Oklahoma football: Takeaways from Oklahoma loss to Kansas State

Oklahoma football unveiled the statues of the Selmon brothers, then kicked off conference play with a home game against Kansas State.

The Sooners have hosted Kansas State a few times in league openers, often not going too well for the Sooners. Oklahoma lost to Kansas State to open the season in 2012 and 2020. Enter 2022, this time with Brent Venables. Change the coaches all you want, the Sooners just couldn’t get it done vs the ‘Cats at home.

The Sooners came out flat, and Kansas State came roaring in with something to prove, and they did just that. Upending Oklahoma 41-34, in what was an embarrassing setback in front of a big crowd, and countless recruits.

The Good

Despite a lackluster effort on both sides of the ball through the night, Oklahoma was able to move the football. OU racked up 550 yards of offense on the evening.

OU RB Eric Gray had an enormous day on the ground, but the Sooners did not cash in either big-time drive for the Tennessee transfer for a touchdown.

The Oklahoma wide receivers looked dynamic, and boy were they finding themselves open on the day, Dillon Gabriel at times struggled to hit them, but also made a few nice plays downfield as well.

The bad

Where do we get started here?

Dillon Gabriel misses, Gabriel had a great stat line for the game, and if you had solely looked at the box score you might wonder how OU lost or only scored 34 with what Gabriel produced. Gabriel missed key throws on key downs to mostly wide-open receivers. The biggest ones being a third-down miss to Drake Stoops who put his defender in the blender, and would’ve easily scored a touchdown, another missing a wide-open Stoops on 4th and 3, when Drake was once again cleanly open.

Penalties, the Sooners committed 11 penalties for 87 yards, many of which came before the snap. A few on 4th and less than a yard forced OU to punt literally killing drives.

Oklahoma surrendered 41 points on defense, 509 yards of offense, and nearly 300 rushing yards to Kansas State. Adrian Martinez looked like Vince Young out there, yes I typed that. Oklahoma could not get off the field on third down, the longer the distance apparently the more difficult it is for whatever reason to get it done.

Player of the game

Kansas State QB Adrian Martinez, and RB Deuce Vaughn. Martinez went 21-34 for 234 yards and a TD, then added 21 carries for 148 yards and 4 touchdowns. Vaughn had 25 carries for 116 yards.

What’s next for Oklahoma football?

This is a program with the fourth-highest blue-chip rate in the country, they have NFL guys on every level of the defense, and all over the offense. This loss cannot be chalked up to some excuses I have heard about a rebuild, or not having his guys.

OU will need to flush this performance and get back to the drawing board, OU really probably could not have played a worse game. Oklahoma football’s issues from the game are fixable, its attention to detail. Wrapping up, taking better angles. Making throws that are there, and pre-snap penalties. I expect Venables will right the ship.