Oklahoma football: Defense is much better, and so is Sooners’ future
By Chip Rouse
The Oklahoma football offense has been one of the best in the nation all six years Lincoln Riley has been associated with the program.
In fact, two of those seasons (2017 and 2018) Oklahoma had the No. 1 offense among FBS college football teams, and in two others (2016 and 2019), the Sooners finished second and third, respectively, in that category.
Over that six-year span, Oklahoma made it into the College Football Playoff four times. All four Playoff appearances, the Sooners were sent home after the first game, and all four times it was not because of OU’s inability to put points on the scoreboard, but rather their inability to stop their opponent from doing so.
In 2017, Baker Mayfield and college football’s most prolific offense that season led Georgia 31-14 in the first half, but lost 54-48 in double overtime. The following season, No. 1 Alabama roared out to a 28-0 lead on it way to a 45-34 victory, and then came the 63-28 beatdown at the hands of No. 1 LSU in the national semifinals in 2019.
In all of those cases the Oklahoma offensive production was good enough to win any of the games. The difference in every Oklahoma Playoff appearance the past four seasons has been a Sooner defense that ranked among the worst in the country.
In the event you didn’t notice this season, this is not the same Oklahoma football team we’ve seen out-gunsling and outscore everybody in the regular season in recent years, only to get rolled over in the postseason not by better offenses but much better defenses.
As one regional sportswriter described it: The Oklahoma “defense has gone from being improved to being formidable.” And the credit for that belongs to Alex Grinch, who took over a much-maligned defense that was in total disarray under defensive coordinator Mike Stoops and in two seasons has transformed the unit into one that is not only one of the best in the offensive-minded Big 12, but in the country, aw well.
By comparison, the year before Grinch joined the Sooner coaching staff, Oklahoma ranked dead last among FBS teams in pass defense (294 yards per game allowed), was 120th in takeaways (11), 101st in scoring defense (33.3 points allowed per game), 59th in rushing defense ( 159.8 per game),114th in total defense (453.8 yards per game), and 126th in red-zone defense (.926).
This past season, in those same statistical categories, the Sooners ranked 29th in scoring defense (21.7), 29th in total defense (350.6), 9th in rushing defense (105.1), tied for 19th in takeaways (19, 16 of them interceptions) and 41st in red-zone defense (.795).
The weak link in the Oklahoma defense this season continued to be in pass defense. OU ranked 83rd nationally in defending passes (245.5 yards per game), largely because teams were forced to throw more passes against them because they were unable to run the football. Even then, the Sooners improved from 129th in pass defense in 2018 to 83rd this past season.
The message is crystal clear: With many players returning on both offense and defense for what we all hope will be a more normalized 2021 season, the Sooners are a more complete team and playing with a lot of confidence and momentum.
Just think, it Oklahoma had played a six-game season, beginning with Texas or TCU, like Ohio State it would have been difficult to keep the Sooners out of this year’s College Football Playoff.
A formidable defense is exactly what Oklahoma needs to 1) make the Playoff next season, and 2) get over that one-and-done hump and move on to play for an eighth national championship.