If you follow the Oklahoma Football program at all and you watched the game last Saturday night, you already know that what was portrayed that evening is not the standard of Oklahoma football. That isn’t the Brent Venables standard nor the identity of this team. Kansas State played their best game of the season so far, which seems to be their m.o. against the sooners recently, and Venables even stated that the Wildcats were the better team.
“I saw a football game where I don’t think we played like we have the first three weeks... that starts with the man in the mirror, with us coaches, and obviously, we did a poor job of getting our guys ready to play.” -Brent Venables
The Oklahoma defense, who came into the game leading the country in tackles for loss, only had four tackles for loss and came up with zero sacks. They allowed K-State quarterback, Adrian Martinez, and the Wildcats shifty running back, Deuce Vaughn, to rush for 264 yards combined. The total rushing yardage in the first three games was 355 yards. In total, the defense gave up a of 509 yards of offense to a team that averaged 354.67 yards in the first three games. David Ugwoegbu led the defense in tackles with fifteen total tackles and Isiah Coe had two tackles for loss.
It wasn’t pretty offensively either. Oklahoma ran the ball for 220 yards and Eric Gray had 115 yards on the ground, but they never found the endzone. The Sooners averaged three scores a game on the ground through three weeks. Dillon Gabriel did throw four touchdowns and for 330 yards, but drives were not sustained as Michael Turk punted 5 times in the game which is second most this season. None of the receivers for the Sooners broke 100 yards. Marvin Mims had 87 yards and a score. Theo Wease and Brayden Willis were the only other Sooners who scored Saturday night.
Last week, there seemed to be a lack of urgency on both sides of the ball, and that showed with how K-State was able to stay in the ball game. The play that stands out is when Martinez got the Wildcats out of a 3rd and 16 with a 55-yard scamper to the OU four-yard line with just under two minutes to play. Martinez would score two plays later and seal the win for the Wildcats. The whole team looked off compared to how they played in the first three weeks. Ted Roof, defensive coordinator for the Sooners, said in a press conference on Monday that there were signs that the defense was off, but they fixed them throughout the week.
The schedule doesn’t let up as the Sooners head south to Fort Worth for a date with TCU at 11 a.m. Saturday. The Horned Frogs are currently undefeated at 3-0 with wins over Colorado, Tarleton State and Southern Methodist. Texas Christian is averaging 46.3 points per game while only allowing 21.3 points.
Max Duggan, the senior quarterback for the Horned Frogs, has been the starter ever since former Sooner, Chandler Morris, went out with an injury week one versus Colorado. Duggan is a big, physical guy. He has thrown for eight touchdowns this season and threw three last week versus SMU. Next to Duggan in the backfield is Kendre Miller. He carried the ball last week for a total of 142 yards and had one score.
Defensively, the Horned Frogs aren’t great, but they aren’t allowing teams to run up the scores. However; the TCU defense does allow 510 yards a game. SMU normally has a high octane offense and can put up points in a hurry, but the TCU defense will have a huge test this week facing the Sooners offense.
Against TCU, look for the Sooners to come out with a lot of energy. On defense, the line has to pressure the quarterback more and make it tougher at the line of scrimmage. They need to get into the backfield and create more opportunities for tackles for loss and sacks. Missed tackles were a huge problem last week. That is something Roof emphasized in the press conference Monday.
Offensively, look for Oklahoma to not commit penalties. Offensive coordinator, Jeff Lebby, mentioned in that same press conference on Monday that the penalties were something that they would hit on this last week leading up to TCU. He said that the five offensive penalties really stalled those drives. The third downs should also be better. Lebby wants his offense to be more efficient. He also mentioned that they need to start faster and help the defense out early in games.
The Sooners take on TCU at Amon G. Carter Stadium at 11 a.m. Saturday morning on ABC.