Tulsa World: New attitude for OSU's 'D'

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New attitude for OSU's 'D'

By JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer
Published: 10/19/2008 2:16 AM
Last Modified: 10/19/2008 3:01 AM

STILLWATER — Mike Gundy has longed for the day when he could say defense is carrying the load at Oklahoma State.

Now he can say it without making a polygraph explode.

One good defensive performance? Wait and see before declaring yourself the 1985 Chicago Bears.

Back-to-back defensive gems? Now you've got a trend.

Last week, OSU limited Missouri's offense, which had been averaging more points than a Doug Moe basketball team, to 23 points.

For an encore, in Saturday's 34-6 squishing of Baylor, the Cowboys held the Bears to their fewest total yards (204) in a year. It's usually not worth bragging about when you do something noteworthy against the Big 12's designated victim, but the Bears came to Stillwater with college football's most productive freshman quarterback, Robert Griffin, and the nation's 18th-best rushing offense.

The Bears left Stillwater with a season-low 42 rushing yards and left behind bulletin board material for a rematch next year.

"I think we made them look a whole lot better than they are," Griffin said.

Griffin, who ran for 217 yards against Washington State and 102 against Oklahoma, netted 12 yards on 12 carries against OSU. He talked about how the Cowboys rolled up safeties to shut down his runs and talked about being forced to throw more often than usual, then added, "I still don't think it was anything they did that stopped us."

His opinion was not shared by anyone wearing orange. On the contrary, OSU coaches and players weighed the evidence of the last two weeks and seemed eager to embrace the idea that D-Day defense day has arrived.

A change of culture would be welcomed, because the Cowboys are weary of being called a team that wins in spite of defense. Defensive players probably heard how bad they were so often in recent years that they started to believe it.

How do you dig out of that kind of psychological hole?

"Two things," Gundy said. "The first thing is you have to give credit to the staff because they have to get (confidence) instilled. And then it's up to the (players) to say 'OK guys, this is what we have to do. I don't care what anybody says. This is who we are, and this is what we have to do.' That's what it comes down to."

Now OSU defenders hear criticism and get mad enough to do something about it.

Andre Sexton said somebody on the ESPN crew (Sexton couldn't recall the name) has dogged the OSU defense two weeks in a row. The entire team was watching Saturday morning when the fellow, according to Sexton, said, "Oklahoma State, they have a great offense and we know they are going to put up points, but they don't have the athletes to be a good defense."

Said Sexton, "Maybe he needs to watch our games a little closer, but that's all right with me. I'm not really worried about him. I know how confident we are and we are going to continue to go out there and play."

Gundy met with the media after the Baylor game and opened his press conference with a few scattered positives. Then he said, "The real story is how our defense played."

OSU ranked 10th in the Big 12 and 101st nationally in total defense last season. The Cowboys are fifth among Big 12 teams in total defense this season. Big-time goals are all of a sudden possible, because the team is equipped to win even if the offense is less than great.

"It's just fun to see how much they have grown and how much better they have gotten," quarterback Zac Robinson said.

Gundy said the defense is better even though the cast of players is primarily the same. But the frame of mind, said Gundy, is different.

Said Baylor coach Art Briles, "Confidence is a great booster and right now they've got a lot of confidence."

Who would have predicted this? OSU will take an undefeated record, a BCS ranking and an honest-to-goodness defense to Austin. The Cowboys lost to Texas last year when the defense failed to protect a 35-14 fourth-quarter lead.

"It's a new team and a new defense and we have a new swagger to ourselves and we are just going to keep going out there and playing with confidence," Sexton said. "They are going to make plays, so when they make big plays, we are just going to regroup and gather ourselves and come back out there and hit them in the mouth." By JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer

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