Oklahoma football: Same old song, but much different tune in Sooner offense
By Chip Rouse
We’re used to seeing an Oklahoma football offense put up plenty of points accompanied by an avalanche of yards gained and with some explosive plays mixed in.
Much of that was present again on Saturday as the Sooners put 45 points on the scoreboard and rolled up 492 yards of offense. That might sound like a somewhat modest day of work for a typical OU offense, but only five times last season did the Sooners score more points or put up more yards of total offense.
Was offensive coordinator Jeffy Lebby pleased with the performance? Yes. Are there things that need to be cleaned up? Definitely. Can the offense play better? Of course.
In sum, new quarterback Dillon Gabriel, starting his first game as a Sooner, and the Oklahoma offensive unit did what it needed to do to win the game. OU started off the game throwing the ball. Seven of the 23 passes Gabriel threw in the game came in the opening quarter. As the game progressed, and especially in the second half, Lebby started calling more running plays. This also could have been because it was an extremely hot and humid day, and as the game wore on the UTEP defense became more worn down.
For the game, the Oklahoma offensive yardage was fairly equally divided. Of the 499 total yards, 233 were passing yards and 259 were on the ground.
The Sooners ran a total of 61 plays, quite a bit fewer than Lebby would like to see, especially in an up-tempo offense, but the play calling was quite effective. Gabriel completed 78 percent of his passes (18 for 23) and the Sooners averaged 8.1 yards per play.
Lebby was asked in the postgame press conference if he was surprised the Sooners put the ball in the air only 23 times or if that was the plan all along?
"“That’s gonna be different every single week,” he said. “It’s about taking what they give us and playing complementary football, too.”"
We’ve got some things we have to get cleaned up, the OU offensive coordinator said. “But again, just proud of our guys, the way we played and where we’re at.”
Lebby made a special point to note freshman WR Gavin Freeman, who walked on to the football program and scored Oklahoma’s third touchdown, taking a handoff from Gabriel on a reverse and taking it around right end and along the boundary, stiff-arming and breaking tackles, 46 yards for a touchdown.
“Just appreciate him and everything he has done since he’s been here,” Lebby said. “I wanted to reward him with playing, and then he gets in there and makes a play like that (in his first game and the first time he touched the ball), which was awesome.”
Lebby also had praise for RB Marcus Major, who had two rushing touchdowns, and TE Brayden Willis, who was on the receiving end of two touchdown passes, channeling the images of Jeremiah Hall, Dimitri Flowers, Aaron Ripkowski and Trey Millard before him.
The Sooners had 10 offensive drives in the game. Six of those resulted in touchdowns, including three in a row to start the game, one ended up in a field goal and on three possessions OU punted the ball. Not a juggernaut performance on the offensive scale, but certainly more than enough to win with ease and, importantly, no serious injuries.