If you feel like you’ve seen this Oklahoma song-and-dance before, it’s because you have. Almost every single game in 2018.
A lot of incredibly good. A lot of head-shaking bad. And somehow, someway, a victory even in Bedlam. The Sooners were far from perfect but did just enough to stave off the upset bid by visiting Oklahoma State in a wild 48-47 victory on Saturday afternoon.
Tre Brown broke up a two-point conversion with 1:03 left in the game, and the Sooners recovered the onside kick to finally put Bedlam to bed.
It has now been four games with Ruffin McNeill as the interim defensive coordinator. And after stellar debuts against TCU and Kansas State, it has felt like regression once again, allowing 46 points at Texas Tech and 47 vs. OSU. The only common thread? OU is 4-0 in that span, 9-1 overall, 6-1 in the Big 12 and No. 6 in the college football playoff rankings.
“I'm not satisfied. I'm not happy with how we played,” linebacker Curtis Bolton said. “We've gotta play better. We can't give up 50 points and expect to be a playoff defense, a playoff team. We've gotta get better on defense.
“It happens during the week. We've gotta practice better. We've gotta put more emphasis on through the week so we don't come out here and give up 50 points every weekend because that's something we don't wanna do.”
OSU, at times, has looked like a lost team, but the Cowboys racked up 640 yards of offense and quarterback Taylor Cornelius threw for 501 yards and three touchdowns.
But with OSU driving midway through the fourth quarter and the game tied 41-41, it was the defense creating the lone turnover of the game.
“It changes the game. We talk about that a lot. We need to start coming up with turnovers,” Bolton said. “We need to get more of those. It was huge. It was a huge point in the game. We came up with it and that's all that matters. Our offense went down and took care of business.”
Speaking of offense, the Sooners totaled 702 yards nearly evenly with 353 rushing yards and 349 passing yards. Kennedy Brooks rushed for 165 yards and three scores, while Trey Sermon added 124 yards and two touchdowns.
“Those guys played phenomenal tonight, running backs ran the ball great, receivers blocked sell and caught the ball well,” quarterback Kyler Murray said. “We played really well on offense tonight. I trust everybody on the offense. I threw for 350 yards or something like that, but I don’t think that had anything to do with it. We just wanted to show physicality and dominate up front.”
Despite averaging 9.1 yards per play, there were times the offense looked out of sync. There were times it stumbled in the red zone and settled for field goals instead of touchdowns.
OU doesn’t feel like one of the four best teams in the nation. Doesn’t appear to be college football playoff worthy, but the Sooners keep winning.
Not always pretty, simply finding a way.
You can criticize the defensive outing, and rightfully so, but head coach Lincoln Riley loves his group and all that matters, in the end, is the victory.
“Yea, I just don’t listen to it, because I know just like it has here the previous three years, you just have to win,” Riley said. “It’s about winning. It’s not about this team playing that team, this and that. It’s about your matchup on the field each and every Saturday, and at the end of the game do you win or lose?
“The result here has been the last few years here, when we’ve taken care of business in the conference, we’ve taken care of business out of conference, we’ve been in the playoff. You just have to win. Everybody wants to make these predictions and all that right now... We’ve been through this. We know how it goes, and if we continue to win we’re going to be in great shape.”
Not all problems were solved with dismissing Mike Stoops. OU continues to be a fun, but incredibly flawed team. Is that going to be enough?
A lot of incredibly good. A lot of head-shaking bad. And somehow, someway, a victory even in Bedlam. The Sooners were far from perfect but did just enough to stave off the upset bid by visiting Oklahoma State in a wild 48-47 victory on Saturday afternoon.
Tre Brown broke up a two-point conversion with 1:03 left in the game, and the Sooners recovered the onside kick to finally put Bedlam to bed.
It has now been four games with Ruffin McNeill as the interim defensive coordinator. And after stellar debuts against TCU and Kansas State, it has felt like regression once again, allowing 46 points at Texas Tech and 47 vs. OSU. The only common thread? OU is 4-0 in that span, 9-1 overall, 6-1 in the Big 12 and No. 6 in the college football playoff rankings.
“I'm not satisfied. I'm not happy with how we played,” linebacker Curtis Bolton said. “We've gotta play better. We can't give up 50 points and expect to be a playoff defense, a playoff team. We've gotta get better on defense.
“It happens during the week. We've gotta practice better. We've gotta put more emphasis on through the week so we don't come out here and give up 50 points every weekend because that's something we don't wanna do.”
OSU, at times, has looked like a lost team, but the Cowboys racked up 640 yards of offense and quarterback Taylor Cornelius threw for 501 yards and three touchdowns.
But with OSU driving midway through the fourth quarter and the game tied 41-41, it was the defense creating the lone turnover of the game.
“It changes the game. We talk about that a lot. We need to start coming up with turnovers,” Bolton said. “We need to get more of those. It was huge. It was a huge point in the game. We came up with it and that's all that matters. Our offense went down and took care of business.”
Speaking of offense, the Sooners totaled 702 yards nearly evenly with 353 rushing yards and 349 passing yards. Kennedy Brooks rushed for 165 yards and three scores, while Trey Sermon added 124 yards and two touchdowns.
“Those guys played phenomenal tonight, running backs ran the ball great, receivers blocked sell and caught the ball well,” quarterback Kyler Murray said. “We played really well on offense tonight. I trust everybody on the offense. I threw for 350 yards or something like that, but I don’t think that had anything to do with it. We just wanted to show physicality and dominate up front.”
Despite averaging 9.1 yards per play, there were times the offense looked out of sync. There were times it stumbled in the red zone and settled for field goals instead of touchdowns.
OU doesn’t feel like one of the four best teams in the nation. Doesn’t appear to be college football playoff worthy, but the Sooners keep winning.
Not always pretty, simply finding a way.
You can criticize the defensive outing, and rightfully so, but head coach Lincoln Riley loves his group and all that matters, in the end, is the victory.
“Yea, I just don’t listen to it, because I know just like it has here the previous three years, you just have to win,” Riley said. “It’s about winning. It’s not about this team playing that team, this and that. It’s about your matchup on the field each and every Saturday, and at the end of the game do you win or lose?
“The result here has been the last few years here, when we’ve taken care of business in the conference, we’ve taken care of business out of conference, we’ve been in the playoff. You just have to win. Everybody wants to make these predictions and all that right now... We’ve been through this. We know how it goes, and if we continue to win we’re going to be in great shape.”
Not all problems were solved with dismissing Mike Stoops. OU continues to be a fun, but incredibly flawed team. Is that going to be enough?
