Fact or Fiction: Can the Sooners Fix the Defensive Back-End Breakdowns?

There is no question that quarterback Dane Evans and Tulsa’s spread offense exposed the problems we’ve seen too often before at the back end of the Oklahoma defense. The Sooners were torched for a troublesome 427 passing yards and never looked comfortable against the confident and sure-handed receiving corps of the Golden Hurricane.

Two different Tulsa receivers gained over 100 yards each in the game with 10-or-more receptions, and a third was just 16 yards shy of the century mark in receiving yards.

The Sooner cornerbacks drew criticism from the FOX Sports 1 TV announcing crew for playing such soft pass coverage, but the truth is, it didn’t matter whether Zack Sanchez and his teammate at the other corner position, P.J. Mbanasor, positioned themselves up close to bump the Tulsa wideouts when they came off the line of scrimmage or backed off a little to avoid getting beat on “go” routes, the result always seemed to turn out the same – a completed catch for another Golden Hurricane first down.

Sep 19, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; Tulsa Golden Hurricane wide receiver Keyarris Garrett (1) catches a pass while covered by Oklahoma Sooners cornerback Zack Sanchez (15) during the second quarter at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

It was a very rough day for the Oklahoma pass defense, and it could easily have cost the Sooners the game.

Defensive coordinator Mike Stoops said in his postgame interview comments that Tulsa’s up-tempo pace caused the Sooner “D” alignment problems. “We couldn’t get our fronts and coverages matched up,” Stoops said in obvious frustration. “The speed was a factor in getting our guys lined up. The speed went faster than they (Tulsa) have gone in the past, and we were just lethargic.”

You might say that Mike Stoops’ assessment was a blinding flash of the obvious. The real question is what are the Sooners going to do to correct the problem, and can they?

Before being accused of going all negative on the OU season when it is actually just getting started (with all nine conference games still ahead), there is still lots of time to make whatever adjustments are necessary before the conference teams with the most high-powered passing offenses show up on the schedule as the regular season enters the home stretch.

It’s not the Sooners don’t have talent in the defensive secondary. Sanchez is an All-Big 12 First Team selection. The rest of the OU starting secondary were very young last season, but they now have a valuable year of game experience under their belt, and head coach Bob Stoops said the five defensive backs in this year’s freshman class are the best group of secondary players he has seen in his time at Oklahoma.

Sep 19, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; Tulsa Golden Hurricane quarterback Dane Evans (9) attempts a pass against the Oklahoma Sooners during the second quarter at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

“It’s a group that is really athletic, has great size and range to them,” the Sooner head coach was quoted as saying in an article in Athlon’s 2015 college preview publication. “I think it is a group that is really going to help us improve there.”

That speaks well for future years – Sanchez and safeties Hatari Byrd and Ahmad Thomas are all juniors; everyone else in the secondary is a sophomore or below – but what about the remainder of this season?

Against Tulsa, the Sooner defense was not able to stop the run. The OU defensive front allowed 183 rushing yards, 161 of those to one player, the Golden Hurricane’s Zack Langer. Because the Sooners had to respect Tulsa’s ability to get yards on the ground, it opened up passing opportunities for the Golden Hurricane offense, and with experienced and talented receivers like the ones who play for Tulsa and an equally talented quarterback in Evans, even the best cover corners in the college game might have difficulty keeping the ball from reaching its intended target.

The Sooners did not appear to use many blitz packages and applied only minimal pressure to the Tulsa quarterback Evans. Eric Striker, the Sooners’ best pass rusher and one of the best in the country in that regard, was dropped back in coverage on a number of plays and virtually taken out of the game defensively.

When a good passing quarterback like Evans is afforded plenty of time to scan the field and pick out his receivers and he has the arm and accuracy to get the ball to them, it puts added pressure on the back end of the defense to hold their coverage on good athletic receivers.

True freshman P.J. Mbanasor was thrust into a starter’s role at cornerback for the first time when Jordan Thomas was made inactive and held out of the Tulsa game because of what was described by team officials as an “internal team matter.” Not that the game outcome would have been dramatically different, but Thomas has been playing much better this year, and the Sooners cannot afford to lose key impact players on the defensive side.

Sep 19, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; Tulsa Golden Hurricane wide receiver Keyarris Garrett (1) is pursued by Oklahoma Sooners safety Steven Parker (10) during the second quarter at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

A year ago, OU had a similar problem on defense against Big 12 co-champion Baylor, because the Bears were able to employ a solid running attack to supplement an especially dangerous aerial attack. The Sooners were not successful getting to or disrupting Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty, and he was able to burn the Oklahoma secondary for almost 400 yards in a 48-14 rout.

For a couple of years now, the constant lament among the Sooner coaches in OU losses has been that their defensive players were missing assignments, out of alignment and/or victims of communication, coverage and other tactical breakdowns.

It would seem to me that Oklahoma could get all of these problems worked out as they relate to improving defensive secondary coverage on passing plays, and it might not matter if they aren’t able to do a better job of getting to and putting pressure on the quarterback. Even if you aren’t able to get the sack, the heavier the pressure, the better chance a defense has of taking the QB out of his comfort zone and disrupting his throwing rhythm. It also forces the quarterback to get rid of the ball faster than he would like and gives the defenders in coverage a better chance of breaking up the play or, even better, picking off the pass.

Also, the better a defense is at disguising its coverages and confusing the opposing quarterback, the greater the advantage shifts in the favor of the defense. In the past, the Sooners have done an excellent job of mixing up and disguising defensive coverages. This is something else that could help shore up the Sooner secondary play.

So after three games, the Oklahoma defense, including the secondary, looked outstanding against Akron and in the second half against Tennessee, but leaked oil badly for an extended period against a balanced and very good offensive team in Tulsa.

I believe that the OU secondary is better this season than it looked last Saturday. Sooner fans are hoping that is the case, as well. There are things the Sooner coaches and players can do to correct the problems that plagued the guys manning the back end of the OU defense against Tulsa.

What’s worrisome, though, is that the offenses the Sooners will face in Big 12 when they go up against Baylor and TCU, Bedlam rival Oklahoma State and even Texas Tech, are every bit as good, and arguably even stronger, than what they encountered on Saturday. And something else: Getting better in the defensive secondary is only part of the solution to OU’s lingering problems on pass defense.