Saturday’s Offensive Performance Might Have Been Most Dominant in Gundy Era for Oklahoma State

On a superlative day in Stillwater, head coach Mike Gundy may have said it best.

“Obviously, we were very explosive and ran the ball well,” he said after OSU’s 59-16 win over Baylor. “We made a lot of big plays.”

In all, OSU ran 71 plays for 747 yards, a new school record. Its average of 10.52 yards per play was also a new high mark in Oklahoma State history and marks just the fifth time in Oklahoma State history it has averaged over 10 yards per play in a game. Three of those games have come this season.

Here’s a look.

The performance propelled Oklahoma State to the top of the NCAA in a number of statistics. Here’s a look at where the Pokes rank nationally at the halfway point in the season.

• Yards per game: 610 (1st nationally)
• Yards per play: 8.35 (2nd)
• Points per game: 48.8 (2nd)

#FireYurcich

“You’ve got to make sure you’re taking what the defense gives you,” said Mike Yurcich. “There’s a lot of communication. It’s a lot of communication. It’s a staff that understands the schemes. It’s a staff that communicates well. It’s a head coach that sees things real well as well. It’s just great communication.  It helps you as a play caller when you have a great staff around you.”

So back to that all-time performance. It was just the fourth time in school history OSU has had a 400-yard passer, two 100-yard receivers and a 100-yard rusher in the same game. Coming into the year OSU had just 14 games in its history in which two receivers gained 100 or more yards. Now Ateman and Washington have done it in each of the last four.

OSU scored on nine of its 13 drives and punted just once. They averaged over 4.5 points per drive. The only thing holding this performance back (other than Baylor not being good) is turnovers (OSU had three of them).

*Note: OSU actually only had two turnovers (both fumbles) and one TO on downs

For Washington, Saturday was an all-time performance. It marked just the third time since 2000 in a Power 5 vs. Power 5 game that a receiver has caught at least six passes, averaged at least 39 YPC and scored. Here are all three.

Astonishing numbers from an indelible player.

“We stayed balanced between running and passing the ball,” said James Washington who had six catches for 235 yards. “Justice Hill and all the other running backs did a tremendous job running the ball and Mason Rudolph did a great job getting the ball to us receivers. It couldn’t have worked out better.”

No, no it could not have.