There were few times in the Oklahoma Sooners’ 41-34 loss to Kansas State that they looked “right.” On both sides of the ball, Kansas State’s toughness and physicality frustrated the Sooners, and mental mistakes kept them from mounting a comeback in the fourth quarter.
After opening the season with three straight 30-point wins, it seemed like the Sooners were on a roll. And then Adrian Martinez played the game of his life, and we’re left scratching our heads, wondering what’s in store for the Oklahoma Sooners moving forward.
In his weekly piece over at USA TODAY Sports, Paul Myerberg included Oklahoma among his “losers” from week four. Obviously, they lost the game, but more than that, it was how they lost the game.
The Big 12 is up for grabs after the Sooners’ sloppy loss at Kansas State. While the offense was able to move ball against the Wildcats, a number of drives were stalled due to untimely penalties, mostly false starts that set the Sooners behind the chains. After an uneventful non-conference slate, Oklahoma heads out of the opening month as an enigma. Are the Sooners the best team in the conference? Will the defense reach a higher level under Brent Venables? For Oklahoma, the defeat removes all room for error with conference games ahead against Texas, No. 8 Oklahoma State and Baylor. – Myerberg, USA TODAY Sports
The schedule doesn’t get any easier for Oklahoma moving forward. They’ll have to play much better if they want to survive the Big 12 schedule and make it to the conference title game.
It starts this week on the road vs. TCU, and then Oklahoma will return to the DFW Metroplex for the Red River Showdown.
As Myerberg says, there’s no room for error for the Sooners for the remainder of 2022. Time to rise to the pressure and embrace the strain.
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