The Oklahoma Sooners are fresh off playing their fourth straight one-score game after winning by two touchdowns or more the first five games of the season. The Sooners are 2-2 in those games bringing [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag]’ record in one-score games to 2-7.
This year the Sooners are finding different ways to lose those games. A year ago, it was because the offense stalled or the defense couldn’t stop anyone to close out the game. This year, it’s come down to the Sooners just flat-out beating themselves. In their two wins, they combined for one turnover and 10 penalties. In their two losses, they’ve combined for six turnovers and 19 penalties.
Venables was asked about the approach to one-score games.
“I don’t see players getting tense,” Venables said. “I don’t see that. After the fact, you analyze every single play, every game. Some were good, some weren’t. In some games, say the Texas game, we were far from perfect. You didn’t turn the ball over, so you win the game even though you have plenty of plays that weren’t very good at all.”
Ultimately it comes down to mistakes for this team. When they aren’t beating themselves, they can beat almost any team in the country. Not to diminish what the [autotag]Oklahoma State Cowboys[/autotag] accomplished but think back to the three turnovers Oklahoma had in that game. Two were due to snaps, and the other was [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] under-throwing it deep into double coverage.
Oklahoma State didn’t forced those turnovers. They were, in tennis terms, unforced errors.
The Sooners did it to themselves. Prior to these last two games, Oklahoma hadn’t been penalized a ton or turned the ball over very much. If they can get back to doing that, they can finish off this season on a high note.
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