Opinion: What we learned from the Oklahoma Sooners’ 48-16 victory
For those of you that follow me on Twitter, you know I can be vocal about my opinion on many topics. For those of you that don’t, well, you’re living life wrong. But don’t worry, you can change your life around and follow me @DiegoG20.
Anyway, the 2014 season has finally began. The fourth-ranked Oklahoma Sooners were at home against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, who received a nice check to come to Norman and take a beating.
First, let me start off with my 3 #Sooners Things I Learned Today:
1. Trevor Knight is for real.
19/34, 253 passing yards, 1 TD, and 1 INT. The completion percentage isn’t amazing, but Knight stayed composed in the pocket, didn’t force throws, and slid to the turf when he was on the run. He clearly showed he has matured from taking big hits last season to sliding and avoiding the big hit and taking what the defense gives him. His TD pass to Shepard was a perfect throw. He hit him in stride. Now, he still made some mistakes. His accuracy wasn’t the best, as evidenced by his 55.8 completion percentage. If he can improve his accuracy, he can definitely be a top quarterback in the country.
2. Ford/Ross will be great RBs.
Ford: 9 rushes, 51 yards, and 2 TDs.
Ross: 11 rushes, 36 yards, and 2 TDs.
And I forgot to mention Samaje Perine in the tweet. Perine’s stats were: 13 rushes, 77 yards, and 1 TD.
Ross also had an 80 yard kick return in the game.
If this 3-way combination can be consistent throughout the season, this can be the best RB trio OU has seen since Adrian Peterson, Chris Brown, and Allen Patrick.
3. The Defense is for real.
The starting defense had only allowed three points until the 4th quarter when the backups allowed 13. Jordan Evans was ejected in the first quarter for a questionable targeting call, and will be forced to miss the first half of the Tulsa game, but the rest of the defense played almost flawless. Zack Sanchez had an interception and the defense only allowed 1.9 yards per rush and only gave up 245 yards the whole game. A few blemishes I noticed were that the defense still allowed a few big plays. Big gains will really hurt Oklahoma against better systems like Oklahoma State, Texas, and Baylor so Mike Stoops has to find a way to limit those but overall, the defense played as expected: great.
A few other notes:
The receivers didn’t have a huge impact. The leading receiver was running back Keith Ford, who had 65 yards on four catches. Not surprisingly, Sterling Shepard was Knight’s primary target, but only had four receptions. I know the running backs are great, but they can’t carry the load every game. Guys like Young, Quick, and Smallwood need to step up and help open the passing game.
Also, a shout out to the OU wardrobe department. In Stoops’ 200th game at OU, he went with the stripes swag.
Overall, I was very pleased with the effort I saw from the Sooners. Great way to start the season. A few little kinks to work out and then it’s time to move on to Week Two vs. Tulsa.