Eric Morris Breaks Down What Went Wrong on 4th-and-1s, Whether He’ll Stay Aggressive Moving Forward

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STILLWATER — On Saturday, Oklahoma State did its best impression of Charlie Brown kicking the football when it came to 4th-and-1.

The Cowboys converted the first one, then failed to convert on the next four, including the final fourth-and-short opportunity, which came when OSU trailed by only seven points halfway through the fourth quarter on the Cowboys’ 34-yard line.

“Fourth down-and-1 are ‘GOs,’” Morris said. “Going back and look at it, don’t hate the calls. Obviously, hate the execution piece of it and what the outcome was. But I’ve always been aggressive in those situations.

“But obviously, if this becomes a trend, I gotta be smart enough to say, let’s punt the ball away and let our defense play good defense and try to get it back.”

Morris has been on both ends of the fourth-down spectrum, coaching the nation’s seventh-most efficient fourth-down offense last season after his UNT team ranked 91st in 2024.

Morris gave three running backs a chance to carry the football on 4th-and-1. Hawkins, who rushed for 3 yards on the first 4th-and-1, was stuffed at the TU 3-yard line, which Oregon coach Dan Lanning took notice of during his press conference on Monday.

“I don’t put a ton of stock that they didn’t win the game. … They also had some really tough situations throughout the game,” Lanning said. “Down at the goal line they are about to punch it in for the score and they don’t get it. Some costly turnovers that happened throughout the game, so the score could be completely different given a couple of situations. Just like our score could have been completely different based on a couple of situations.”

Then Tre Page, who was the clear-cut No. 2 back before this play, lost a fumble on his shot. Fellow back Ayo Adeyi found himself stalled out at the line of scrimmage on his opportunity, then Morris turned to the air where receiver Miles Coleman lacked enough push to break through when the Cowboys threw a quick screen his way.

“Really liked the first one, the call that we had down there,” Morris said of Hawkins’ play on the 3. “Got out-executed. The second one, we fumbled. Not very good. We put the ball on the ground. Third one, we misidentified the front and went to the wrong people up front.

“So, there’s so many problems in so many different things. We’ve got to address those, and we’ve got to be tough, like, ‘Are we mentally tough enough more in key moments to focus on what your job is and communicate it and get it done?’ Obviously, the answer was no for last game, and that’s an area that we’ve got to grow.”

Overall, Saturday’s offensive output was largely an improvement from last season, but it fell well short of the expectations that come with an up-and-comer in Morris and a high-profile transfer quarterback in Drew Mestemaker.

Morris described Saturday’s performance on fourth down, third down and in the red zone as “atrocious.” Hawkins seemed to share his feelings when asked about the issues on fourth down.

“It was hard,” he said. “Going to the sideline, maybe a little bit of anger coming out of it. Those situations, we already knew that coach Morris is aggressive and he likes to go for it on fourth down. We needed to capitalize on those things and do our job in every shape and form.”

It sounds like Morris isn’t ready to give up on fourth down just yet, so the Cowboys will get another chance to prove they can win in high-leverage spots.

Center Tyler Mercer has thought a lot about those missed chances over the last several days and the responsibility the offensive line has in turning those plays into wins for the offense.

“That’s kind of the weight that comes on the O-line, those fourth-and-shorts, third-and-shorts,” Mercer said. “So, like watching the film, those are tough pills to swallow, seeing where we fell short on those. There are obviously plays you wish you got back, but that’s the game of football, and you don’t get those back. So, learning off the film and putting in the work to fix it for the next time.”