The defense had some rough spots, but came through with big plays
If you were on Twitter or Facebook during the Sooners’ game against UCLA you might have thought the defense was getting torched by the Bruins, but 14 points, right at 300 total yards and two turnovers is hardly a productive offensive day for anyone.
Yes, the Sooners had more missed tackles than fans would like to see and that seven-minute UCLA opening drive of the second half with a pair of third-down conversions may have triggered some fans’ PTSD to recent seasons lapses, but the defense responded with big plays of its own every time it was challenged.
Jaden Davis made a huge tackle on a third down play to force what would be a missed field goal and both Tre Brown and Ryan Jones got picks. The fourth-down stop in the second half is the kind of stand-up play that the Sooners were in direly short supply in the last couple of season. The group also managed to make adjustments on the fly and not get beat by the same thing over and over. That’s an encouraging sign for a group of fans that often felt like they were living through the movie Groundhog Day at times in recent seasons. Which brings us to –