Rewatch Notes: Things That Stood Out about Oklahoma State’s Win against Arkansas after a Second Watch

So much happened in the Cowboys’ double-overtime win against the Razorbacks that it felt like I had to dump some information to take in the rest.

I rewatched the game Sunday morning to get a better look at the blur that was that game. Here are some of my takeaways.

Killer Cutbacks

From where the media is at in the press box, watching the game live is almost like watching the game in 2D. For that reason, I could see that Oklahoma State was getting gashed on the ground but couldn’t exactly see how it was happening.

A lot of Arkansas’ 232 rushing yards came via cutback lanes the Razorbacks could’ve drove their equipment truck through. Here are a few examples. Green means where the play was being blocked. Yellow is the cutback void.

The Cowboys were better about it in the second half. Here’s an example where you can see two Cowboys filling the void:

My initial concerns about OSU’s defensive front getting manhandled turned down a little bit after rewatching the game. There was still a little bit of that, and I wonder if the cutback lanes were so big because those backside blockers were running their man across the play. But, I feel a bit better about the Pokes moving forward that rather than getting totally pushed around, a lot of the issues seemingly had to do with gap integrity. I’d assume it’s easier at this point in the calendar to get smarter than it is to get physically stronger, if that makes sense.

Bowman Didn’t Have a Great Day, but There Wasn’t a Ton of Separation

A week after completing more than 70% of his passes for the first time as a Cowboy, Alan Bowman completed just 56% against the Razorbacks.

Bowman was off at times, and his feet seemed happier than they were last week. But, there were a handful of occasions that he had to throw into tight coverage because there wasn’t anywhere else to go. Then there were a couple of more occasions where Rashod Owens and De’Zhaun Stribling had a chance to make a tough play but for one reason or another, it just didn’t fall the Cowboys’ way. You wonder if Stribling comes down with one of those balls in the end zone or if Owens wins his 50/50 play that ended in Bowman’s interception if the momentum starts to turn the Cowboys’ way a little sooner than it did.

Then to a certain extent, Arkansas’ secondary just made plays. The Razorbacks are on scholarship, too

And the Same Can Be Said about Arkansas’ Offense

There’s a reason Bobby Petrino is still relevant nearly a quarter century since he was first an NFL coordinator — he knows how to orchestrate an offense.

I thought Nardo did a good job mixing up bringing pressure and sitting back on third downs, but Petrino had his guys ready. Arkansas finished 11-for-19 on third down, and a decent chunk of those instances were just big-time calls and big-time plays from Arkansas. Green was making some tough throws, and a few of Arkansas’ catches came with defenders draped on them.

Hogs Forced Gordon Outside

If you’re ingesting content from this website, odds are you’ve seen Ollie Gordon play football before and know that he’s at his best when he can barrel downhill.

Well, Arkansas countered that by muddying up the tackle box and forcing Gordon to move laterally. Listening to Sam Pittman postgame, that was the gameplan.

“We were trying to make him run east and west and not north and south,” Pittman said. “A lot of our games, a lot of the things that we were doing was trying to kick him outside. We knew that if he ever got his shoulders turned that it would be — he broke 13 tackles last week. And he probably broke a bunch today as well, but that was our gameplan on him.”

Gordon’s touchdown run in the second overtime came on a quick pitch. Instead of having to bounce outside, Gordon just had a clean run at it, which I thought was a nice play call.

Heavier Sets

The Cowboys didn’t play with four receivers all too often.

Gavin Freeman was used as the fourth receiver in OSU’s game against South Dakota State, where Freeman played 21 offensive snaps, per PFF. He played nine against Arkansas. Similarly, OSU tight ends and full backs combined to play 70 offensive snaps against SDSU and 96 against Arkansas.

Quick Hits

• Kale Smith’s momentum swinging pick-six was set up in large part by Collin Oliver not only getting pressure on Taylen Green, but Oliver even deflected the pass. That sadly could’ve been Oliver’s last play of the year, but he went out making a big play.

• I thought Lyrik Rawls played well in coverage, and PFF agreed — giving him a grade of 79.6 (second-best among OSU defenders). Rawls batted a ball down in the end zone in the first quarter and blew wide receiver screen up in the second half that almost resulted in a turnover. Still working his way back from injury last season, Rawls has played 46 of a possible 160 defensive snaps this season, per PFF.

• Poasa Utu is good in kick coverage. That wasn’t the first time he lit a return man up.

• Nick Martin was everywhere. Knowing Martin is a good football player, you can almost take all he does for granted, but if you take the time and just watch him, he is nonstop flying to the ball for four quarters (and two overtimes). Martin had 16 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and three quarterback hurries.

• Trey Rucker was also everywhere. Rucker had 17 tackles. Sometimes when a defensive back has a lot of tackles, that actually means he had a bad game because his man was catching the ball a lot. Of Rucker’s 17 takedowns, 11 were on rushers. Not bad run support from the safety, but you’d like things to get handled before runners get to him.