Thunder clap, Ragu is back for Part 3 of his TCU film study. Enjoy.
If you want to check out Parts 1 and 2 of this week’s film review, where I take a look at the overall scheme and the rushing attack, they can be found on the PFB+ Forum.
For today’s post, I’m going to take a look at how Oklahoma State attacked the TCU defense through the air.
Passing Game
Mesh
Oklahoma State threw the ball 36 times this past Saturday, but there wasn’t a huge variety in the base route concepts it ran. It was really a handful of concepts run out of several different formations. One of the primary plays offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn dialed up was Mesh.
See an example of from the TCU game in the diagram and video clip below.A traditional mesh concept involves two offensive skill players running crossing routes from opposite sides of the field. As their routes intersect at around six yards from the line of scrimmage, one player runs underneath and one over, and they get close enough that they could reach out and slap hands.
[insider.afca.com]
Against man coverage like the clip above, the crossing routes in the middle of the field can set natural picks on defenders allowing the receivers to gain a step on their man. The Cowboys hit on Mesh a few times and ran it with different personnel groupings.
I do like seeing Mesh in the game plan, but I did think they went to it too much and the Horned Frog defense started to catch on. They ran similar plays multiple times late in the game, including on the failed fourth-down conversion with a few minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Comeback Routes
A comeback route is defined as “… a route where the receiver will run a specific amount of yards upfield, such as 10-yards, stops and immediately turns around towards the sideline and “comes back” toward the quarterback.” When you have a receiver like Tylan Wallace who is a dangerous deep threat, the defense has to respect the go route, resulting in Wallace normally being able to create separation on the comeback route as you see below.
It was something Sanders went to multiple times before Wallace left the game with an injury, as you see again in the following video.
The Rest of the Passing Attack
Aside from the three plays shown above, there were 13 other completions:
- Tylan Wallace - five additional catches. Three screen passes, another comeback and the touchdown pass on a deep crossing route pattern.
- Dillon Stoner - two additional catches. A screen and a catch on a crossing pattern which looked to part of the Shallow concept.
- Tay Martin - two catches. A screen pass and catch off a tipped ball on what looked to be a variation of the Mesh concept explained above.
- Braydon Johnson - one catch. Deep down the middle of the field.
- Dezmon Jackson - one catch. He was the check down on a Mesh concept.
- Jelani Woods - one catch. Route out to the flat which resulted in a big gain.
- Landon Wolf - one catch. Quick out route.
There really wasn’t a lot of variety in the overall passing concepts, as I mentioned above. However, we did see the Cowboys run these routes out of multiple formations, but I don’t think it was enough to fool this Gary Patterson-led TCU defense.
Before I wrap up Part 3, I did want to mention that the offensive struggles can’t be credited to only the scheme. There were multiple instances where QB Spencer Sanders’ decision making was questionable. For example, the video below sent to me from Adam Lunt of the Tape Doesn’t Lie Podcast.
Additionally, in the next clip, you see TCU in its Cover 6, or Cover 4 to the passing strength and Cover 2 on the weak side of the field. See the image below for an example of this coverage.
Dunn dials up a Mills concept, with Wallace running a post and Cowboy back Logan Cater running a dig, to beat the Cover 4 call to the boundary. This is a great call to beat this coverage, as the dig route by Carter occupies the safety, “SS” in the image above, and with the cornerback to that side playing with outside leverage, Wallace is able to create separation on the post. After the snap, Sanders looks left, most likely to get the defenders to cheat that way. However, he takes too long to come back to the right and find Wallace on the post, resulting in a late throw for an incompletion.
Overall, I think the bulk of this falls on the game plan, as the offensive line played well and Dezmon Jackson did a good job with the running scheme he was asked to execute. Although, I think there is some blame that can be placed on Sanders in terms of his decision-making and pocket presence. Hopefully the Cowboys are able to come up with more fire power on this side of the ball this weekend at Baylor.