Oklahoma Sooners vs. Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks: 5 Keys to Victory

Stop Kolton Browning

The Oklahoma Sooners have never been good at stopping running quarterbacks. They couldn’t stop Johnny Manziel last season in the Cotton Bowl. On the first drive of the bowl game, Manziel ran for a 23 yard touchdown and finished with 229 rushing yards and 287 passing yards. Think about it. Manziel combined for 516 yards against the Oklahoma Sooners defense, which was 115 more yards than OU combined for as a team.

Kolton Browning is not Johnny Manziel, but he was the Warhawks leading rusher last year while also throwing for over 3,000 yards in the season. There is not one returning starter on the Oklahoma Sooners defensive line this week. That means that these young defenders need to step up their game and prove they can stop Browning. If they can’t, the linebackers that were pretty much invisible last year need to do their job.

If the Oklahoma Sooners defense can’t stop Kolton Browning, they may not be able to stop any rushing quarterbacks this season.