Mike Gundy Previews Game Against Cincinnati

Mike Gundy met with the media Monday in Stillwater to discuss the Cowboys’ win in Morgantown and their upcoming Homecoming matchup with Cincinnati. Here are some of his comments: 

On takeaways from the West Virginia victory:

“We blocked very well. You guys are so used to me coming in here and saying we need to block better and cover guys up and do that. We blocked very well. We played physical. Obviously, Ollie (Gordon) played physical and ran well. We covered guys up in crucial times to a point where in the last six minutes or so of the game, where you would think they knew we were running the ball, and we were still able to run the ball. It’s what we used to do years ago, so that makes me feel better. Our guys played reckless with their bodies and were physical and it worked out for us. Defensively – well first off, we only missed three tackles, which is excellent. We had four mental errors in our alignments in our interior that cost us some yards, two of them on a quarterback run. For the most part, we played a really good first half, except for a few errors.”

On Ollie Gordon:

“His durability has been impressive. In the last few games, he’s become a little bit elusive, which I don’t think any of us thought that was part of his package. We thought he was more of a Keith Toston, pound and bounce off guys, move forward. His vision in this last game, he made cuts when they needed to happen which was really good, so I think he’s starting to develop. We made a good move five weeks ago by changing what we were doing offensively, particularly in the running game and how we were doing it, and it fits his style, so we guessed right. He’s developed into a good college runner based on the style and structures we’ve put him in.”

On the improved blocking by tight ends:

“Josiah [Johnson] and [Braden] Cassity have changed considerably in the last four weeks. In order to be a good player at this level, really high school, this level and the pros, you have to be reckless and disregard your body. That’s just the way it is. You can’t play this game if you’re worried about your body. You can’t play this game if you’re worried about getting hurt. You have to disregard your (physicality), you just have to go play. That’s what they’ve done. Both of them.”

On offensive balance helping the pass protection:

"It's because we can run the ball. So, when I've told you guys we can't throw it because we can't run it, we're not a balanced football team. We can become one dimensional. So, their play caller, it's easier for him to dial up plays. When you can rush the football and create some balance, it gives you an opportunity. You can talk to a lot of coaches and they'll probably say the same thing I'm saying. It's extremely difficult to do one or the other, unless you're just better than the other team, so once we started rushing the ball more effectively, that allowed us to have some balance."

On Cincinnati’s defense:

“This is the best defensive line we’ve played all year. This week, I was shocked watching Cincinnati's tape just based on what we all knew. I looked at the record and then I looked at the tape and went, ‘that doesn’t match up.’ So, the challenge for the offensive line now is that Cincinnati, I’m guessing, could care less about what we’ve done up to this point with Ollie and the offensive line.”