OSU Defense Saves the Cowboys From Disaster in Season Opener…. Twice
Devin Harper broke through the line of scrimmage, locked in on Jason Shelley, left his feet and slung the Missouri State QB to the ground with a bit of help from Brock Martin.
The play in itself isn’t significant, but the context behind it is. It didn’t happen in the first half, or even in the third quarter.
It was with 15 seconds left in the fourth. And it saved the game.
“Coach Knowles always tells us that if it comes down to us, we’ve gotta make it happen,” Harper said. “We made it happen. That’s what we play to do.”
At halftime the Cowboys led 20-3 and it looked like we were destined for a blowout, but Missouri State had other ideas. The Bears proceeded to outscore the Pokes 13-3 over the next 27 minutes, and just like that it was a seven-point game with 3 minutes to go. After a botched kickoff recovery to add onto the second-half mayhem, Missouri State suddenly had the ball inside the OSU 20-yard-line with a chance to tie it. Or potentially even take the lead with a two-point conversion.
In steps the Cowboy defense.
In a four-play sequence, the defense allowed a one-yard rush followed by back-to-back-to-back incompletions thanks to some gutsy but well-timed blitzes. The defense rose to the occasion and it looked like the game might be over.
Wrong again.
The offense went three-and-out, so once again the defense took the field with 1:34 to go and they had 70 yards to defend. Over the last two years, that unit has been able to get the game-winning stop a handful of times, so the confidence on the sideline was extremely high.
“It doesn’t matter what happens or where the ball is, we always say give us an inch and we’ll defend it,” defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said. “It’s a mentality it really is.”
Missouri State managed to march down to the OSU 26 and once again make things interesting, but that was as far as the Bears would go. On third down Collin Oliver and Jabbar Muhammad teamed up to sack Shelley, followed by the play made by Harper that was mentioned earlier to end it.
For a majority of the past decade, it was the offense that bailed out the defense to win games. Since 2019 it has been the opposite, with the 2021 opener being maybe the best example to date.