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Defense Tracker: Cowboys’ Defense Dominates WVU, Still among Gundy’s Best

After two weeks, where does OSU’s defense sit among Mike Gundy’s best?

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[Photo via Pat Kinnison/SI.com]

Two games down, and the Cowboys’ defense is still on pace to be the best defense Mike Gundy has ever had.

In Oklahoma State’s 27-13 win against West Virginia on Saturday, Oklahoma State’s defense allowed the Mountaineers 353 yards of total offense. The Cowboys’ defense also scored as many touchdowns as they gave up with Trace Ford’s strip-sack turned Tyren Irby scoop-and-score.

A fun aside to that play: Irby seemed to start strutting about the 15-yard line. Here is what OSU defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said he was thinking during Irby’s stroll.

“I don’t think I really want to say what I think,” Knowles said. “He was tired. He wasn’t carrying the ball very well. Those are moments in my life where I kind of see my whole life flash in front of my eyes. Everything kind of slows down.

“I’m in the box now, so nobody can hear me. It’s like yelling at your television. It’s like, ‘Finish! Finish! Put the ball away!’ That kind of stuff. But he got in, right? They can’t take it away.”

Here are the numbers as to how OSU’s defense is staking up from defenses of Gundy’s past.

Year Points per game Total offense per game Turnovers per game
2005 31.3 419.6 1.8
2006 25.6 364.1 2
2007 29.5 443 1.5
2008 28.1 405.5 1.5
2009 21.7 332.5 2.3
2010 26.4 409.5 2.6
2011 26.8 456.8 3.4
2012 28.2 421.7 1.7
2013 21.6 384.9 2.5
2014 31.2 432 1.1
2015 30.5 439.1 2.9
2016 26.5 446.3 1.9
2017 29.4 409.3 1.8
2018 32.5 452.5 1
2019 26.8 412.3 1.5
2020 10 315.5 1

It’s still incredibly early, but through two games, the 2020 Pokes lead all of the Gundy-era defenses in points allowed per game and total offense allowed per game.

The Cowboys’ pass rush also improved quite a bit between games. After sacking Tulsa quarterback Zach Smith only once, OSU sacked WVU quarterback Jarret Doege five times and crushed him a handful of others.

I got an interesting question on Twitter on Tuesday morning from Chris Heasley. He asked, “How much do you think the slow offense means to the defensive stats? Does the fact that the other team isn’t having to ‘keep up’ make a difference? And are we seeing less drives than normal?”

It’s sound logic that if a team defends fewer plays, it’s less likely to give up as many points. That was kind of the hypothesis I took into me finding an answer for Chris, but what I found was interesting.

In 2019, OSU’s defense played, on average, 71 snaps a game. OSU’s defense game up 26.8 points a game last season.

Through two games in 2020, OSU’s defense has played, on average, 69.5 snaps a game, and that defense is giving up only 10 points a game.

A sample size of Tulsa and a mediocre West Virginia isn’t large enough draw any sweeping conclusions, but I was interesting to see that the snaps weren’t that far off last seasons.

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