Tulsa World: OSU's Blitz Was Passing Thought for Cornhuskers

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OSU's Blitz Was Passing Thought for Cornhuskers

By Jimmie Tramel
Published: 10/13/1991
Last Modified: 12/11/2008 11:44 PM

STILLWATER - For years, Oklahoma State coach Pat Jones has
been playing cat-and-mouse games with Nebraska. This time,
the cat swallowed the mouse.
In an attempt to frustrate Nebraska's powerful offense,
Jones has traditionally - and successfully - blitzed everything
but the kitchen sink.
The Huskers finally took the hint and made adjustments on
Saturday. The result was a 49-15 spanking of the Cowboys at Lewis Field.
"I think they geared their offense to take away some of
the things we have done to them defensively," said Jones.
What Nebraska did specifically was develop a passing game,
give quarterback Keithen McCant a green light to audible
and line up in formations that negated the blitzes' effectiveness.
"I don't want to divulge secrets," said Jones. "I'm not
going to tell you anymore (about the blitz packages). I'm
going to invent some new blitzes next year."
"McCant was handling the blitz well," said Nebraska coach
Tom Osborne. "O-State put a lot of guys on the line of
scrimmage. We played the lone I-back so that they couldn't
rush but one linebacker at a time."
The Huskers took advantage of OSU's gambling tactics for
17 double-digit gains, including touchdowns of 61, 40, 34,
31 and 11 yards.
"We've played a cat-and-mouse game with them for a number
of years on that stuff. Sometimes they would get us and
sometimes we would get them," said Jones.
"With this stuff, particularly what we were doing defensively,
it can tend to be feast or famine."
McCants, a fifth-year senior, feasted on his best day as
a starter, throwing for 231 yards on 17 of 19 accuracy.
McCant's single-game efficiency rating (222.8) was the third
best in Nebraska history.
"I called a lot of audibles and they worked," said McCant.
"O-State did everything we expected."
Defensive tackle Stacey Satterwhite noticed early that the
14th-ranked Huskers weren't swinging at OSU's defensive curveballs.
"I've played them three years and I kind of noticed they
weren't coming off the ball like they usually would. It
was more like pass blocking, where they would sit back and
see where you're going and then try to shove you on by.
They wouldn't come off and try to blow you off the line
like they had in the past," said Satterwhite.
"I thought we kind of caught them off guard with it a little
bit last year and this year they were prepared for it real well."
Defensive end Jason Gildon managed one of the few OSU blitzes
that paid dividends when he sacked McCant for a safety.
Otherwise, the Huskers were busy averaging 8 yards per snap.
"They hit us with a few big plays that caught us off balance
on our blitzes. They were more multi-dimensional than they
were last year. They really couldn't pass the ball much
last year. This year they've really improved on the pass," said Gildon.
"On film, he (McCant) didn't show that he was that good
of a passer."
The bright spot for OSU - which has only five touchdowns
in five games - was a late spark of offense. Quarterback
Kenny Ford threw for a career-high 254 yards and guided
the Cowboys in scoring range for Rafael Denson's 14-yard
touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
"We battled back pretty good offensively," said Jones,
who wasn't alarmed at giving up 49 points.
"I told the squad I can remember in '81 we had a defensive
unit second in the country in total defense and they hung
54 on us out here. They got 62 up there (Nebraska) on us
when we had a very high ranked football team (in 1988)."
Despite the outcome, Jones said he did not think the Cornhuskers
were vintage Nebraska.
"I don't mean that derogatorily speaking. I've seen them
when they were better," said Jones.
"I think they're a plenty good enough football team to
challenge for this title."
Osborne, meanwhile, said OSU should be "2-3 rather than 0-5."
Denson, heralded OSU freshman tailback, said he is 98 percent
recovered from nagging ankle injuries. He carried only seven
times for 34 yards (starter Russell Berrien produced 57
yards on 17 attempts) but also was heavily involved in pass
routes and had three receptions for 37 yards.
"I think it's just a matter of time before we can move
the ball up and down the field," said Denson. "We have
a lot of young guys and I'm not going to use that as an
excuse for us not moving the ball, but it's just going to
take time for us to get used to each other."
The Cowboys, after facing Miami and Nebraska in successive
weeks, will take a step down in class against Missouri next
week - a team Jones has never lost to as head coach.
"I've coached my smartest games against Missouri," joked Jones.
But he earlier said nothing is going to come easy for the Cowboys.
"Easy is a word that left the vocabulary here in about '88."
By Jimmie Tramel

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