Just by looking at the score of last weekend’s 52-16 loss at Oklahoma, it’s pretty clear that the ISU defense didn’t live up to expectations.

But linebacker Jordan Harris disagrees.

“It probably doesn’t look like it from the scoreboard, but we played pretty good defense at times,” Harris said. “Besides the trick play in the first half, they never drove the field and scored on us.

“For the most part we played pretty good defense.”

Harris is right about one thing — the Sooners didn’t drive down the field to score. Their three first-quarter touchdowns came on just seven plays lasting a total of 90 seconds.

The Cyclones allowed 279 yards on the ground and 405 through the air, combining for a total 684 yards. The Sooners completed 75 percent of their passes, averaging 16.2 yards per completion.

Defensive coordinator Wally Burnham blamed, among other things, missed assignments and tackles.

“We had a very poor technique tackling,” Burnham said. “We had tackles at the line of scrimmage that they broke, and that’s inexcusable. We can’t have that. No team can have that.”

The Cyclones have placed an added focus on tackling and coming up with stops in practice this week, but Harris said it’s not too much more than usual.

“Were doing the same thing that we do, just having more emphasis on it,” Harris said. “We get coached on how to tackle the correct form every week, we just got to put more emphasis on it as a whole defense.”

But on the bright side, the second quarter Saturday was easily the best for the Cyclones defensively. They held the Sooners scoreless and forced two punts.

The Cyclones also forced a fumble, which eventually led to a field goal.

Harris said the main reason the defense found so much success in the second quarter was simply because everybody did their part.

“Everybody was just doing their job, that’s all it is,” Harris said. “When everybody does their job, the defense will work real well. When everybody is not doing their job, teams will score on us quick.”

The Cyclones couldn’t keep the strong defensive hold up much longer, though. On every drive but one in the second half, Oklahoma found a way to put points up on the board, adding four touchdowns and a field goal before the end of the game.

Without a stop in the second half, the strong defensive stand the Cyclones had in the second quarter essentially didn’t matter. Harris said the defense can’t let up like that again and that they are working to put together a stronger defensive game.

“In order to be a good defense, you can’t just be good one or two drives,” Harris said. “You have to be consistent the whole game. That’s something we have to work toward as a whole.”