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Football teams under coach Mike Gundy in past years relied on the offense to win games.
The Cowboys would count on the offense to score in bunches and hope the defense could make one or two more stops than the opposition in order to win games.
The Cowboys have found a new identity — a defensive one.
In the Cowboys’ 31-28 victory against Colorado on Thursday night, the Cowboy defense stepped up in the fourth quarter for the second week in a row to seal a victory.
The Cowboy defense returned an interception for a touchdown in the fourth quarter this past weekend in a 24-17 victory against Texas Tech. The defense also had to make one more stop on fourth down to preserve the victory in the final minute of the game.
Defensive coordinator Bill Young, who built a reputation of turning poor defenses around, deferred any credit for the Cowboys’ (9-2, 6-1 Big 12) defensive improvement. Instead, he gave credit to the assistant coaches and the seniors playing in their final game at Boone Pickens Stadium.
“It wasn’t me that turned it around,” Young said. “You’ve got (linebackers coach) Glenn Spencer, you got (safeties coach) Joe DeForest and (cornerbacks coach) Jason Jones, and from a coaching standpoint, they’ve absolutely worked their tales for several years.
“And you’ve got a group of seniors that are just fighting tooth and nail to make this program as good as it can be.”
Senior linebacker Donald Booker, who led the team in tackles with nine and also recorded his fifth sack of the year, returned the favor and credited Young with the turnaround of the defense.
“Give respect to coach Young and the way he runs the defense,” Booker said. “He calls great plays and puts us in situations to make great plays. We want to get respect as a defense, and what he’s calling is helping us get the respect that we need.”
Allowing 28 points to a lowly Colorado team, whose record is 3-8 (2-5 Big 12) after Thursday’s game, may not sound like a strong defensive outing, but the Cowboys made three fourth-quarter stops to keep the Buffaloes at bay.
The offense, which was missing quarterback Zac Robinson, struggled to move the ball in the first half, giving the Colorado offense ample opportunities to score.
The offense turned the ball over four times, which put the Cowboy defense in unfavorable situations. The Buffaloes managed 14 points off of turnovers. They also had a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
In the fourth quarter, with five minutes remaining, senior linebacker Patrick Lavine forced a fumble and senior cornerback Perrish Cox recovered the ball.
With three minutes remaining, the Cowboys forced their seventh three-and-out of the game and Colorado was forced to punt, its 10th punt of the game. The offense was able to run out the clock from there.
The Cowboys held Colorado to 251 total yards, 13 yards rushing and 5-of-18 on third down conversions. Cox said he is pleased the defense can finally hold its own and win football games.
“That was the focus coming into the season. It kinda hurt that we always got to hear about that if the offense didn’t have a big game, we lose the game,” Cox said.
“We got tired of hearing that so we came in here and changed the perspective of the whole thing.”
Along with the offense in the first half, the special teams seemed to struggle as well. They gave up the 98-yard kickoff return, had a field goal blocked and Cox fumbled a punt return.
But there was one bright spot for Cox and the special teams unit: a 62-yard punt return for a touchdown; Cox’s second career punt return touchdown and sixth career return touchdown.
In Cox’s first home game of his freshman year, he ran the first kickoff of the game back for a touchdown. In his final home game of his senior year, he returned the first punt of the game for a touchdown.
“Every game it goes through my head that I’m going to return a kick,” Cox said. “Once that happened, it was unbelievable. I really couldn’t believe that I did it, but it happened.
“It’s still unbelievable. I’m celebrating it and celebrating the victory in our last senior game.”
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