Sometimes, Time of Possession does matter.

[Schoonerman]

Check my math, but I'm showing the Bears had 5 possessions, 16 plays for 99 yards, they had slightly more than five minutes of possession and were held scoreless after halftime. It did not hurt that OU went on four cross-country scoring drives (3 TDs, 1 FG) in the second half to keep the Baylor offense on the sidelines. The long scoring drives kept the OU defense rested and allowed them to do a nice job of shutting down the Bears in the second half.

I recall Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley have said they are not concerned about Time of Possession, but were more focused on scoring more than their opponent. However, last night showed the best defense is sometimes a better offense and was one of the few instances where TOP was the crucial stat in an OU win.

 

[Plainosooner]

The first person who ever talked about time of possession was Bud Wilkinson, when he entered the broadcast booth in the 60's doing college games. The irony was that the most obvious teams who benefited from time of possession were Lombardi's Packers for nearly a decade in that time frame in the NFL.

I've always figured that number of plays, was more important than time of possession. But last night, we had both. It sure didn't seem like it in the first half. But it just shows how important turnovers are, as Grinch has been preaching since he got to Norman.

 

[veritas59]

Second half...
Points: OU 24, Baylor 0
Plays: OU 58, Baylor 16
Yards: OU 368, Baylor 58
First downs: OU 22, Baylor 4
TOP: OU 24:20, Baylor 5:40

 

[CTOkie]

I believe part of OU's defensive issues has been due, in part, to the offense not using more time off the clock.
The Baylor game reflected how the defense benefits from both time and play domination....as the opposition defense gets worn down. Baylor's defenders were out of gas in the second half and especially the 4th quarter.

 

[runningback43]

The defense also did a good job of getting 3 and outs in the 2nd half and caused a couple of turnovers. Sometimes your best defense is your own offense. Dominate the time of possession and keep the other teams offense off the field.

 

[humblesooner]

The Play of the Game was the caused fumble by Hasty.
OU had just run off a 12 Play, 74 yard, 5:44 touchdown drive to open the second half.
Hasty has a big run (32 yards) and fumbles on Baylor's first play.
OU then goes on an 11 play, 51 yard 4:37 touchdown drive.
The defense has played 9:21 of the first 9:31 of the third quarter (23 plays and 131 yards).
Defense is gassed at this point.
Then Baylor's O doesn't do them any favors with three consecutive 3 and outs before the final 6 play drive that ended in the Int.
Meanwhile, OU is taking advantage of the gassed defense and wins the game.

 

[Plainosooner]

The Play of the Game was the caused fumble by Hasty.
OU had just run off a 12 Play, 74 yard, 5:44 touchdown drive to open the second half.
Hasty has a big run (32 yards) and fumbles on Baylor's first play.
OU then goes on an 11 play, 51 yard 4:37 touchdown drive.
The defense has played 9:21 of the first 9:31 of the third quarter (23 plays and 131 yards).
Defense is gassed at this point.
Then Baylor's O doesn't do them any favors with three consecutive 3 and outs before the final 6 play drive that ended in the Int.
Meanwhile, OU is taking advantage of the gassed defense and wins the game.

Play of the year. The defense was different the rest of the game. Maybe the season?

 

[Belldozer1]

Check my math, but I'm showing the Bears had 5 possessions, 16 plays for 99 yards, they had slightly more than five minutes of possession and were held scoreless after halftime. It did not hurt that OU went on four cross-country scoring drives (3 TDs, 1 FG) in the second half to keep the Baylor offense on the sidelines. The long scoring drives kept the OU defense rested and allowed them to do a nice job of shutting down the Bears in the second half.

I recall Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley have said they are not concerned about Time of Possession, but were more focused on scoring more than their opponent. However, last night showed the best defense is sometimes a better offense and was one of the few instances where TOP was the crucial stat in an OU win.

I was thinking to myself on OU’s last possession that we were leaving Baylor way too much time to have a chance to score once they got the ball back. It seemed like Riley was rushing things and then I recalled after the ISU game in Riley’s post game interview, Riley said that he was confident that his defense was going to make a stop for us and they did.

Surely he didn’t really believe that and surely he wasn’t putting his defense back on the field in the Baylor game to make a stop?

Well, it worked for the second week in a row but I can tell you Riley has a lot more confidence in our D than I do LOL.

 

[humblesooner]

I was thinking to myself on OU’s last possession that we were leaving Baylor way too much time to have a chance to score once they got the ball back. It seemed like Riley was rushing things and then I recalled after the ISU game in Riley’s post game interview, Riley said that he was confident that his defense was going to make a stop for us and they did.

Surely he didn’t really believe that and surely he wasn’t putting his defense back on the field in the Baylor game to make a stop?

Well, it worked for the second week in a row but I can tell you Riley has a lot more confidence in our D than I do LOL.

Gotta say, I thought they were going to be able to kick a FG and take it to OT. I was sure wishing we could have picked up that last 1st down, run the clock down and kick the GW FG.
I did not think they had it in them to drive the field and score a TD, especially, with no time outs left.
Finally, I did think we had all the momentum we needed to pull it out in OT.

I can just recall all three of those thoughts while the game was goign on.

 

[Belldozer1]

Gotta say, I thought they were going to be able to kick a FG and take it to OT. I was sure wishing we could have picked up that last 1st down, run the clock down and kick the GW FG.
I did not think they had it in them to drive the field and score a TD, especially, with no time outs left.
Finally, I did think we had all the momentum we needed to pull it out in OT.

I can just recall all three of those thoughts while the game was goign on.

I think I had Mike Stoops flashbacks PTSD on Baylor’s last drive and Herbstreit was saying he’s perplexed as to why OU was playing super soft cushions on the corners. Turned out Grinch knew what he was doing and slid his player with the best hands into the secondary, A HYBRID DE...LOL