Ebola was the
talk of the town in Dallas before even a single Oklahoma player arrived in
Texas this previous weekend, but it was overshadowed for 3 hours as the Sooners
took part in the annual Red River Rivalry against the Texas Longhorns. Initial
thoughts before kickoff was that Texas was terrible and OU needed to win big in
order to restore some confidence after their bitter defeat in Fort Worth versus
TCU two weeks ago. Well, if confidence was what the Sooners were looking for,
they certainly didn’t get it. The OU offense was anemic and only amassed 28
total yards in the first half. Texas, on the other hand, had a staggering 229
yards of total offense at the half. This football season, in the FBS, teams
that gain over 200 more yards than their opponent heading into halftime were
57-0. For the Sooners, that spelled disaster. Yet, at the half, the Sooners had
a surprising 17-13 lead over Texas. Alex Ross, the freshman running back for
OU, returned another momentum-swinging kickoff return to make it 7-3 in the Sooners
favor, and then after a Michael Hunnicut field goal, Zack Sanchez, the corner
who had been bashed all week for his weak performance against TCU, picked off
Texas quarterback, Tyron Swoops, and returned it for a touchdown to give OU a
17-3 lead, early in the 2nd quarter. So OU scored twice without its
offense even touching the ball, and in the end, that was certainly the
difference. For after Sanchez’s return, Swoops and the Longhorn offense marched
down the field for a touchdown, and then got the ball back with ample time to
tie the ballgame before halftime. But the Oklahoma defense stepped up and
forced Charlie Strong, the first-year Texas head coach, to opt for a field goal
as the half wound down. So, as stated previously, the Sooners held a 4-point
lead over Texas, and their offense had only managed to put 3 points on the
board.
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| OU quarterback, Trevor Knight, exits the field after OU's 31-26 win over Texas. The Sooners went 1-11 on 3rd down in the game. |
If you
were to say that Oklahoma fans were upset at the play-calling of OU offensive
coordinator, Josh Heupel, that would be an understatement on your part.
Sooners’ fans were livid with the poor decisions that Heupel was making. The
Longhorn defense kept stuffing the runs up the middle, which forced Heupel’s
hand, and caused him to turn into Mike Leach. One pass after the next either
resulted in a poor throw by OU quarterback, Trevor Knight, or it slipped
through the hands of the Oklahoma receivers. To make matters even worse, for
the second week in a row, the OU offense was awful on 3rd down, and
went 1 for 11. 1 for 11. No, you didn’t read that wrong. That percentage of 3rd
down conversions comes to 9%, and was just the most disgusting thing ever, but
the good thing, is that their 1 first down came on their final drive that pretty
much iced the game. But the Sooners didn’t always look terrible on Saturday.
In the
second half, the Oklahoma offense made several big plays that lead to scores,
and the Texas offensive prowess was put on hold, as the Longhorns seemed to
regress to their predicted form, and started playing like OU’s offense was in
the first half. After Oklahoma wide receiver, Sterling Shepard, was found
wide-open in the endzone to make the OU lead, 24-13, the Sooners went on
another long drive that was capped off by a Samaje Perine touchdown. For most
OU fans, that gave them some comfort and contentment with a 31-13 lead, but it
shouldn’t have.
The Longhorns
came back with a couple of long drives in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to
31-20, and then marched again to make it 26-31 with just under 5 minutes
remaining in regulation. Charlie Strong and the Longhorns decided to go for the
2-point conversion and try to cut the lead to 3, but it wasn’t meant to be, and
the Sooners defense stuffed Swoops on a quarterback keeper that had been giving
defensive coordinator for OU, Mike Stoops, massive headaches, all day. After
that, the Sooners did what they do best, and ran the ball. Yes, on 3rd
and 10 with just under a minute to go, the Sooners ran it, and that didn’t help
their percentage on 3rd down, but it did keep the clock running.
Texas, who used 2 timeouts early on due to miscommunication between Swoops and
the offensive coordinator, really came back to bite them.
In the end,
Texas couldn’t get their Hail Mary prayer, answered, and the Sooners escaped
the Red River Rivalry with a 31-26 victory over the Longhorns. In light of a
win, it was pretty obvious that Oklahoma showed us why they just can’t be one
of the 4 teams that will be headed to the playoffs this season. They lack an
offensive identity due to the fact their offensive coordinator hasn’t quite
grasped how to incorporate a running quarterback into their offense, and that
has hurt their offensive success to the point where it maybe too easy to beat
this Oklahoma team. Sure, the defense played as well as it could, considering
they were out there longer than they ever expected, but they couldn’t stop the
worst Texas offense anyone in Austin had ever seen, and that’s concerning. What
happens when the Baylor game comes around in November? What about the gun
slinging offense that OSU runs with Daxx Garman? These teams would have torn
the OU defense to shreds because the Sooners were just so tired from being on
the field for so long. But who’s at fault for that? The offense. They aren’t
getting enough 3rd down conversions to give their defense a rest,
(at least, not this last week) and that really does factor into these poor
performances by OU. As much as the bashing of this OU team feels proper, the
fact is that the Sooners got a victory after being shocked at TCU the previous
week, and they improved to 5-1 on the season. The Sooners take on Kansas State
this week at 11 AM CT on ESPN, and expect the offense to hear the boos raining
down on them if they don’t perform well, because K-State is looking awfully
good. Just something to think about, as OU treks on to try and fight for the 4th
spot in this year’s playoffs.
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