The Oklahoma Sooners have started to find a way to win defensive battles in 2021. It’s a far cry from what the Sooners looked like just a couple of years ago when they had to score 40-50 points per game to win. The defense in those early years of Lincoln Riley’s tenure as offensive coordinator and then head coach were some of the worst years of defense this program’s ever seen.
The script has flipped for the 2021 Oklahoma Sooners. The offense has been inconsistent. They haven’t been able to run the ball as effectively as they’d like and the Sooners defense is carrying the day.
For the second straight week the Sooners were unable to reach 30 points while the defense held their opponent to fewer than 16 points. While we’d certainly like to see more points scored, the Sooners are going to win a lot of games if they can continue to keep their opponent to fewer than 20 points a game.
There will be challenges in the coming weeks with Kansas State, Texas, and TCU on the docket, but the Sooners defense looks more up to the challenge than at any other point in the last five years.
Let’s take another look at Saturday’s win over West Virginia through the lens of Pro Football Focus (Subscription required) and take a look at which Sooners graded in the top five of various categories.