Oklahoma State head coach Eric Morris had a bit of a sense of humor about his team’s struggles in two key areas when he spoke to reporters on Tuesday.
But it’s no laughing matter on the offensive side.
While the Cowboys (4-2, 2-1 in Big 12) can exceed their win total for the past two seasons with a victory over Colorado on Saturday, there are things they need to fix on offense. It’s not necessarily about players — it’s about the result of what they’re doing on the field. Both of those things dealt the Cowboys a blow on Saturday when they lost to Houston, 35-32.
The answers have proven elusive so far for Morris and his staff. When it comes to the red zone and slow starts, the Cowboys must find fixes fast with the back half of their schedule ahead.
The Red Zone Offense
The Cowboys are scoring points in the red zone — that’s not the issue. The issue is they’re not scoring the right kind of points.
Oklahoma State has been in the red zone 34 times this season, which is inside the 20-yard line. The Cowboys have scored 29 of 34 times. That’s an 85.2% success rate. But that doesn’t tell the whole score
Oklahoma State has only scored touchdowns on 18 of those 34 trips. That’s 52.9%. That means the Cowboys have settled for a field goal 11 times. That means they’ve left 44 points on the table. Here’s the math:
Those 29 red zone trips would yield 203 points on touchdowns (assuming all extra points are made). Subtract the 11 trips that didn’t result in touchdowns, and it comes to 126 points. Add the 11 field goals (33 points) and total moves to 159 points.
That doesn’t sound like much. But OSU’s two losses are by a combined 17 points. So, it matters.
“That’s been a problem for the last couple weeks — actually the whole entire year you know?” Morris said. “You go back to the first drive of the of our season offensively and we don't get it on fourth down against Tulsa. We have got to find a way to get better and get it fixed.”
The other five trips have ended either with a turnover or on downs. Morris mentioned the failed fourth-and-goal against Tulsa, which was in what he calls the “green zone,” or inside the 5-yard line. The same thing happened against Houston.
Morris has adopted some tricked-up sets, including using defensive lineman Malik Charles and back-up left tackle Braydon Nelson as extra blockers. He used tight end Morgan McPhaul as a ball carrier. But the tricks aren’t working enough. So the search continues against Colorado.
“I’ve got to put them in in better positions and figure out what we can execute,” Morris said.
The Slow Start
Oklahoma State has been a great second half team this season. The downside is that the Cowboys have not been a good first half team. One must dig into the numbers to explain it.
By halves, the Cowboys have scored 95 points in the first half and 128 points in the second half. But, remove the 31 first-half points Oklahoma State scored against Murray State and the numbers change.
Without that first half, the Cowboys have only scored 64 points in the first half against their five FBS opponents. Remove the 28 points OSU scored in the second half against Murray State and the second half drops to 100 points.
By game, without Murray State, OSU is scoring 12.8 points in the first half and 20 points in the second half.
Morris has been stressing fast starts for weeks and it’s not materializing.
“The slow start stuff has to stop,” Morris said. “Like we're two different teams, first half and second half right now and it blows my mind to be honest with you.”
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