Oklahoma football: Four downs on OU’s tale-of-two-halves against Kent State

There seem to be two ways of looking at the Oklahoma football win over Kent State this past weekend.

One way of looking at it is that the Sooners’ lackluster first half signals potential issues in the OU offense that could become bigger problems when the competition becomes considerably stronger in forthcoming weeks.

Although the OU defense tightened down the screws over the final three quarters, that unit could also be faulted in the early going for allowing the Kent State offense to stay on the field and control most of the first 15 minutes, even though no points were given up.

That’s the downside, Now for the upside: Once the Sooner offense adjusted and found its traction, Oklahoma scored in five straight possessions ending the first half and into the third quarter. What was a 3-0 score in favor of Kent State with just over a minute remaining in the half became 31-3 at the 1:35 mark in the third quarter.

That’s how you respond to adversity, which is the mark of a good team. Whether it’s a championship-level team we will find out in due course.

Here is what we took away from OU’s second win of the season, looking at it in football terms of four downs:

First down

I don’t know how you highlight a 30-point win without saying something about the quarterback play. For a second straight week in an Oklahoma uniform, Dillon Gabriel was masterful. He was 21 of 28 passing for 296 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. For the season so far, the UCF transfer is 39 of 51 throwing the football, a 76.4 completion percentage, and five touchdowns. He has no interceptions through two games. In the win over Kent State, Gabriel spread the ball around to 13 different receivers, 10 of which caught at least one pass.

Second down

After being targeted just four times in the season opener, Marvin Mims caught 7 passes for a career-high 168 yards and two long touchdown receptions against Kent State. His two TD catches were for 36 and 58 yards, and the 58-yarder was the 14th catch in his career of at least 40 yards. During the game, Mims passes 1,500 receiving yards in his OU career and his two touchdowns gave him 16 in his career, tied for 14th with Trent Smith among Oklahoma career receiving leaders. Mims also returned a punt for 41 yards, giving him 204 all-purpose yards in the game.

Third down

There were a lot of things to like about the Sooners’ defensive performance in Week 2, especially from the second quarter on. Sophomore linebacker Danny Stutsman was an absolute star among stars on the defensive unit. Stutsman was seemingly everywhere on the field. In addition to a career-high 12 tackles, he posted four tackles for loss. The last Oklahoma player to have that many tackles resulting in lost yardage in a game was Ronnie Perkins in 2019. Perkins is now playing in the NFL. Stutsman now has 31 tackles for the season in just two games. He had 38 in 10 games last season.

Fourth down

OU fan support can’t be minimized as a leading factor in the Sooners’ remarkable home winning percentage since Bob Stoops took over as OU head coach at the beginning of the 1999 season. Since that time, Oklahoma has sold out 142 consecutive home games (not counting the crowd restrictions during the pandemic year in 2020). The Sooners have lost just 11 times in 143 homes games since the 1999 season. In fact, OU has more Big 12 championships (14) than home losses (11) during this time frame. That’s how impactful a home crowd can be to the spirit and determination of the guys on the field. Sooner fans were in attendance nearly 84,000 strong on Saturday.