Boone: OSU’s Second Half Shutout Provides Momentum Ahead of Big 12 Play

Oklahoma State improved to 3-0 on Saturday afternoon in Tulsa and escaped a trap game with exactly the thing it needed to capture leading into next week’s Big 12 opener: momentum.

And better yet, dare I say it, the rarest kind for OSU: defensive momentum.

While the 40-21 final isn’t going to elicit the same reaction a shutout would, the numbers and the adjustments mid-game should have OSU fans feeling a little dangerous as the Cowboys head to Austin to face No. 12 Texas on Saturday.

“It was a really, really good job by our defensive coaches making adjustments at halftime, and then our players taking the information from the locker room to the field to shut them down,” said Mike Gundy on Saturday. “Made those adjustments at halftime, came out and made plays, which was awesome by our defense — mainly our coaches for their adjustments.”

The 21 points OSU surrendered seems good but maybe not great, but that number was only achieved in the first half. No one expects the OSU defense to pitch a shutout, but in the second half, the unit held the Golden Hurricane to a Golden Goose Egg.

“They changed our alignments,” said Gundy of the defensive coaches. “Got another guy up closer to the ball.”

That’s … it. Moved another guy closer to the ball by bringing a secondary defender down into the box, and bam — shutout?

Bam, shutout.

Now it won’t be that simple against Texas on Saturday, so don’t get TU and UT players confused — they’re both vastly different in total talent and have the backing of better coaches and better schemes.

But if Saturday provides one thing outside of a tally in the win column, it’s the hope that just maybe, possibly — hopefully! — this beleaguered defense and the coaches holding the controls are starting to catch a groove going into the Big 12 opener vs. the Longhorns.

“They got tired, they got it broke off on them in the second quarter,” said Gundy of the defense. “But then Jim made adjustments, we came out and they were better in the second half — a lot better. It’s hard to [make adjustments], but they got it done.”