OSU-Houston Rewatch: Breaking Down Each of OSU’s Plays Inside the 5-Yard Line

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The Cowboys’ goal-line offense has been under a microscope since their opening drive of the season in Tulsa, but Saturday brought reason to bring said microscope back out.

Oklahoma State ran six plays from within Houston’s 5-yard line in Saturday’s loss, in what has continued to be an area of concern for OSU’s offense.

Those plays resulted in 10 OSU points, meaning OSU averaged 1.7 points per play from inside the Houston 5.

Let’s take a deeper look at each of those plays.

OSU coaches, players discuss the short-yardage struggles

Third Down from the 5: The first of such plays is an obvious passing down, so the formation looks similar to something the Cowboys would run anywhere else on the field.

Houston rushes three and has two guys hovering just past the line of scrimmage spying Drew Mestemaker.

Mestemaker tries to hit Wyatt Young in a tight window across the middle. There’s an argument to be made for pass interference, but it’s one of those where both teams would’ve had an argument no matter the call.

Second Down from the 3: This one is a math problem that favors Houston.

OSU comes out in a heavy diamond formation with Justin Bowick as the only receiver split out. There are nine Cougars in the box. When Mestemaker hands to Caleb Hawkins, there are only eight Cowboys to block those nine Cougars.

Bowick is in one-on-one coverage to the outside, but there is a Houston safety taking away a slant. That safety is also in position to take away a Mestemaker zone-read pull. It felt like that safety was in the perfect position to take two reads away.

Mestemaker gives to Hawkins, who is stuffed.

Good call from the Cougars. Bad math for the Cowboys.

Third Down from the 4: This time the math favors the Cowboys, but they still didn’t punch it in.

OSU lines up in shotgun with three guys bunched wide to the right and Bowick alone on the other side. Mestemaker sends Hawkins out to the bunch side pre-snap, and a defender follows him. The Cougars are in man.

With that defender leaving the box, there are five Cougars and five Cowboy blockers. Mestemaker takes the snap and runs. Not enough one-on-one wins, as a few Cougars get to Mestemaker before he gets very far.

Fourth Down from the 2: The Cowboys are again in the shotgun with two receivers tight to Mestemaker’s right, and Bowick and tight end Carson Kolb tight to his left.

Houston sends six on the pass rush with six OSU blockers (the line plus Caleb Hawkins). One guy comes free off the edge, but Mestemaker gets the ball out before he gets home. It’s another pass to Young in the middle of the field. It’s another instance where you probably couldn’t flagged for a DPI or holding, but no matter the call, whichever team it was against could’ve felt upset about it.

First Down from the 2: OSU is in the same formation it was on the third of these plays — with a trio of receivers bunched up out to Mestemaker’s right and Bowick alone on the left side.

This time, Hawkins doesn’t motion out. It’s a quick pass to Terrence Lewis, who is on the bunched side. Kolb looked momentarily confused on who he was supposed to block, which gives the defensive back closest to the line of scrimmage time to get to Lewis and break the pass up.

Second Down from the 2: From shotgun again, Houston brings five vs. the OSU O-line. Two end up getting to Mestemaker as he throws, but Young wins his matchup and secures a tough catch for a touchdown.

Overall Take: Even taking the first play out of account since it was an obvious passing down on third-and-medium, OSU threw three times inside the 5 and ran twice, which probably tells you something about the Cowboys’ confidence of just punching it in. Of those throws, two were to the middle of the field to Young (and the one we’re not counting also was).

The throw to Lewis was a block shy of working. The Mestemaker run up the middle had the numbers to work but didn’t. As cliche as it sounds, it comes down to execution, and the Cougars just made the plays.