Film Study: Cowboy Run Game is Key Against Texas

The Oklahoma State Cowboys had the most successful run performances against Baylor last week, but that might not be the case this week versus Texas.

The Longhorns have a stout front seven, one of the better ones in the conference, and defend the run exceptionally well. They currently have the third-best run defense in the Big 12, giving up around 150.7 YPG on the ground.

Offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich spoke on the Longhorns’ exceptional front on Monday.

“They are very good at defending the inside run,” Yurcich said. “They’re stout up front and their structures and fronts take away a lot of inside runs, whether they are gap schemes or zones. They do a great job from the interior standpoint and where they’ve been hurt is the outside run, but when you get them stretched, it’s time to attack them on the inside. You can’t be exclusive or have one-dimensional-type runs.”

Head coach Mike Gundy had the same sentiments on the ‘Horns.

“The personnel that they play with is very rarely undersized at any position,” Gundy said. “They’re 300-pound guys that move well and that’s the situation that we’re facing this week.”

The Cowboys have shown the ability to run the ball between the tackles as of late, but their outside run game is a different story. They ran a lot of outside zone against the Bears last week, and they often ended up as a tackle for loss because of backside pursuit:

The contain players shedding their blocks:

Or a combination of the two:

Yes, UT is coming off a 50-43 loss against Cal, but that was against a spread team. The Cowboys, despite what anyone tells you, are not a spread team anymore. While Cal had success on the ground in a lot of 10 personnel formations (one back, no tight ends), the Cowboys do it exclusively in either 11 or 12 personnel (one back, one/two tight ends). That means more players in between the tackles, both offensively and defensively.

That does not mean that the Pokes won’t put together a spread game plan to try to replicate what Cal did offensively. But they’ll always go back to their base plays. If the Cowboys try and outside zone their way down the field against the Longhorns, players like defensive tackle Paul Boyette or linebacker Malik Jefferson will make sure that goes nowhere. OSU wants to run the ball on the outside, and that’s fine, but they’ll have to get creative if they want to find success.

How would you game plan against Texas? Leave your opinions below in the comments!