Here is Part 3 of @dustinragusa24’s breakdown of Oklahoma State’s offensive outing against Texas Tech.
Passing Game
The Pokes only threw the ball seven times in the second half, so most of these clips will come from the first half of the game where about 86% of their passing yardage was gained.
Finding Their Spots
Dunn and the Cowboy offense had a game plan for their passing attack and executed it very well early on. They were able to find openings when TTU was in zone coverage and hit them for nice gains. Below you’ll see Wallace get behind the cornerback while widening out towards the sideline making it tough for the safety to get there in time.
In addition, when OSU got a favorable defensive look like the one below, with the cornerback playing off coverage and no overhang defender, the Cowboys went to the hitch route. Sanders connected with a wideout on this route three times in the first quarter.
The quick passing game worked really well early on with the way Tech was playing its defensive coverage. Below you’ll see Dillon Stoner get an easy release out of the Trips, or three receiver, “bunch” formation. The way Landon Wolf runs his route allows him to basically take two defenders out of the play, while the other defensive back to that side follows Tay Martin on the deep route.
Shallow
As Coach Wesley Ross explains:
The basic premise behind the shallow concept is to place the hole player aligned over the dig runner in a vertical stretch. The outside receivers will run either a go (versus press) or 6 step speed cut out route that ends up at a depth of 12 yards. It looks like the QB eyes pre-snap leverage to decide whether to throw the out. If the out isn’t there he will progress to the dig/shallow concept. The shallow will usually come from the boundary. The back will run a swing to the side the shallow came from.
[wesleyrossfootball.wordpress.com]
Against Texas Tech, the Cowboys ran this a few times out of a four wide receiver set with Trips to the field, or wide side, and a single receiver to the boundary, or short side. Due to the way TTU was dropping its linebackers back into zone coverage, the shallow route was wide open. This was definitely something Dunn saw on film and looked to exploit as the Pokes ran it on their very first play of the game, as you see below.
Here you see it again later in the first half.
Outside of these plays, the Cowboys also went to the wide receiver screen game multiple times, like this one shown below.
Overall, I thought this was a pretty well called game from Dunn. It got a little conservative in the second half, but when you are gaining over five yards per carry, why not stick with the running game? It will be interesting to see what the Cowboys draw up for Gary Patterson’s TCU Horned Frogs next week.