No potential College Football Playoff contender is perfect, including the Oklahoma Sooners.
The Sooners are among a few teams still fighting for a spot in the CFP heading into Week 12, and ESPN's Bill Connelly recently broke down contenders into tiers while noting a "fatal flaw" that could hold each team back from winning a national title or even getting into the CFP.
ESPN lists what's holding back every CFP contender
Connelly listed the Sooners in "Tier 4a: Non-ACC teams," along with Texas, Utah, Vanderbilt, USC and Michigan. These are teams that should get into the 12-team field if they win out, but of the bunch, only Utah has a realistic chance of finishing the season unscathed.
It's not what Connelly labeled as the Sooners' most fatal flaw, but their loaded schedule is definitely their biggest obstacle to overcome to get into the CFP. OU travels to No. 4 Alabama on Saturday before hosting Missouri and LSU in Norman to conclude the regular season. ESPN's College Football Power Index gives the Sooners a 11.9% chance of winning out with that slate ahead.
Outside of that schedule, though, Connelly believes OU's most fatal flaw is offensive mistakes, including a lack of big plays, too many negative plays and turnovers. Connelly noted the Sooners' stellar defense, even after back-to-back games against top-10 offenses, but the harsh reality is that OU's defense has had to pick up the slack of an underwhelming offense.
"The defense will keep showing up," Connelly wrote. "But the offense has had to master the art of doing just enough to overcome a lack of big plays (102nd in yards per successful play), too many negative plays (84th in percentage of snaps gaining zero or negative yards) and turnovers (12 of them, for 71st)."