Three Ways Oklahoma State’s Offense Can Attack the Sooners in Bedlam

The Oklahoma State offense will have either a miserable or motivational week in its meetings before Bedlam next Saturday.

Watching last year’s Bedlam tape will be like sitting through eight playings of Anchorman 2. The Cowboys will watch wanting to see something magical, but will be forced instead to see the offensive disaster of last year’s contest in Norman.

The motivation for this week? Maybe (hopefully!) the Cowboys have learned to stray from conservative. After scoring 50 points on the road against a top 25 team, here are three ways OSU can continue to attack against the Sooners.

Keep the offense Moving

The OU defense stinks, and the OSU offense is at its best when it moves quickly.

Last year in the first quarter, Mason Rudolph handed to Chris Carson, who bolted down the sideline to the Sooners’ 7. It was OSU’s longest play at that point in the game.

To follow it up, the Cowboy offense took its time getting to the line. They loitered, and it cost them. Bob Stoops took advantage of the hesitation and called a timeout. Momentum was crushed.

Gundy and Mike Yurcich work together about as well as any pairing in America when they go with their instincts. When they delay, especially in the red zone, more often than not they end up on their heels. The result of that drive explained above: a field goal after three straight runs.

If OSU is going to trade 3 points for 6, it has to keep moving. Against a defense this dry, a little sauce never hurt.

Hit the hole hard

In watching the film, there were too many slow-developing runs for the Pokes.

Justice Hill has too much speed, and Chris Carson’s reincarnate, J.D. King, has too much power not to absolutely blow past this groups of Sooners. When Hill and Carson attacked OU’s first line of defense, the runs almost always went for at least a couple of yards if not more.

OSU has had a good deal of success running the ball recently. Hill and King alone have totaled more than 550 yards over the past three weeks, including against the 12th best rush defense in the nation, Texas. They have been victorious at the point of attack, and there is no reason why that shouldn’t continue simply because the other team will have “SOONERS” in red lettering across the front of its jerseys Saturday.

Simple physics tells us a slower-moving target is an easier one to hit, and with the skillset OSU’s rushing attack possesses, OU should have an extremely difficult time hitting those targets.

Let it ride a little bit

The Sooners will put two safeties deep, like every defense has since TCU did it in the Cowboys loss in Week 4. James Washington and Marcell Ateman are better football players than any of the four guys in the OU secondary.

To wit: OU ranks No. 102 in the country in yards per pass attempt allowed at 7.9. Unlike Texas, though, they don’t have a top 10 rushing defense to make up for the inadequacy deep.

Rudolph has gotten exponentially better at taking the underneath throws since he looked a mess against the Horned Frogs. He cocked his shoulder to the sky a couple of times against West Virginia, only to check it down to the running back in the flat or a receiver across the middle.

That is nice and effective, but I presume there will be times when Rudolph will have to chunk it deep, and that’s OK. OSU is one of the only teams in the nation with three receivers on the Bilitnekoff Award watchlist, so it should use them.

Gundy has made a terrible name for himself in Bedlam games for playing too conservatively, taking what the OU defense presents and waiting for an opportunity that never comes while the Sooners methodically pull away. If his press conferences are any indication, he has learned to let it loose, and that might just be the best way to beat the biggest threat between him and the Big 12 Championship Game.