The key to stopping Oklahoma State’s offense is to stop them from running the football. If they can run the ball, they can get in a lot of manageable third downs.
And their passing game uses a lot of play action based off their ability to run, and with Dez Bryant out they don’t have a lot of guys catching the ball who could can get separation on their own.
They more than doubled our per game average in rushing yards allowed, but they couldn’t run the ball effectively. They ended up going 43-134, 3.1 ypc. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Look at the median. Texas fans should be very familiar with the median when it comes to running the football. Former Denver Broncos offensive line coach Alex Gibbs said it’s more important what you can gain consistently than what you average. Well OSU’s median rush was 2 yards.
If your median is two yards per carry, you’re not going to be able to put together sustained drives against the Texas defense. ChrisApplewhite texted me (in tears) that our inability to stop OSU’s big 4 yard runs would lead to our defeat. But I wasn’t worried because 1) someone on our defense seems to always come through if you have to drive on them and 2) one incompletion will kill the drive.
Zac Robinson completed 15 passes for 143 yards and a touchdown. Our secondary intercepted 4 of his passes which they returned 139 yards for two touchdowns. Robinson’s passing efficiency rating of 79.7 does not reflect accurately just how badly we made him look. Huckleberry may have a stat that reflects this, but like everyone else I don’t read his stuff.
Oklahoma State actually won the time of possession battle 33:16 to 26:44. Worthless stat.
Think of football as intercourse. Time of possession matters to women, but guys don't care no matter what they say publicly. If you can 'score' in under two minutes, it still counts. And it counts more than 'driving' six minutes and coming up with nothing.
Thoughts?