There have been a lot of improvements from what the Oklahoma Sooners put on the field in 2022.
The Sooners’ seven wins are already better than their 6-7 season a year ago. Despite what happened on Saturday, things are better on both sides of the ball. And yet, it’s still not good enough.
It wasn’t good enough on Saturday and may not be good enough to get back to the Big 12 title game, a place they haven’t been since 2020. Defensive issues have begun to creep back onto the field as tackling and lapses in coverage have killed the Sooners the last couple of weeks.
Their performance was enough to get mentioned by Paul Myerburg of USA TODAY Sports in his weekly Winners and Losers column. He posed a question many are asking after the Sooners struggles against UCF and their loss to Kansas.
More so than any of the other unbeaten Power Five teams at the top of this week’s US LBM AFCA Coaches Poll, the Sooners were a question mark. Was this truly an elite team, or simply one that had outplayed expectations?
The reality might land somewhere near the middle: Oklahoma is clearly capable of reaching the conference championship game but is not good enough to run the table in coach Brent Venables’ second season. – Paul Myerburg, USA TODAY Sports
By no means are the Oklahoma Sooners finished in 2023. They’re still in first place in the Big 12. If they’re able to win this Saturday on the road in Stillwater, it’ll put them on solid footing to make the Big 12 title game.
The road to Arlington won’t be easy. Oklahoma State, West Virginia, BYU, and TCU each pose interesting challenges that could thwart OU’s final run for the conference title.
Time for the Sooners to lock back in and finish the season strong.
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