love to have Joe Wickline back.
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Can I like this post twice?
Defense under Nardo is terrible. We are allowing huge plays on third down to substandard teams. I was having serious flashbacks yesterday to 15 or 20 years ago when we would have that loosey goosey zone pass coverage where defenders drop back and camp out at certain spots and opposing receivers would run into the gaps and stand there and wait for a pass to get thrown to them. What kind of defense is that? Not a good one.
The few good defensive plays we had were the ones where we ran pressure up at the quarterback. His interception was due to one of those and he got sacks several times on third and long. I’m not sure why we abandoned that so often.
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The problem with this team’s run game is that its talent or coaching doesn’t match Dunn’s system. Every pass play from Dunn is based on zone blocking schemes. And thus we try to force zone blocking schemes for our run game, and whether its the O-Line themselves, or Dickey as the coach, we absolutely SUCK at zone run blocking. This was our problem last year. Eventually (just like last year) we’ll pivot and start using more single-man and double-team blocking in our run game which will get Ollie going. But that hurts the passing game as it gives obvious tells to the LBs and DBs whether we’re running or passing.
IMO, if you want to keep Dunn (I don’t), then you have to get rid of Dickey and get a line coach who specializes in teaching zone blocking so our run game can match our pass game. If you want to keep Dickey, then you need to dump Dunn and get an OC who can run an offense focused on man-blocking concepts. But we keep trying to force the players to do something (zone run-blocking) they either aren’t coached well at doing or just aren’t capable of doing.
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One other note:
Complaining about a bad call leading to overtime when you got 6 effective turnovers from the opponent is just whining. Ark threw a Pick 6, muffed a punt on their own 20, fumbled (without contact) a pitch at the 50. They failed on a 4th and 5, and missed 2 FGs. With that type of opponent ineptitude, we should have won by 30.
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Seems like a fairly simple concept to me. We seen all last season and so far this season. If your defense can’t get stops on 3rd and 12 on a 7-8 man coverage you might as well rush 6 every time and gamble with your coverage. Because what you’re doing is not working anyway.
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Ironically, that was basically our defensive strategy under Knowles.
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