Oklahoma Football Rewind: Takeaways in Savoring Sooners Red River Victory
By Chip Rouse
The standings reflect two wins and no losses for Oklahoma football in Big 12 action, tied with Baylor for the conference lead.
The cruel reality, however, tells a slightly different story. While the Sooners came out on top in wins over TCU and Texas the past two weekends, those victories weren’t without quite a bit of anguish in the closing minutes, with the outcome still in some doubt.
In both games, Oklahoma has built double-digit leads, only to allow their opponent to strike quickly and with relative ease and get back in the game, turning a two-or three-possession deficit into a one-possession contest with ample time remaining to seize victory from the jaws of defeat.
We all know there was a good ending in both cases, and a win is a win, but you have to wonder, all things being equal, if that is a sustainable scenario going forward.
More on that in the coming days, but for now, it’s good to be above .500, with more wins than losses, for the first time in the 2016 season. That might not seem like such a big deal, particularly by Oklahoma standards, but with the number of injuries sustained by key players on both sides of the ball, it serves as a strong testament to how hard the Sooners are scrapping and working hard to keep improving and keep winning.
A win over Texas is always a big deal in the Sooner Nation, and the sum of most every victory is more good outcomes than bad. That truly was the case in the Sooners’ win over the Longhorns on Saturday, but let’s not kid ourselves, while the good may have outweighed the bad, there is still plenty to be concerned about with this Oklahoma team.
Here is what we consider to be several key takeaways for Oklahoma football as the Sooners returned the Golden Hat to Norman, where it has resided 11 times in Bob Stoops’ 18 seasons at OU: