Oklahoma Football Rewind: Takeaways From 18th-Straight Over I-State
By Chip Rouse
Everything was set up for the Sooners to stub their toe on Thursday night and drop out of the Playoff picture once and for all, but seldom-used Oklahoma football fullback Dimitri Flowers wasn’t having any part of it.
Flowers, who normally is the lead blocker for the running-back tandem of Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon and the last line of defense in protecting quarterback Baker Mayfield, did not have a single rushing attempt this season until Thursday night against Iowa State. In retrospect, maybe he should have.
By far the biggest learning from this rare weeknight game was watching Flowers step up and perform brilliantly in a role to which he is unaccustomed but clearly capable.
Defensive coordinators beware: The Sooners now have another multi-purpose offensive weapon who can both run with and catch the ball. As if there weren’t enough weapons in the Oklahoma arsenal to account for already.
Oklahoma was without the services of both Perine and Mixon against Iowa State, which put in question the Sooners’ ability to run the football, a key factor in their ability to effectively execute the passing game. The only players OU had available at the running back position were true freshman Abdul Adams and a walk-on freshman Devin Montgomery. No one outside of the Oklahoma coaching staff was really thinking about Flowers in that role.
The 235-pound, big-bodied Flowers bullied his way for 115 yards on the ground Thursday night, his first rushing yards in three seasons at Oklahoma and the fourth most by any Sooner running back this season.
In addition to averaging 5.2 yards every time he carried the ball, Flowers also was on the receiving end of three passes against the Cyclones, one for a touchdown to stretch a four-point Oklahoma advantage to 11 at halftime. A career night for the junior from San Antonio.
While Flowers was the standout performer for Oklahoma in the game, it was more of the same for Mayfield and Westbrook, who continue on a record-setting pace in their exceptional capacity to connect for big pass plays and, more important, touchdowns.
Mayfield has recorded four touchdown passes in each of his past four games and at least three TD throws in his past five outings. He has thrown at least two touchdown passes in night straight games, which is tied for the longest active streak among FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) teams.
And what more can you say about Mayfield’s No. 1 receiving target, Westbrook. The senior wide receiver has been virtually unstoppable and unreal this season.
For a sixth consecutive game, Westbrook eclipsed the century mark, hauling in seven passes for 131 yards and another long touchdown catch that covered 65 yards. His touchdown catch came on the Sooners’ very first play from scrimmage after Iowa State had taken its only lead in the game at 17-14 late in the second quarter.
Some other takeaways from the Sooners’ sixth conference win without a loss and seventh on the season:
Ball-Control Offense Is the Best Defense
It became abundantly as Thursday night’s game wore on that the Oklahoma defensive game plan was to pound the ball on the ground, take as much time on the play clock as allowed and play ball-control offense, keeping both the Sooner defense and the Iowa State offensive unit watching on the sidelines.
The Oklahoma offense was on the field for 22 of the 30 total minutes in the second half. It was midway through the third quarter before the Cyclones recorded their initial first down of the second half.
The Sooners were so efficient and productive on offense that punter Austin Seibert was called on only twice in the game.
Second Best Performance of the Season for Sooner Defense (with an asterisk)
The result of the Oklahoma offense dominating the second-half possession time was the defense allowing its second fewest yards of the season. The Sooners held the Iowa State offense to 290 total yards, 100 below the Cyclones’ season average. Because of the disparity in possession time, however, this is a misleading stat that is more a reflection of how good the offense is and not of any appreciable improvement on the defensive end.
Sooner Pass Rush Was Again Virtually Nonexistent
One reason the Oklahoma pass defense has been so vulnerable is because the guys up front aren’t able to get enough pressure on the quarterback.
In the pass-heavy Big 12, the quarterbacks are too good to be given time to scan the field and find open receivers. The more time the quarterback has, the better chance he has of completing the pass. This is compounded by the soft coverage the OU defensive backs have been playing in an effort to keep the receivers in front of them and ostensibly prevent getting burned on deep routes.
The Sooners did get the ISU quarterback to hurry his throw on several occasions but recorded only one sack on the night. Oklahoma was also helped out by several errant throws by the Cyclones’ Jacob Park that could have sustained drives.
The absence of a strong pass rush is going to be highly problematic in OU’s final three games, all of which are against teams with prolific passing games and much better quarterbacks than the Sooners have faced in their last two outings.
Junior Wide Receiver Jeffrey Mead Gets Into the Act
Six-foot, five-inch Jeffery Mead doubled his season output with two pass receptions for 42 yards, including a spinning, tackle-breaking 30-yard catch and run for a first-quarter Sooner touchdown. It was the junior wide receiver’s second TD catch of the season and the third of his career.