Oklahoma football: Sooners’ primary defensive issue is secondary depth

The oft-heard expression, “The more things change the more they stay the same,” comes to mind in assessing the Oklahoma football defense through seven games this season.

The Sooner defense has made some big plays in big moments this season, but has been very inconsistent in doing so.

Lincoln Riley has been saying they are very close to putting it all together on the defensive side, but injuries, particularly at the back end of the defense, have posed a serious limitation the Sooner haven’t quite been able to overcome.

When Alex Grinch arrived in Norman three seasons ago as defensive coordinator, one of the first things he talked about was the need to develop better depth in the Sooner secondary, and he set as one of his priorities creating that depth through recruiting and player development.

But here we sit, seven games into the 2021 season, and the finger is pointing again at the defensive secondary for much of OU’s defensive problems.

In his weekly press conference on Tuesday, the Sooner head coach acknowledged that the team has been hit hard with injuries in the defensive secondary. Safety Delarrin Turner-Yell and cornerback Woodi Washington, two key pieces at the back end, are both on the injured list, as well as two other defensive backs in Ryan Peoples and Jeremiah Criddell.

Cornerback D.J. Graham left the TCU game late after suffering what at first was thought to be a possible concussion. He did not return to the game, but his mother reportedly said this week her son was not in the concussion protocol.

“When you have some guys out, you wish you had them, but at the same time somebody’s going to step in and take those reps and get better,” Riley said. We hope to get these key pieces back at some point, he said, but we’ve had to make it work and had to develop depth (in the meantime).

“We’re fighting through it,” Riley said. “Handful of these guys, I think, will be back here in the next couple of weeks, some sooner than others, which will be good.”

Senior safety Pat Fields, the one fixture in the Sooner secondary, told reporters, including Ryan Aber of The (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman, after the TCU game, “I’d be naive to say it’s not taking its toll (referring to all the injuries in the secondary). But at the same time, we have to continue to hold ourselves to the same standard.”

The reality is, Oklahoma is still giving up too many big plays and getting beat deep over the top far too frequently for a team currently ranked as one of the top three in the country.

In addition to giving up too many big passing plays — Oklahoma currently ranks tied for 116th (out of 130) among FBS teams in passing yards allowed — the Sooners have not been tackling well. In the first half of the Texas game and again a week later at home against TCU, the missed tackles were egregious. Practically all four of TCU’s touchdowns against the OU defense were the result of or set up by poor tackling.

In the last three years, the Sooner defense has made dramatic improvements in stopping the run. In 2018, Oklahoma gave up an average of 160 rushing yards per game. Today that figure is down to 104 yards per game, 19th best in the nation. But the Sooners’ pass defense numbers have reverted back to 2018 levels, when OU ranked dead last among FBS teams, allowing 294 passing yards per game. Through seven games in 2021, that number is 277 yards per game.

Oklahoma will have a bit of a reprieve this weekend defending the pass, because Kansas, the Sooners’ opponent on Saturday, is last in the Big 12 in throwing the football and passing efficiency. To the Jayhawks’ benefit, however, they will be going up against the Big 12’s worst pass defense in the Sooners.

With games against Kansas and Texas Tech the next two weeks, followed by a bye week before encountering its most difficult three-game stretch of the season, Oklahoma has several weeks to tighten things up defensively and hopefully get back several key impact players on that side of the ball.

You can bet your last dollar that Baylor, Iowa State and Oklahoma State, the Sooners final three opponents in the regular season are well aware of the Sooners’ defensive weaknesses and will be out to attack those vulnerabilities with everything they can throw at Oklahoma (pun intended) when they meet up over successive weekends in November.

The Sooners’ last line of defense better be ready.