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Defense Tracker: Cowboys Boost Turnover Totals in TCU Loss

But OSU also allowed the Horned Frogs 501 total yards.

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[Pool photo by Sharon Ellman]

The Cowboys’ 2020 defense is statistically falling off pace as the best in the Mike Gundy era, but it has still been dang good.

In Oklahoma State’s 29-22 loss to TCU on Saturday in Fort Worth, the Cowboys forced a season-high five turnovers, thanks in large part to Amen Ogbongbemiga’s mitts. Ogbongbemiga forced a school record three fumbles against the Horned Frogs.

“We just try to change the game every single play,” Ogbongbemiga said after the TCU loss. “No matter what happens on the other side of the ball, we could always go out there and change the game, change the narrative of the game. That’s been our mentality the whole season, and it’s come to light the last few weeks. Turnovers, everybody’s trying to get their own. Everybody’s trying to get in on the turnover game.

“At the end of the day, it wasn’t enough. We had more to prove. We didn’t hold them to win the game, so we still gotta get back to work. We got a lot more to work on. We gave up way too many big plays. We gotta look ourselves in the mirror and really find who we are and reidentify who we wanna be.”

As we do every week, let’s look at how this defense stacks up stastically with every defense Gundy has had in his 16-year tenure.

Year Points per game Total offense per game Turnovers per game Third-Down Conversions
2005 31.3 419.6 1.8 54-for-158 (34%)
2006 25.6 364.1 2 67-for-169 (37%)
2007 29.5 443 1.5 78-for-189 (41%)
2008 28.1 405.5 1.5 71-for-177 (40%)
2009 21.7 332.5 2.3 65-for-191 (34%)
2010 26.4 409.5 2.6 104-for-239 (44%)
2011 26.8 456.8 3.4 89-for-213 (42%)
2012 28.2 421.7 1.7 78-for-215 (36%)
2013 21.6 384.9 2.5 72-for-229 (31%)
2014 31.2 432 1.1 84-for-206 (41%)
2015 30.5 439.1 2.9 89-for-211 (42%)
2016 26.5 446.3 1.9 76-for-195 (39%)
2017 29.4 409.3 1.8 80-for-206 (39%)
2018 32.5 452.5 1 71-for-189 (38%)
2019 26.8 412.3 1.5 75-for-191 (39%)
2020 24.6 389 1.6 36-for-135 (27%)

The Pokes allowed 501 yards of total offense and 29 points, bumping up their season averages in both stats. The Horned Frogs were also able to convert on 41 percent of their third-down attempts, something that happens for running teams.

The seasons we’ve most closely compared this defense to are OSU’s defenses from 2009 and 2013. Here is a closer look at how the 2020 numbers stack up with those:

Year Points per game Total offense per game Turnovers per game Third-Down Conversions
2009 21.7 332.5 2.3 65-for-191 (34%)
2013 21.6 384.9 2.5 72-for-229 (31%)
2020 24.6 389 1.6 36-for-135 (27%)

With the Baylor game and a bowl to go, there is still a chance this 2020 defense can improve on its season averages, but things have been trending in the wrong direction for the past few weeks.

Baylor ranks ninth in the Big 12 in points per game at 25.9. The Bears’ 329.5 yards per game is also ninth in the Big 12, so this could be a good opponent for the Cowboys defense to pad some stats.

“Our mentality is to shut every single person out,” Ogbongbemiga said. “We’ve allowed too many big plays these last few weeks. That’s been killing us. We’ve obviously got a lot more turnovers, but we can’t be allowing 60-yard plays down the field. That’s how you lose games. We’ve gotta stop allowing those to happen.

“You can’t ever be proud of no performance when you lose. We just got so much to work on, and everybody gotta come with their hardhat and look ourselves in the face. We lost that game as a defense. It wasn’t the coaches. The coaches were putting us in good positions. It’s us as the players figuring out what we’re made of. We just gotta come to work.”

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