Through Two Games, Skyler Cassity’s Defense Has Been Rather Good

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STILLWATER — From the outside, the Cowboys’ defense was a big question mark heading into this season, but through two games, it’s certainly been the Cowboys’ most consistent side of the ball.

As part of Oklahoma State’s 39-31 victory against No. 6 Oregon on Saturday, the Cowboys’ defense held the vaunted Oregon attack to just 281 yards of total offense.

Morris was looking for one thing from that defense on Saturday: playing fast.

“I thought our defensive line was phenomenal today,” Morris said. “Our one goal this week was to play fast, as we talked about early on. That’s the only thing I’m grading them on. We’re going to have to chart literally every player that plays in every play of this game. It’s going to say whether he’s going to say fast, not fast, and that’s how he’s graded. No technique. I’m not allowing a coach to put one more thing on it. Usually, we come in here and we have a laundry list of things, and I thought it was kind of getting too much.

“Like, I wanted guys to be able to go out there and just execute and see it. And playing fast is mental too. Great example. I mean, that last play, like James (Williams) was so fast. I don’t know if he’s doing the right thing of the ball, but he saw that ball. They were so damn fast.”

Potential No. 1 pick Dante Moore threw for 191 yards. When throwing at least 25 passes in a game, it’s the third fewest yards Moore has thrown for. In games in which he had at least 25 attempts, he averaged 269.5 yards a game entering Saturday.

And the Cowboys pass rush was an issue for the Oregon O-line. After not getting home against Tulsa, OSU recorded a quartet of sacks on Moore and hurried him on another three occasions.

The Oregon rushing attack didn’t do much better — in fact, it didn’t do better at all. The Ducks ran for 90 yards on 30 carries. Last season, the Ducks ran for 3.0 yards or fewer on three occasions: against Texas Tech in the College Football Playoff, at Washington and Oregon’s regular season loss to Indiana.

“Nobody was scared,” defensive end James Williams said. “Nobody was scared. You could tell how we were last night at dinner. It wasn’t like we had just come off a big loss like we had against Tulsa. We were transparent. We were moving into the next game like how we needed to be.”

Whether it be against a Golden Hurricane or the Ducks (or a hurricane full of ducks), this defense has been outstanding on third down through two games. After holding Oregon to 5-for-14 on the money down, OSU’s defense has allowed just six conversions in 25 third-down attempts.

That was what Jim Knowles’ 2021 defense did so well, as the Cowboys allowed conversions on 28.8% of attempts. If you haven’t done the math of 6-for-25 yet, that comes out to 24%.

“The entire way we go about practice is phenomenal,” said Williams, speaking of defensive coordinator Skyler Cassity. “Everything I was seeing on film is exactly what they ran. Every single thing I was seeing in practice is exactly what they ran. It was essentially like it was easier than the practice was.”

OSU’s defense was a nice surprise against Tulsa. Against Oregon, it was outright dominant.

OSU’s Defensive Stats Against Oregon

• 281 total yards allowed (OSU had 554)
• 90 rushing yards allowed (OSU had 237)
• 12 first downs allowed (OSU had 25)
• 5-for-14 on third down
• 0-for-3 on fourth down
• 1 Oregon red zone trip (and it was off Mestemaker’s second pick)
• 4 sacks
• 3 QB hurries
• 4 pass breakups