Just How Good Is Oklahoma State’s Defense?

It seems like there is a point almost every year where we look at Oklahoma State’s defense and say, “wow, Glenn Spencer might know what he’s doing here!”

Back in 2013 it was actually true, and in 2014 it performed admirably for a defense that spent more time on the green than the Augusta grounds crew the first week of April.

It happened again in 2015, before the November slate of Baylor and Oklahoma was followed by a hiding it took from an artificially grown Ole Miss offense. Then in 2016 there were similar highs and lows.

And here we are again. Spencer’s crew has held every team except TCU below its scoring average on the year and is fresh off its best performance that Mike Gundy can remember.

So how good is OSU’s defense through seven games? Let’s take a look.

The Cowboys have been one of the top three in the league in most defensive categories and have done that without really forcing many turnovers, normally a staple of Spencer-led defenses. Those tied for 10th in the nation in TOs forced consist of 62 teams.

Third-down defense has been an issue, especially against mobile quarterbacks. The Cowboys seemed to have shored that up a bit by limiting Sam Ehlinger to a negative rushing total and Texas’ offense to 3 of 17 on the third downs.

The young corners and known playmakers at safety have held up their end of the bargain for the most part. They’ve held QBs so far to a low passer rating and have only allowed four passing scores in seven games. That’s likely to change against West Virginia’s Will Grier, the best QB they will have faced and FBS leader in scores through the air.

OSU is good against the run, by Big 12 standards. Total yards per game is a bit arbitrary given the varying play counts different leagues’ defenses face. The yards per carry number (3.4) is encouraging. If it holds up, it would be the lowest mark an OSU defense has held teams to since 2009.

In the red zone, Oklahoma State has been decent by Big 12 standards. It has allowed 4.27 points per red-zone trip thus far. I didn’t include that stat above because we currently only have Big 12 data on that.

Yards per play is big as well. That would be the best mark since that 2013 defense which ended the year at 4.8, but it’s not likely to hold given a barrage of offense the Cowboys are about to face in the next two weeks.

So can we look at these numbers and say that this defense is “elite”? No. Can there be such a thing in this conference? Maybe, maybe not. But if I had told you before the season that Oklahoma State could have a top three defense in the league and a top-30ish in the country, what would that have done for your Big 12 title hopes? So far, that’s where it sits. We’ll see if that can last.