Oklahoma State’s Offense Was Historically Bad Against Texas Tech

There’s plenty of blame to go around when you get upset 41-17 at home as a 14.5-point favorite. Oklahoma State’s defense came crashing down to earth after a strong showing against Boise State, and a muffed punt ended its one-game streak with no special teams snafus.

But Oklahoma State’s offense shoulders plenty of the burden for the most lopsided home loss the Loyal and True have witnessed since Bedlam 2015.

#okstate drives tonight …

Punt
TD
FG
Downs
TD
Punt
Half
Punt
Missed FG
Fumble
Punt
INT
Punt

Not great Bob.

— Pistols Firing (@pistolsguys) September 23, 2018

The Cowboys gained just 386 yards to the positive — their lowest total since 2016 — and a pedestrian 6.2 yards per play. But it was mental errors and missed opportunities that spelled disaster for an offense unit that, frankly, got exposed as it was juxtaposed with an well-oiled Red Raiders machine.

The loss was a historically bad one for OSU’s offense, and hearkened back to rough outings during the bemoaned 2014 season. One detail in particular. The Cowboys’ last score came with 10:40 showing on the game clock — in the second quarter. The last time OSU was held scoreless for an entire half was the first half of its 28-7 loss to Texas.

That 2014 season — which we will likely review for comparison’s sake later this week — saw three entire halves where the Cowboys were held scoreless — TCU, West Virginia and Texas. And they would have been held scoreless in the second half at KANSAS(!) except for a late returned TD from Tyreek Hill.

Back to OSU’s current predicament.

Taylor Cornelius, the 6-foot-6 lightning rod will absorb most of the heat — and for good reason. He completed just 47 percent of his throws, continued to display his inability to connect on the deep ball and shares at least part of the blame for one of the poorest center-to-QB exchange showings I can remember.

Cornelius had a hard time making it through his progressions and keyed in heavily on his first option, Tylan Wallace, targeting him on eight of his first 13 throws. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but everyone inside BPS knew where the ball was going and it made for some misses, as well as some #SCTop10 catches by No. 2.

When your offense is predicated on the deep ball and you're QB has not shown through 3 games he can throw it with any consistency, let alone excellence, you were bound to have some stalled drives. #OKstate trails as a result.

— Carson Cunningham (@KOCOCarson) September 23, 2018

As a side note, there is no doubt who OSU’s top receiver is. Tylan Wallace simply makes tough catches. I joked last week that Josh Stewart has a Tylan poster in his bedroom but the Pokes’ top WR recruit since Dez is the real deal.

The offensive line owns plenty of the responsibility for OSU’s blowout loss. We saw poor protection, poor run blocking and the aforementioned issues of getting the ball snapped. Add in a couple of penalties and it was not a good showing by the guys up front.

Josh Henson has the bodies. Maybe they still need more time to gel and gain experience, but there needs to be marked improvement, especially in pass protection. If not, it won’t matter if it’s Taylor Cornelius, Dru Brown, Spencer Sanders — or the second coming of Vince Young. Texas Tech’s front was able to get into the OSU backfield far too easily for an offense that wants to run with the big boys in flyover country.

The good news is that OSU has plenty of playmakers on the field, both at running back and at receiver, and I don’t have many complaints about either from Saturday night. Just got to get those guys the ball in space.

Maybe Texas Tech is really that good. Maybe Boise State isn’t. Maybe Oklahoma State finishes with another 10-win season. But without going into a deep QB discussion — don’t worry, those are coming for sure — something’s got to change for OSU’s offense if it wants to compete for the Big 12 in 2018.