Intermediate passing key for OSU offense

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TBerry Tramel

he Oklahoma State passing game ended up being productive in the Cowboys’ closer-than-expected, 24-13 victory over Central Michigan on Thursday night. But the OSU Air Raid needs to be more productive.

And that starts in the intermediate aerial game.

Mason Rudolph completed 22 of 32 passes for 266 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. Those are solid numbers.

One problem OSU had was the amount of plays it ran. Just 67. As fast as the Cowboys played at times in Mount Pleasant, that’s not enough. OSU needed to sustain more drives.

The Cowboys had 11 possessions. They scored three touchdowns and kicked a field goal. If Ben Grogan had made the two kicks he pulled, OSU would have had 30 points and scored on more than half their possessions, which would look a lot better.

Still, the OSU offense didn’t really have its punch, and you can’t blame the running game much. The run game wasn’t great — tailbacks Chris Carson and Rennie Childs combined for 125 yards on 26 carries, which is decent but needs to be better.

But the passing game was the biggest problem. And it wasn’t Rudolph’s downfield throws. When Rudolph threw the ball longer than 12 yards past the line of scrimmage, OSU got some things done.

Rudolph completed six of 10 passes for 139 on the longer throws. His four incompletions all were on deep balls, which is perfectly acceptable. On short throws, either behind the line of scrimmage or right on it, Rudolph completed all nine of his throws, though the production wasn’t much, 41 yards. That sounds good, but Carson turned a swing pass into a 23-yard gain. That means OSU made just 18 yards total on the other eight completions.

The real problem was the intermediate throws. The curls and slants and short crosses that are at the heart of a throwing offense.

Rudolph threw 13 intermediate passes and completed just seven, for 87 yards. Brandon Shepherd dropped one slant, and Chris Lacy dropped another on what would have been a tough catch, since the throw was slightly behind him. Rudolph threw away ball just running for cover. And he missed on a couple of other throws. Mike Gundy after the game said Rudolph missed on four throws total, which is more than you’d like but not an area of concern.

The intermediate game wasn’t clicking, and OSU’s offense really didn’t get into a groove until offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich loosed the reins a little.

Rudolph’s first pass of longer than 12 yards came on the final play of the second quarter, a deep slant to JhaJuan Seales that went for 21 yards and ignited a touchdown drive.

Perhaps Yurcich and Gundy were thinking of Rudolph’s safety. 2014 was a shell-shock season for OSU football. J.W. Walsh was expected to run for his life, which was OK, since he’s more than capable. But Daxx Garman took a beating for eight games. No way will the OSU coaches let that happen again.

The Cowboy offensive line is expected to be much better, but you never know for sure. The defensive line, turns out, was the strength of Central Michigan’s team. Perhaps Gundy and Yurcich put one toe in the water, wanting to make sure Rudolph could be protected before it asked him to stand in the pocket the extra second required to make deep throws.

For the most part, the OSU line pass protected well. Rudolph was sacked twice, but one came when he tried to pass and fumbled the ball and another came when he held the ball too long against excellent pass coverage.

Central Michigan flushed Rudolph from the pocket a few times, but often as not, that turned out fine for OSU, since Rudolph showed great mobility, with a 21-yard touchdown run and a 12-yard scramble on a 3rd-and-9 play.

So really, the key to better offense, based on the Central Michigan game, is for OSU to batten down the most basic of its plays. The slants and the curls and the simple out patterns that are the staple of the Air Raid.