Cowboys Dig for Answers in Pass Defense After Rough Night in Houston

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STILLWATER — On Saturday night, coach Eric Morris might have been as critical as he’s been all year when discussing Oklahoma State’s pass defense.

On Tuesday, it sounded like the staff was keeping a number of options open as they attempt to shore things up on the back end this week without starting safety Mose Phillips.

“Are we doing the right things technique-wise?” Morris said. “Are we putting them in the right positions to make plays? Do we just need to, you know, play a couple guys and not so many out there? … But at the end of the day, I mean, you look all over college football. I mean, we got to have some people that can defend some one-on-one routes down the field.”

The corners have rotated throughout the season. LaDainian Fields leads the way, playing 84.5% of snaps against Big 12 opponents plus Oregon. He’s followed by Kollin Lewis (53.8%), Mo Horn (48.6%) and Kobi Foreman (9.9%), though those numbers are a bit misleading as Fields didn’t start at Houston (despite playing his usual amount) and Foreman played 24% of snaps against UCF.

For perhaps the first time this season, Morris also criticized the team’s inability to get pressure on the opposing quarterback. On Tuesday, he seemed to stick by that criticism without blaming the defensive line.

“I do think our D-line’s doing some really good things right now,” Morris said. “And so it’s definitely not on the D-line, right? There’s coverage sacks. There’s things where D-line, you catch them in a blitz. Didn’t really catch them scot-free on any blitzes. I thought their backs were good in pass pro going back and watching it.”

This all sounds pretty bad for the secondary, but Morris did acknowledge that safety Evan Jackson read a route “perfectly” and nearly had a pick on a throw that was pressured.

Morris said getting more pressure probably requires the team to make some big-picture changes and better execution.

“I think it all ties together, right,” Morris said. “And there are some times I thought that we did get pressure on them. Super close to getting strip sacks. A couple of those are inches away, but we’re right there. And credit to them. They got the ball off, and he got the ball out of his hands quick on a bunch of things.”

The Cowboys are in an eight-team tie (with BYU, Utah and Arizona State) for 85th nationally, averaging 1.8 sacks per game. According to PFF, they average 13.8 total pressures per game, which probably sounds a lot better than it actually is.

Oklahoma State’s pass-rushing grade as a team (73.3) puts the Cowboys 59th nationally. For perspective, Power Four leader LSU (88.9) and Big 12 leader Texas Tech (82.1) average 19.1 and 24.8 total pressures, respectively.

Digging deeper, the Red Raiders are sacking or hitting quarterbacks 7.5 times per game while LSU makes contact of some kind six times per game. Oklahoma State is only laying hands on opposing quarterbacks 4.5 times.

Defensive end Jaleel Johnson leads OSU, averaging 2.8 pressures per game on his own while fellow end Malik Charles leads the team in sacks with 2.5. On Tuesday, Charles described the lack of pressure as an execution issue.

“We’re tired of what we’re just hearing, ‘We were almost there,’ or, ‘We were this close,’” Charles said. “We want to be there. We want to hit him. So just straining that little bit more to whether it’s straining, just to reach your arm, your backside arm, or rip your backside arm through, or reach with your outside arm to try to hit the ball.

“Whatever it is, to try to affect the game. That’s what we need to do, and I think our coaches have harped on us about that this week, and we attacked practice the last two days with that mentality, and I think we’re gonna keep doing the same thing going forward.”