Eric Morris Takes Blame for ‘Really Bad’ Fourth-Down Calls

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TULSA — Last season Eric Morris and Drew Mestemaker guided the No. 7 offense in the country on fourth down. It seems that mojo got lost somewhere in the move from Denton to Stillwater this offseason.

“I feel like I called some really bad plays on fourth-and-short,” Morris said.

Officially, Oklahoma State’s offense finished 2-of-6 on fourth down on Saturday in the 24-10 loss at Tulsa, though there was a seventh that resulted in an OSU first down due to defensive pass interference.

“We’ve always been aggressive on fourth down, and if we get them, no one is talking about it,” Mestemaker said. “I like those fourth-down tries. We just have to execute.”

Mestemaker spent most of the day watching running backs slam into a brick wall on the pivotal down as Tulsa won the matchup three times when OSU ran on 4th-and-1.

Running back Caleb Hawkins masked some of the issues early when he converted the first fourth-down attempt, breaking a 3-yard run when the Pokes only needed 1 at Tulsa’s 15-yard line.

Perhaps emboldened by that success, Morris called another run by Hawkins when OSU faced 4th-and-1 at the TU 3-yard line. This time Tulsa slammed the door shut.

Things didn’t get any better from there, as the next fourth down went so poorly that it seemingly opened up a competition for OSU’s second-string running back after Tre Page picked up the 1 yard he needed but fumbled on the play, which resulted in an OSU turnover.

“We gotta figure out who’s his backup,” Morris said of Hawkins. “We gotta figure out if Ayo (Adeyi) can do it. I don’t know. Did some decent things today. Gotta figure out.”

Adeyi’s carry on 4th-and-1 went better in the sense that he held onto the football, but he failed to pick up any yards on the play.

Morris spent a fair amount of time in his postgame press conference criticizing his own play-calling on fourth down.

“It’s something that you know, do we get Drew out of the pocket, and do we do something to utilize his arm more in those situations?” Morris said.

The Cowboys had a brief reprieve when Mestemaker hit receiver Justin Bowick for a 16-yard touchdown on fourth down, but things didn’t work out when OSU left the ball in Mestemaker’s hands on the next fourth-down attempt.

Facing yet another 4th-and-1, this time on OSU’s 34-yard line, Mestemaker hit Miles Coleman behind the line of scrimmage. The slot receiver failed to gain the needed yard.

“They were all fourth-and-shorts besides the one we got,” Mestemaker said. “And so you know that’s where you know for me, and I got to go back and look schematically. … I thought they did a nice job at being able to take away gaps and put some pressure on us. And at the same time, you know, we had some third-down-and-mediums we threw the ball, and we got pressure throwing the football on those too.

“And so everybody’s always going to come back and look at some of those key plays on fourth down, and I’m going to take all those. I just told the kids in there right now, those are on me. I’m the play caller, and I didn’t think the scheme was where it needs to be. Got out-coached in those situations.”