PFB+ Film Study: A Look at OSU’s Offense in the Season Opener (Part 2: Running Game)

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By Dustin Ragusa

In Part 1, I took a look at the overall scheme and play calling from Oklahoma State's 2021 home opener. For today's post, I'm going to go into further detail on the Cowboy running game, covering what worked and what didn't work against Missouri State. I wanted to start things off by taking a look at several different groupings of statistics.

First, I have the breakdown of rushing attempts and yards by everyone who carried the ball on Saturday, aside from quarterback Shane Illingworth.

  • LD Brown: 15 attempts / 30 yards / 2.0 average / 1 TD / 0 Fumbles
  • Jaylen Warren: 6 attempts / 9 yards / 1.5 average / 1 TD / 0 Fumbles
  • Dezmon Jackson: 3 attempts / 14 yards / 4.7 average / 0 TDs / 1 Fumble (Lost)
  • Braydon Johnson: 1 attempt / 13 yards / 13.0 average / 0 TDs / 0 Fumbles

Now, here is the breakdown by play type (one run from Warren is being excluded as the play wasn't shown on the broadcast):

  • Zone (Inside, Outside, Fullback Lead, Split): 11 attempts / 39 yards / 3.5 average / 2 TDs / 0 Fumbles
  • Power: 5 attempts / 9 yards / 1.8 average / 0 TDs / 0 Fumbles
  • Counter (GT and GH): 3 attempts / 6 yards / 2.0 average / 0 TDs / 0 Fumbles
  • Draw: 3 attempts / -3 yards / -1.0 average / 0 TDs / 1 Fumble (Lost)
  • Reverse: 1 attempt / 13 yards / 13.0 average / 0 TDs / 0 Fumbles
  • Swing Pass: 1 attempt / 2 yards / 2.0 average / 0 TDs / 0 Fumbles

And for the final stat breakdown, let's take a look by personnel grouping (the same play from Warren mentioned above is being excluded):

  • 11 personnel: 11 attempts / 54 yards / 4.9 average / 1 TD / 0 Fumbles
  • 10 personnel: 4 attempts / 4 yards / 1.0 average / 0 TDs / 1 Fumble (Lost)
  • 13 personnel: 4 attempts / 2 yards / 0.5 average / 1 TD / 0 Fumbles
  • 12 personnel: 3 attempts / 8 yards / 2.7 average / 0 TDs / 0 Fumbles
  • 20 personnel: 2 attempts / -2 yards / -1.0 average / 0 TDs / 0 Fumbles

As you can see, the Cowboys found the most success out of their Zone running scheme, which was a common theme as well a season ago. Another interesting note is the Cowboys ran the ball 63% of the time with one or less Cowboy Back on the field, which is a little bit of shift from the 2020 season where we saw a lot of running plays out of 12p, or two Cowboy Back sets.

Now, I wanted to dive into each of these different type of running concepts. I'm going to exclude the reverse and swing pass, and focus on Draw, Zone and Gap Scheme (Counter/Power).

Draw

The Draw play starts out looking like a passing play, but then the quarterback will give the ball to the running back on a delayed handoff. Teams use this play to slow down a defense's aggressive pass rush, and to confuse second level defenders. The Cowboys went to the Draw early against the Bears, as it was their second running play of the game, but the offensive line wasn't able to win at the point of attack. They let the MSU defense dictate the terms, and the play was instantly blown up for a 5-yard loss. See the video below:

The Cowboys were stopped for another big loss on the Draw in the third quarter. This time, it looks like more of miscommunication on the offensive line than failure to win at the point of attack. No. 15 on the MSU defense loops around on a stunt and attacks the interior of the offensive line. No one picks him up and he gets in the backfield to disrupt the play before it can get going.

OSU did have one decent gain on the Draw, but this was the play in which Jackson fumbled the ball. However, this attempt started out much better for the Pokes as the MSU edge defensive linemen rushed aggressively upfield, allowing some space for Jackson up the middle. In addition, the Cowboy interior offensive linemen do a nice job of getting to the second level and creating some running room for Jackson.

Even though Oklahoma State didn't find much success with the Draw plays, I didn't mind the way offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn sprinkled them into the game plan. I don't mind seeing three to five Draw plays a game to keep the defense on their toes. However, the offensive line has to do a better job of dictating at the point of attack, and the Cowboy running backs need to be able to make at least one guy miss for these plays to be successful.

Gap Scheme

"A gap scheme uses leverage to give the offensive linemen an advantage over defensive linemen. In a gap scheme the offensive linemen on the playside will block down, or away from the gap where the runner is going. This will leave one defender unaccounted for outside of the gap where the ball is going. The offense will pull a lineman from the backside of the play to block this defender out. The result is a hole that develops between the pulling offensive lineman and the down blocks that should combine to form a wall.” [Youth Football Online].

Against Missouri State, Dunn implemented Power, which involves pulling the backside guard to the playside, GT Counter, which consistes of the backside guard and tackle pulling to the playside, and GH Counter, which has the backside guard and the Cowboy back (or H-back) pulling to the playside.

The Cowboys ran Power five times. Three of those were out of the 13 personnel look shown in the image below.

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Dunn likes to use this formation near the goal line or in short yardage situations. On Saturday, he was using both guards, Cole Birmingham and Josh Sills, as the puller, but they found little success out of the 13p look. They seem to run Power out of this set a majority of the time, and I think teams have too much film on it, making this play too predictable. I'm sure Dunn's thought is, we have the guys who should be able to execute this play successfully even if the defense knows it's coming ... but that wasn't the case against the Bears.

The offensive line has to get a better push off the snap, and the Cowboy running backs have to be able to find the holes and bust through them. Neither effectively did their part this past weekend.

In terms of their Counter plays, OSU ran GH Counter twice for 10 yards. In the clip below, you'll see Sills do a nice job of kicking out the defensive end as CW Braden Cassity leads through the hole.

Later, Birmingham assumes the pulling guard role, and the Cowboys got another decent gain. I like that Dunn feels comfortable using both guards as pullers, and they both seem comfortable being put in this position.

The lone GT Counter play was dropped for a loss due to miscommunication on the offensive line, backside pressure from the defense and a slow developing handoff between Illingworth and Brown.

I thought Dunn should've gone to these Counter plays more throughout the game. Birmingham and Sills are both capable pullers, and though the Cowboy backs may not be some of the best blockers on the team, I like using them to attack defenders at the second level on GH Counter. Warren also looked comfortable running these plays. I hope to see more Counter plays mixed in next week against Tulsa.

Zone

As a refresher, the terms Inside Zone and Outside Zone refer to blocking schemes that have the offensive linemen blocking specific gaps instead of a certain defender. If an O-lineman has a defender lined up in front of him, he blocks him. If he doesn’t, then he steps toward the play side and either helps double-team a defender or moves to the second level.

The Pokes primarily stuck with Inside and Outsize zone against the Bears. They found success at times, like on this touchdown run from Brown, which featured great blocking from the offensive line.

But, too many times they were stopped for short gains. For example, in the play below, Brown looks to have some space if he continues following his linemen to the perimeter on this Outside Zone run, but instead, he cuts in back inside, running straight into the defensive pursuit.

Or this play where the O-line just isn’t able to get much initial push off the line of scrimmage.

Conclusion

Overall, I didn't think Dunn ever really got into a rhythm with the play calling in this game. Now, that's not entirely on him, as the offensive line got pushed around by the MSU defense in the run game for most of the day on Saturday. Missing guard Hunter Woodard is huge, but the remaining OSU offensive linemen should've been able to have their way with the Bear defenders. There were also some moments of miscommunication, but I thought the run game issues were more on the fact that the Cowboys just weren't getting a good enough push off the snap.

Additionally, as I mentioned above, the running backs have to be better. Their field vision was sub par in this one, and I just didn't think they did a great job of hitting the hole when there was one. They also have to be able to make at least one guy miss, and I didn't see enough of that this past weekend.

One thing that will greatly impact the running game in the coming weeks is the return of Spencer Sanders. With defenses having to respect him as a run-threat, more things will be opened up for the Cowboy running backs. A defender will be occupied by Sanders on every play, which will also alleviate some of the pressure on the offensive linemen. In addition, Sanders does a better job than Illingworth at recognizing things pre-snap and checking out of certain plays, if needed. Illingworth seems to struggle with this, or the coaching staff may just not be comfortable with allowing him to make these decisions, but there were several instance where this stood out against MSU.

Overall, I don't think any one person is to blame for the lack of running game against Missouri State, and I think everyone will need to improve as the Cowboys get set to take on Tulsa.

In Part 3, I'll take a deeper look at the passing attack from this past weekend.

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Who the heck is the LG on that first draw play?? Dude took 3 steps back the second the ball was snapped and was a foot from Shane by the time he made contact with the end. Either god awful technique on his part, or a terrible scheme on the coaches part. That was an extremely effortless play for the DE to close the opening down from the jump. If you’re going to let the end get that far into the backfield before attempting to block him, at least take away his inside shoulder and he didn’t even do that. LD should have bounced outside but didn’t have much time to read anything.

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Do you mean LT?

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I definitely do, thanks. :joy:

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I meant to ask this question the other day for @dustinragusa24 or @AdamLunt : Does a play like this have a quick screen tag attached to it? You can see Illingworth reading that back side edge defender, but the numbers suggest that flipping the ball out wide could result in a chunk gain. Is that not an attachment for this play at all, is this something that Illingworth reads incorrectly, or is this something that the coaching staff basically told Illingworth to give it no matter what like we know happened some with Spencer in his first year?

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My understanding of this play is it’s typically run first, but the QB is reading numbers in the box and in the defensive backfield pre-snap. If he has a numbers advantage out wide to throw the screen, as he does in the gif you are referencing (2DBs over 3WRs), he throws the screen instantly off the snap. However, the O line will still be blocking GT Counter. If he has a numbers advantage in the box, he hands it off on GT Counter.

Now, I say this is a read, but Dunn may be telling Illingworth “hand it off here no matter what” but if that’s not the case then it’s poor pre-snap judgement by Shane.

I wrote about a very similar play here - https://pistolsfiringblog.com/film-look-a-deep-dive-into-tulsas-offense-and-how-it-could-cause-problems-for-osu/

Hope that answers your question! Thanks for reading!

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This is generally what you want, you need to take a pass set, but his set is too far outside. He needs to invite that End to rush up field and to the outside, and out of the play. You can’t give up inside.

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That does help quite a bit. I can’t imagine OSU is running the action up top if that isn’t an option at least somewhere down the line.

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I think in general with the GT action it’s usually a hand off. Too much of a threat of backside pressure to ask QB to pull and throw. The read is generaly a QB run read, which we know with Shane wont ever happen. The screen action is just window dressing to hope you can occupy that conflict defender as long as possible. I could easily be wrong, but I know they rarely throw the screen in this case. (if ever) However…

With that being said there are lots of plays with this exact set up, where this a read, but there isn’t a GT pulling action so they can manage backside better. Like Dustin mentioned, it might be more of a pre-snap count. If numbers are right you’ll throw or vice versa.

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Yeah, I thought it was odd that he both played that far back and chose (or accidentally stepped out of place) to press the DE’s outside shoulder. On the second draw, he takes one quick step back and then engages into the end, which seems more reasonable to me. I can’t see the start of the 3rd draw, but it looks like he was trying to bump the end to the outside and then press upfield, which would also make sense. The first one just looked so sloppy.

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DJ seems so much more patient than the others early on. LD and Warren looked as if they chose their hole before the play and tried to sprint to it the second they got the ball regardless of lanes. I think Chuba was a tiny bit overrated, but that’s one thing he was pretty elite at. He was incredibly patient in the backfield.

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You need to press the DE up field to create the space for the back. The main issue is Missouri State was crashing inside with a lot of stunts to stop the run. Which isn’t very conducive to draws considering you’re trying to invite them to pass rush to create rushing lanes. It is conducive towards managing the pass rush however, which was largely ineffective. So there is that.

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Along those lines, do you have any idea if they ever have “RPO” options out of draw plays? I’d assume not because it takes so long to set up, but there’s a ton of times they’ve faked the draw to set up a pass. I wonder if that is ever a read, or if passing out of that set is always premeditated every time.

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Definitely. They don’t do it anymore, but the first iteration of the RPO was called stick draw. Which is basically what you described. Inside slot WR will run a quick 5 yard hitch. If the LB slides out, hand the ball off. If he stays in, throw the ball. Generally there is a slight delay for the read to progress, which gives you same impact as a draw.

In general Ive never really seen the effectiveness of a PA out of draw. You’re going to delay, then fake hand off, then pass. Its like faking once, faking again, then going. Just seems like you should focus on faking once and then go.

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I’m not at all trying to rip Shane or anything here, I think he did fine Saturday all things considered. but this is why I’ve always been on the Sanders train. All of our WRs are more talented than any of their DBs, the pass blocking was (or seemed to be) very good all evening, and he still barely managed to squeeze out a 50% Comp rate. I know not being able to run makes passing that much tougher, but I think Sanders does better in that situation. Sanders issue comes when the pass rush gets to him. The 3rd down pass on our last legit drive, he had Johnson on the slant wide open and he made a pretty bad throw.

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That makes sense, that’s why I wasn’t sure if they had RPO options out of it or if it was called before hand. I figured the option existed, I just don’t really ever notice the QBs looking off at reads before they hand it off on draws usually. It kinda looks like they always just throw their head upfield as if to pretend they’re about to throw a go route or something.

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I have always thought the exact same thing except for whatever reason the fake draw concept felt like it had a 95% success rate during the late Tony Romo years for Dallas.

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I don’t deny anything you say, because you know far more about this than most of us, but are players actually thinking all of this before the ball is snapped?

“I need to invite that guy to rush up field, make him go to the outside, out of the play. Can’t let him inside.”

I feel like the only thing they should be thinking is “don’t let that guy past me”.

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I guarantee they think all of this through. They say linemen have to be some of the smartest guys in football, especially in the pros. Kinda like golf. Ultimately, you’re thinking “the flag is 150 yards away, I need to hit it 150 yards to the green.” But behind the scenes you’re thinking “the wind is 10 mph left to right and the flag is downhill, so I’ll need to set my feet further to the left before taking the shot, and take 5-10 yards off the swing to combat the downhill lie.” Probably a terrible example but “block my man” has a lot more intricacies than just doing that.

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They absolutely should be thinking all of those things. But I will defer to Mr. Lunt.

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