OU Football: Sooners Failure to Defend Defines Disappointing 1-2 Start

The telltale signs were there very early in perhaps the biggest OU football home game in the Bob Stoops era.

Oklahoma drove 65 yards after receiving the opening kickoff in its classic showdown Saturday night with the Buckeyes of Ohio State. The opening drive stalled, however, at the Ohio State 10-yard line, leaving the Sooners to settle for a seemingly chip-shot field goal to open the scoring. Only Austin Seibert’s 27-yard attempt was pushed to the right and clanked against the vertical upright, ending up in no points and swing momentum to the visitors out of the Big Ten.

That’s where the momentum stayed all night long, except for a brief moment late in the opening quarter when the Sooners’ Joe Mixon fielded an Ohio State kickoff after the Buckeyes had gone up 14-0 and took it 97 yards to the house. Just like that, there was renewed optimism among the record crowd of nearly 88,000 that Oklahoma was right back in the game.

The ray of crimson-and-cream hope was very short lived, though. Ohio State reached the end zone on four of its six first-half possession, three on TD throws to Noah Brown of the Buckeyes, who had just one career touchdown catch coming into the game.

The last of Brown’s three first-half touchdown catches came just six seconds before halftime, when the 6-foot, 2-inch Ohio State wide receiver made a sensational one-hand grab of the ball on the back of OU defensive back Michiah Quick while the two were falling to the ground in the corner of the end zone.

That score, in the closing seconds of the opening half, which put the No. 4-ranked Buckeyes comfortably up 35-17, all but sucked the life out of the stadium, and you could also see it in the faces of the frustrated Sooner players. It didn’t help the sentiment from the Sooner sidelines or the stands, knowing that the Buckeyes were also going to receive the opening kick of the second half.

The second 30 minutes wasn’t nearly as explosive on the offensive end as the first, with Ohio State outscoring the Sooners 10-7, resulting in a 45-24 final score and leaving Sooner fans wondering what really to make of this year’s Oklahoma team that just three weeks ago was a No. 3 in the national polls.

After just three games, the Sooners stand 1-2 and, in all likelihood, will be unranked come the beginning of Week 4 in the 2016 season.

For you conspiracy theorists, you can blame it on the pollsters, who ranked Oklahoma in the top five to begin the 2016 season. The last four times the Sooners were ranked in the top five in the preseason they did not end the season higher than 15th. The way things are going, it is looking like this could well be a fifth time.

The real reason is this Oklahoma team is not as good as everyone, including yours truly, thought it was. The Sooners have real problems in all areas. The Houston game gave us the first glimpse that things were not right with this team, and against a very young, but extremely talented Ohio State team, those problem areas became even more apparent.

The Sooner defense appeared confused and unorganized at numerous times during the Ohio State game. The secondary was believed to be one of the team’s strengths coming into the season, with three out of four starters returning, but the back end of the Oklahoma defense is once again allowing too many big pass plays for big yardage (this has been a problem area a good part of the past decade).

And both Houston and Ohio State have exploited Oklahoma’s inexperience at the corner position vacated by the departure of All-Big 12 defensive back Zack Sanchez after last season. Defensive coordinator Mike Stoops and defensive backs coach Kerry Cooks have not tried several Sooner players at the corner spot opposite Jordan Thomas this season, but no one has stepped up to show that he could get the job done. Meanwhile, teams are taking full advantage of the mismatches in the OU pass coverage.

Quarterback Baker Mayfield continues to hold on to the ball too long, and on Saturday night it cost the Sooners on several critical third- and fourth-down plays. He was sacked three times and threw two interceptions and almost a third when an Ohio State defender ran under and nearly held on to an overthrown ball thrown deep.

Mayfield did make some excellent throws, but he has not shown the consistency and accuracy with his passes that he did last year, but he also doesn’t have a Sterling Shepard to bail him out with difficult catches.

“An outstanding team really beat the heck out of us here tonight. Our football team was not near good enough in a big game.” –Bob Stoops, OU head coach

The Sooner junior redshirt quarterback knows he has not played up to his capability in Oklahoma’s two losses this season and takes full accountability for it.

“Personally, I haven’t played well this season,” Mayfield said in the OU postgame press conference. “I felt that (this) game goes to show that I haven’t been the player that I was. I have been trying to work on it and have been trying to get better an better, but it just goes to show that in big games I haven’t played well.”

Unlike against Houston, Oklahoma did not abandon the running game, even down by 25 points to the Buckeyes early in the second half. Of the Sooners 68 total offensive plays, 33 were runs and 35 passes. Joe Mixon had 78 rushing yards and Samaje Perine, who had the majority of the carries, added 60.

Ohio State pounded the Sooners on the ground, rushing for 291 net yards with three different ball carriers gaining over 75 yards apiece. The Buckeyes were rarely in third-and-long situations and sustained lengthy drives, keeping the OU offense on the sidelines and adding to the Sooners defensive woes.

Oklahoma entered the game with Ohio State allowing just 84 yards per game on the ground.

Bob Stoops and the Oklahoma coaches have their work cut out for them. OU can forget about the College Football Playoff this season, but the goal of winning a 10th Big 12 championship under Stoops is still very much in front of the Sooners.

You can only imagine what Stoops was feeling as he headed into his postgame press conference. He didn’t waste any time in acknowledging what was a blinding flash of the obvious:

“An outstanding team really beat the heck out of us here tonight,” Stoops said. “Our football team was not near good enough in a big game. I felt we got really beat in all phases of the game. We just need to play better in a lot of areas, and that’s what I take responsibility for.”

The immediate road ahead doesn’t get any easier, though, with a trip to TCU, the annual Red River game with a much-improved Texas team and a home date with Bill Snyder’s Kansas State Wildcats serving as the Sooners next three opponents.

Fortunately, the Sooners have a bye week before going to TCU two weekends from now. That’s time off this bruised, battered and beaten-down Oklahoma team can definitely use.

Only one other time in Stoops 18 seasons at the helm have the Sooners begun a season 1-2. That was in 2005, with losses to TCU and UCLA bookending a win over Tulsa. Oklahoma finished 8-4 that season and 6-2 in the Big 12.