Cowboy Football Notebook: Pokes Prepare for Red Raiders
STILLWATER -- As he does every Monday ahead of a game week, Mike Gundy met with the media to put a bow on the previous game and look ahead to the upcoming game. This week, there were a lot of positives to talk about after such a good performance over Kansas State.
The Cowboy defense held a top-15 offense to just 244 total yards of offense and 1-of-13 on third down conversions. When everything seems to be clicking on defense, it certainly helps every area across the board.
"We talked about this at Oregon State, about we had so many plays that we couldn't get off the field," said Gundy. "We got off the field the other night and I believe it was 1-of-13 [on third down stops], so the defense plays 58 plays. If [K-State] converts 5-of-13, you're going to be close to 80 plays. So, you stop them on third down, you get off the field."
Balanced rushing attack?
When you have the nation's leading rusher in the backfield, it's a little tough to try and take him out of the game to get out guys touches. Especially when your backups either don't have the experience or haven't been playing the best. But LD Brown stepped it up last week and played better than he has this season. It wasn't a ton of yards, just 25, but he didn't lose any yards and that showed that he's making progress.
"LD [Brown] ran better," said Gundy. "He got east and west on this field, moving forward, he dropped his pads and was aggressive, he didn't stutter around with his feet, so he improved. The other guys are getting consistent work in practice, it's just hard to take Chuba out right now. So, when [Hubbard's] in the game and LD gets his [carries] because he was running better, it's just hard to get to down-the-line guys right now."
Antwine's improving
When knew coming into this season that depth would be an issue for the defensive front. But when the news came across that defensive tackle Israel Antwine would miss the first game against Oregon State and then proceeded to be out the first three weeks, it was tough.
But over the past few weeks, he's really improved and is becoming a force moving forward.
"He gets a little better each game," Gundy said of Israel Antwine. "He makes plays, he's getting into playing shape because he sat out a whole year, 11 months to be exact. So, he's coming around a little bit and making plays. I'm sure glad he's on our team. His development in the strength and conditioning facility with Rob Glass will really help him; I'm not sure what he got over the last year is going to compare what he's going to get here."
On to the next
Oklahoma State's next game will be in Lubbock against the Texas Tech Red Raiders, a team that's vastly different than Kansas State. They're an air-it-out type of offense that moves really fast. Something that's going to help the Pokes this weekend though is that starting quarterback Alan Bowman is out and backup Jett Duffey will be starting.
"We're onto a new group this week, obviously a completely different style of play; a very fast-paced spread attack for our defense, so they'll have to make adjustments as we move forward," said Mike Gundy. "Offensively [for OSU], some similarities, Tech's playing three down [linemen] and blitzing just like everybody else in the country. Look forward to a good week of practice, head out and get an early start on Saturday morning."
