Stormin in Norman
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Oklahoma football: Sooners’ Week 1 defensive performance front-loaded

By Chip Rouse

Oklahoma's Trey Morrison (6), Josh Ellison (90) nd DaShaun White (23) bring down UTEP's Ronald Awatt (22) during a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the UTEP Miners at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022. Oklahoma won 45-13.Ou Vs Utep
Oklahoma's Trey Morrison (6), Josh Ellison (90) nd DaShaun White (23) bring down UTEP's Ronald Awatt (22) during a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the UTEP Miners at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022. Oklahoma won 45-13.Ou Vs Utep /
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Comparisons are one of the myriad ways we like to measure progress in sports, and one of the positive takeaways from the Oklahoma football win on Saturday was a start to the season that was much different than a year ago.

The Sooners opened the 2021 season with a narrow 40-35 victory over Tulane. In that game, the OU defense yielded 396 yards of total offense and 100 of that was on the ground. The Sooners collected four quarterback sacks and just three quarterback hurries.

Flash forward one year to this past Saturday. The OU defense, under a new coordinator and new defensive-minded head coach in Brent Venables, shut down the UTEP offense when it needed to, allowing just 13 total points and 300 yards of offense.

More importantly, from a statistical point of reference, the Sooner defense totally obliterated the UTEP running game, allowing just 28 rushing yards in the game, while also getting into the backfield for six sacks and 10 QB hurries, a much different dynamic than was the case a year ago.

Related Story. Defensive line starting point for any great defense. light

The biggest difference from this time a year ago was the play of the OU defensive line and the front seven in general. It’s still very early in the season, and much stiffer challenges are yet to come, but it was an impressive start for a defensive line group that had concerns coming into the 2022 season.

Junior defensive lineman Reggie Grimes was a one-man wrecking crew in the UTEP backfield. Grimes was credited with three tackles, 2.5 quarterback sacks and 2.5 tackles for lost yardage.

The Sooners lost some top front-seven talent, and 20.5 sacks when D-lineman Perrion Winfrey and Isaiah Thomas, along with edge rusher Nik Bonitto, left for the NFL after last season. After Saturday’s contest the 2022 OU group is over a quarter of the way to that sack total.

If there was any real criticism on how the OU defense played on Saturday it some costly defensive penalties on third and fourth downs that enabled the UTEP offense to stay on the field and continue drives and that the pass coverage was too soft.

The Miners produced 288 passing yards, and it appeared quite often that the UTEP quarterback Gavin Hardison was able to avoid the pass rush and find open receivers. Some of that, however, was by defensive design. The OU secondary was playing zone coverage with the primary goal of limiting big plays. That proved effective in that UTEP only had two plays as long as 24 yards in the game.

Overall, I would give the Sooner defense on Saturday a grade of a high B+, with a A to the defensive line, A- to the linebackers and a grade of B for the defensive backs.

OU defensive coordinator Ted Roof felt good about it as well:

"“I thought there were a lot of really good things,” Roof said in the postgame interview session. “I thought we tackled well. I thought it was physical. And I think that one of the main goals for us going in was to limit the explosive plays. Anytime you do that you’re going to have a good chance to win.”"

The one-game sample size looks good. Now the issue is being able to sustain that kind of performance as the competition gets harder.

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