Football
Defense Tracker: Cowboys’ Defense Gives Baylor Punter Career Day
Baylor’s punter set a career high in punts and yards.
The Cowboys’ defensive statistics have trended in the wrong direction lately. That was until Jim Knowles’ bunch ate Baylor alive on Saturday.
In a 42-3 Oklahoma State victory, Baylor managed just 156 yards of total offense. This season we’ve taken a weekly look at how OSU’s defense stacks up with all the other defenses of the Gundy era. Here is an updated look at the chart:
| 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 | 22.4 | 365.7 | 1.4 | 40-for-152 (26%) |
Saturday was the fewest amount of points and yards OSU has allowed all season. Baylor was also just 4-for-17 on third down.
The Cowboys had been forcing more turnovers lately, but it was at the expense of giving up big plays. Against the Bears, OSU was back to its fundamental tackling, get-off-the-field approach, evident by Baylor’s drive chart:
Three plays — punt
Five plays — punt
Four plays — punt
Three plays — punt
Five plays — punt
Four plays — punt
Eight plays — half
Three plays — punt
Three plays — punt
Six plays — punt
Three plays — punt
Fourteen plays — field goal
Five plays — punt
Needless to say, Baylor punter Isaac Power was probably sore Sunday. He set a new career high with 11 punts and 414 punt yards. Unfortunately for Power, he wasn’t often in range to pin OSU deep, as only one of his punts started OSU inside its 20.
OSU’s defensive front lived in Baylor’s backfield. The Cowboys recorded 13 tackles for loss, a season-high. Kolby Harvell-Peel, Brock Martin, Calvin Bundage and Trace Ford all recorded a sack.
A veteran Charlie Brewer finished the game just 13-for-26 with 68 yards (and -16 rushing yards). The Bears leading rusher was Taye McWilliams, who had 33 yards.
“It was great to see the guys finish the regular season that way,” Knowles said. “I thought we had a really good plan. We changed things up enough. We had been on a bad run of explosive plays. We made some adjustments. We were down some guys, and I thought everybody stepped up. They executed the plan almost to perfection. It was great to see their response like that.”
The Cowboys just have a bowl game left to stake a definitive case as the best defense in Gundy’s tenure.
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