AMES, Iowa – Sometimes, it’s really not that complicated. When you were examining Oklahoma at Iowa State, you had good on good for OU’s offense vs. ISU defense. And then you had, well, the lesser parts with the Sooners defense vs. the Cyclones offense.

This was the ultimate ‘get right’ game for OU’s defense, or at least it should have been. There have been cases where it has felt like that in the past only for things to not go according to plan.

Saturday, though, OK, that’s the defense that is making the crucial incremental improvements. With the game in the balance, it was the defense making all the big plays in OU’s 27-13 win at Iowa State on Saturday afternoon.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was a lot better than what it’s been in helping the Sooners improve to 5-3 overall and 2-3 in Big 12 play.

OU was up 20-13 with 9:13 left in the fourth quarter, and the Cyclones had a chance to tie the game after having been rather pedestrian offensively all game.

Justin Broiles interception. Boom.

OU’s offense couldn’t get anything going, however, and it went back to the Cyclones. This time with 6:16 left in the game, and this time it was Danny Stutsman coming up with the interception and a return that set up OU on ISU’s doorstep for the game-clinching touchdown.

“It’s one of those things where we’ve got to be ready to respond in any sort of moment,” linebacker DaShaun White said. “And I liked really our energy and how we approached sort of those situations. But every single time that anything bad happened to the offense or turnover or anything like that, it was just like let’s go and we would just attack it.

“I think we all fed off of each other today. And I think that today was something that we really needed just to kind of go forward knowing how it kind of works together when we click at a pretty high level.

Iowa State actually outgained OU 378-332 in the total yards department, but the defense came up with three interceptions and made ISU one dimensional the entire game.

The Cyclones had 27 carries for 66 yards, a paltry 2.4 yards per carry average. This was expected to be the get right game, and in a lot of ways, it was.

“It means the most to me,” quarterback Dillon Gabriel said. “They played their butt off. The amount of time they’ve put in with practice, non-mandatory time to be about their business. It’s paying off for them. They helped us out in a big way today. Gave us great field position. Creating turnovers, momentum and giving us the ball back. That was big.”

The Sooners defense was coming off a four-game span they would love to forget. Four consecutive games of allowing at least 41 points (41, 55, 49, 42) can do a lot toward destroying the confidence. At times, it might have even looked that way.

But something can happen with turnovers. OU was able to get two of them in the win vs. Kansas two weeks ago, and Woodi Washington got the ball rolling in Ames with an interception on ISU’s first drive of the game.

“I think it set the tone for the entire team,” Washington said. “For us to come out and get an interception, I think it excited the whole team. We ended up playing well the entire game after that.”

It wasn’t all clean, that goes without saying. For as happy as you are about the takeaways, you scratch your head at ISU’s ability to convert three fourth downs, including two critical ones in the fourth quarter to turn a 20-6 potential blowout to 20-13 and tight rest of the way.

It’s something Venables preached this week. Don’t worry about being perfect. Perfect doesn’t exist in the game of football. Play well and do it as consistently as you can.

Jordan Kelley had a sack, and OU finished with seven tackles for loss. Anchoring everything was DaShaun White with 14 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.

For a group that looked beaten down a mere three weeks ago, the resilience has been impressive. The confidence has returned, and we’ll see where this group can help take the Sooners the rest of the way.

Two-game winning streaks aren’t often celebrated by OU fans, but when you think about where this defensive mess was to where it is, it’s the incremental improvement.