The 23-16 score and near-blown lead against Nebraska is becoming a disturbing pattern for many Oklahoma football fans early in the 2021 season.
Expectations were extremely high heading into not just this game but the season as a whole. But Oklahoma has struggled at home against Tulane and now Nebraska, a pair of unranked teams.
National Championship teams blow the Tulanes and Nebraskas of the world right out of the water, but Oklahoma allowed them to hang around with a chance to win at the end.
The purpose of this article, though, is not to bash the Sooners for their, let’s say, up-and-down performances in these two games, but rather to look at why Oklahoma fans should not be worried just yet.
If fans need something to get excited about, D.J. Graham’s interception may just find its place on the list of most spectacular interceptions in the history of football.
This play emphasizes the main bright spot of the growth of Oklahoma’s football program, the defense.
This angle of @djgraham_’s interception though! 😱 pic.twitter.com/gTsDwJ7XAE
— Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) September 20, 2021
In the past, if Oklahoma’s offense had a bad day, it was game over, because the other team would have 20 points by the end of the first quarter. But now, the defense has earned more trust to come through at critical times and has risen to the top 25 in the entire country.
The concern for the team at this point in the season is just as high as it was at the beginning of last year. The difference is, Oklahoma had two losses at this point in 2020.
Tight losses to Kansas State and Iowa State put an end to Oklahoma’s College Football Playoff aspirations by Week 3 of the 2020 season. But despite the close scores through three games this season, Oklahoma is still undefeated.
Now it is time for conference play. It is a new season at that point. Winning the Big 12 is the goal at the end of the day. There’s really no hope for the College Football Playoff if you don’t win the conference title.
The main concern for Oklahoma so far this season, though, has to be Sooner starting quarterback Spencer Rattler. While his stats have been good but not what fans were expecting from a player who just a few short weeks ago was being touted as the favorite this season to win the Heisman Trophy, Rattler has been guilty of some poor decision-making and has displayed some accuracy issues in throwing the football.
Rattler is a quarterback any program would die for, but the expectation for signal-callers at Oklahoma has become Heisman caliber, given the school’s uncanny recent run of Heisman winners and finalists (the likes of Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts).
QB whisperer Lincoln Riley still has work to do with his young quarterback, but this was the same conversation we were having last year. After the initial losses of 2020, Rattler’s game began to click, and this caused everything to click for Oklahoma as a whole.
The running game has been elite despite the lack of depth at the position. Kennedy Brooks and Eric Gray have both racked up at least 185 yards on the ground in three games.
Oklahoma seems to have gone with a ground-and-pound system so far, and that is not necessarily a bad strategy. That system is going to be necessary for survival in the SEC, given that not all games will be high-scoring affairs such as the BIG 12.
The receiving trio of freshman Mario Williams, Marvin Mims, and Jadon Haselwood have all proven to be great weapons for Rattler, it just comes down to being able to get the ball to these playmakers.
The defensive line has been great in getting to the quarterback with Perrion Winfrey, Isaiah Thomas, and Nik Bonitto all credited with 2.5 sacks on the year.
The secondary played great against Nebraska with players like Pat Fields making key plays when the Sooners needed them.
The entire college football landscape will change drastically as the year goes along, so do not be surprised if Oklahoma looks totally different than it has in these past three games.
This team is not the team we will see at the end of the year, being able to fight and get these wins while shaking off the rust will pay dividends later in the year come bowl season.
For nonconference play, the rust excuse is still valid for teams getting their start to the year. While Oklahoma has never seen these teams before in nonconference contests in the Lincoln Riley era, but they have seen the Big 12 teams they are about to face quite a few times.
The Sooners’ next game against West Virginia could be a cause for concern after how the Mountaineers played at home last weekend against a Power Five opponent in Virginia Tech, but Oklahoma is a more talented team than the Mountaineers.
The Sooners have been there done that with the BIG 12, it would not be surprising to see a major jump in improvements due to this once we see them in conference play.
In the words of NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers: “R-E-L-A-X” when it comes to Oklahoma shaking off the rust. That is what nonconference play is for, and we should see a much different Sooner team on Saturday under the lights against visiting West Virginia.