Shorthanded Cowboy Defense Made Progress Before Late Collapse

Oklahoma State’s defense didn’t have to wait for Saturday for holes to appear on the football field. Key contributors were disappearing throughout the week after at least four individuals, including two starters and one rotational player, decided to shut things down this season and redshirt.

“It’s like a box of chocolates, you know what I’m saying?” interim coach Doug Meacham said when asked about preparing while guys made midweek portal decisions. “Not a ‘Forrest Gump’ reference or anything, but yeah, you gotta find foundational plays and you have to make quick decisions by Monday and go with what you got, the information you have at that time. And if someone becomes available (on) Tuesday, Wednesday, then it’s a bonus.”

In Oklahoma State’s 41-13 loss to Arizona, the Cowboys gave up a season-high 17 big plays, defined by statkeepers as passing plays of 15-plus yards and runs of at least 10.

The end result was somewhat predictable, given the defense was shorthanded, missing five key guys who each averaged at least a 35% snap share in the first four games.

Despite all of that, the Cowboys’ first game under interim defensive coordinator Clint Bowen got off to an okay start. Oklahoma State gave up three touchdowns on Arizona’s first three offensive possessions, but otherwise held the Wildcats (4-1, 1-1 Big 12) scoreless.

That’s somewhat noteworthy considering that through six drives, Oklahoma State gave up five touchdowns to Oregon, one touchdown and four field goals to Tulsa and four touchdowns to Baylor.

“Really proud of the defense, guys,” Meacham said. “I mean, I know statistically, probably wasn’t great. They were out there a whole bunch. Man, those kids fought. You never saw one time on the sidelines their head go down.”

Oklahoma State’s defense played 18:47 in the first half and was on the field for nine minutes more than Oklahoma State’s offense by the end of the game. The Cowboys came up with a handful of highlights in the second half before giving up back-to-back touchdowns in the third quarter that effectively put the game out of reach.

Both scores came on throws more than 10 yards downfield, these were actually 21 and 27 yards deep. It’s possible the Cowboys finally hit their breaking point around this time.

Baylor quarterback Sawyer Robertson torched the Cowboys last week on passes at least 10 yards downfield, completing 11-of-19 such throws for 288 yards and four touchdowns.

OSU held somewhat strong against the Wildcats on deeper passing attempts early in Saturday’s loss, giving up only three such completions for 89 yards through six drives. It’s worth noting that 41 of those yards came after the catch.

“I’m going to address the one negative that I felt there is — and trust me, it’s my fault,” Bowen said. “We started to work on the style of tackling that I believe, with all my heart, and we made a few of those in there. But we have way too many guys who just run around way too high. They don’t understand knee over toe, they don’t understand angles, they don’t understand pad level. They want to change direction in space.

“And that’s on us as coaches to get that fixed, and we’ll continue to do that. We started this week. I thought they did better. But if you look at a lot of those big plays, the two negatives were the tackling, and then a couple of them, 100% coverages that I put in. We just haven’t repped them enough, and we’ll get there. These kids will get there.”

Still, OSU successfully defended a handful of other early deep shots, highlighted by a Kenneth Harris pass breakup and Parker Robertson’s interception, which set the Cowboy offense up past midfield and resulted in a Logan Ward field goal.

“Man, hat’s off to him,” Meacham said of Bowen’s job with the defense. “Could you imagine a short week like that and having to speak their language immediately. It’s kinda like going to another country and knowing their language when you walk through the door.

“He did a good job simplifying. He rallied those guys. You could see the energy they had over there, even when we were down. He’s a really smart guy, he’s a really good motivator, and he’s good with those kids. I think he had a great plan. Numerically, it wasn’t good, but again, it was partly because we couldn’t move the football. … Under his guidance is they’ll get better and better and better. And they’ll get more confident. He did a great job.”

Oklahoma State’s lead tackler, safety Mordecai McDaniel, was somewhat buried on the depth chart before now. The Charlotte transfer, who started his career at Florida, finished with a game-high 10 tackles.

The Cowboys finished with season-highs in interceptions (two, nearly three), pass breakups (five), sacks (six) and tackles for loss (11). Of course, some of that came once Arizona put in its backup quarterback.

“Guys were battling in the fourth quarter,” Bowen said. “You know, it’s hard to get a sack. They were battling, you know? And there were a few tackles in there that I liked. A few times the guys came in, they didn’t go in there and stomp their feet and do all that stuff. No, it’s a grown-man game. You run through people, and you run through fast. We’ll get there. These kids are bought in, but we definitely had some positives.”