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Oklahoma State Defense Clears the Path for Statement Win Over TCU

Published

7 years ago

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How good was the Cowboy defense in Ft. Worth on Saturday?

TCU’s drive chart should answer that:

  • Punt
  • Punt
  • Punt
  • TD
  • Punt
  • Punt
  • Punt
  • Turnover on downs
  • Punt
  • Interception
  • Turnover on downs
  • INT
  • Turnover on downs

At this time last year, the Cowboys defense regressed due to injury and looked downright gassed. That was not the case on Saturday.

In their eleventh game of the year, a week after giving up 44 points to Texas Tech, they looked fresh and controlled the line of scrimmage against TCU.

Senior safety Jordan Sterns led the way with nine tackles, a tackle for loss and a pass breakup on third-and-six that forced one of TCU’s punts in the second quarter.

Vincent Taylor continued his campaign for Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year with a disruptive performance. He added five tackles (two solo) and two tackles for loss. Aside from the numbers, Taylor was just everywhere. He was a big part of OSU’s dominance up front. He also added a blocked PAT.

Justin Phillips had another big game with five total tackles, assisted on a sack and a tackle for loss and got that big interception in the fourth quarter. Ramon Richards had a solid game with more than one big play that saved a TCU first down and added six solo tackles.

TCU came into Saturday’s matchup with Oklahoma State averaging 510 yards per game, good for No. 12 in the nation. The Cowboys held the Frogs to just 343 total yards, their second-lowest all season. West Virginia held TCU to 300 yards in Morgantown.

“We definitely got our butts kicked, it was embarrassing,” said TCU running back Kyle Hicks. “They came to our home turf and just straight up kicked our butt. But there’s nothing we can do about it. It was embarrassing.”

The Cowboys never let Kenny Hill and TCU get going. A team that likes to establish the run game was held to 145 yards on 3.7 yards per carry, their second lowest average this season.

Take away Hill’s 79 rushing yards and the rest of the Frogs only gained 66 yards on the ground at 2.0 yards per carry.

The Cowboys defense controlled the game for all four quarters. When the Horned Frogs did look like they were getting a little momentum offensively, the Cowboys resorted to their league-leading ability to get turnovers, forcing Kenny Hill into two interceptions.

The Horned Frogs made it into the red-zone just three times and came away with six total points to show for it. That was mostly because the Cowboys got three (!) stops on fourth down inside their own 25-yard-line.

This was the Cowboy’s best defensive game of the year and it awards them a week off before travelling to Norman as a healthy team and a chance to play for the Big 12 championship (whispers) and possibly more.

“First I will say this was the best defensive effort game plan; tackling against some tricky, skilled players that I’ve seen for a very long time,” said head coach Mike Gundy. “So we had one turnover, and TCU had two picks, we rushed the turnover and tackled well in space and that really sums up what happened.”

Additional notes:

• The Cowboys lead the Big 12 in turnover margin. With TCU included, they have 23 takeaways to just 14 lost.

• On that note, OSU is now 6-1 when they win the turnover battle this season. Well, technically…. (CMU).

• OSU is 7-0 since Glenn Spencer pulled up some real estate next to Mike Yurcich in the booth.

• This was the lowest scoring total for TCU since they lost to Texas 30-7 back in 2013. It goes deeper than that, too.

• If Barry J. Sanders doesn’t muff that punt in the first quarter the Cowboys may have pitched their first shutout since that 84-0 embarrassment of Savannah State in 2012.

• The Cowboys have never shut out another Big 12 team. Their last in-conference shutout was that 12-0 Bedlam back in 1995 when both teams were in the Big 8.

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