In this week's podcast I cleverly mentioned how momentum fueled Oklahoma State's offense seems to be. How it seems like almost every possession is either a three and out, a turnover, or a score. The Cowboys have very few 7 play, 28 yard and a punt drives. Well I figured I would do the research to see if my brilliant feeling was actually correct, and guess what... it totally was. (Go me!)
On the season, Oklahoma State has had 39 drives that have gained at least a single first down... and they have put points on the board on 31 of these possessions. That is 80%! That would be a good red-zone percentage, much less an: "if they gain at least 10 yards" percentage.
An even more fun stat (this is fun!) is when the Cowboy offense gains at least 20 yards on a drive. Oklahoma State has gained 20 yards on 32 drives this season.... and has scored on 28 of those. That is 88%! And three of four of the drives of at least 20 yards without scores were sorta famous (at least Stilly-famous). They were: the victory formation fumble, the Chelf pick late in the Tulsa game, the ill advised going for it on 4th and 3 instead of kicking the FG in the first half of the A&M game, and the one normal possession that was a 27 yard drive with a punt in the 1st Q of the A&M game.
If I can figure out a way to do it, I will try to calculate the national averages on this (help me Bill C., you are my only hope), but I have to assume it is much less than 80% and 88% respectively. Bottom line: if you want to stop the Cowboys offense, do it on their first three plays of a drive.