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Stock Report: Young playmakers rising as Sooners prepare for season’s biggest test

Oklahoma is 5-0 and on a upwards trajectory so check out how they fair in this week’s stock report as they prepare for the Texas Longhorns.

Oklahoma has passed each of the tests put before them through the first five weeks of the season. Now all eyes turn to their Red River Rivals, the Texas Longhorns. To get to that point, the Sooners had to dispatch the last five teams in front of them. The most recent being their final Big 12 matchup with the [autotag]Iowa State Cyclones[/autotag].

The Sooners won in decisive fashion, 50-20. Coming into the game, Brent Venables’ team had to avoid looking ahead and also leave no doubt that they weren’t the teams of the past that got tripped up by Matt Campbell’s Cyclones. Campbell has been a thorn in Oklahoma’s side since taking over the Iowa State program. However, an explosive passing game and stifling second-half defense put the game away.

As the Sooners prepare for Texas, some notable things are on an upward trajectory around Norman. And still, there are areas that aren’t on the right track. Will the positives prove pivotal on Saturday, or will the negatives continue to trend downward and affect Oklahoma’s chances of pulling off the upset of the Longhorns in Dallas?

Report Card: All three phases contribute as Oklahoma cruises to 30 point win over Iowa State

Oklahoma plays complementary football and rolls to a 50-20 win over Iowa State. A look at this week’s report card.

Oklahoma put together a complementary effort on Saturday night, beating Iowa State in their last matchup as Big 12 foes. In the Sooners’ 50-20 win, Oklahoma had big day on offense, added a defensive score, and a blocked punt resulted in a safety.

It was a pleasant sight as the Sooners avoided getting caught in a trap game. A few busts in coverage made the game closer than it was.

Outside of the two big plays, the Sooners allowed 234 yards and six points across the remaining three quarters. Brent Venables was able to rally and refocus his troops when the game got to 21-20 in the second quarter. The Sooners didn’t allow another point over the final 39 minutes of the game.

Here’s how the Sooners fared in this week’s Report Card.

‘It’s honestly just preparation’: Billy Bowman on why they’ve had so much interception success

The Sooners lead the Power 5 in interceptions and Billy Bowman might know why that is.

It was the first drive of the game. The [autotag]Iowa State Cyclones[/autotag] had the ball in a third and long situation.

[autotag]Rocco Becht[/autotag] took the snap, rolled out to the right, and threw it downfield. [autotag]Billy Bowman[/autotag] undercut the pass and picked it off. Bowman was able to stay in bounds, run across the field, and follow his blocks to the endzone. The Sooners started the game with a pick-six.

Later on, they added another interception giving them 10 for the season, which is the most among Power 5 teams.

Bowman was asked about what has led to the early season success after Saturday’s game.

“It’s honestly just preparation,” Bowman said. “Throughout the week we take that very seriously in practice breaking up passes or catching the ball and bursting 10 yards with it to create those habits. We just want to create good habits, and it travels over to the game.”

Outside of a bad angle on one of the Iowa State touchdowns, Bowman had one of his better games as a Sooner. He finished with three tackles and, of course, that pick-six. That gives him 12 tackles on the season and two interceptions. He’s now tied for the team lead with [autotag]Key Lawrence[/autotag] and [autotag]Gentry Williams[/autotag].

This secondary has a renewed confidence they need to carry over into this weekend. They’ll have their work cut out for them against one of the nation’s best-receiving groups.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Jaron on Twitter @JaronSpor.

5 takeaways from Oklahoma’s 50-20 win over Iowa State

5 takeaways from the Oklahoma Sooners 50-20 win over Iowa State on Saturday evening.

Oklahoma continues to march right through their final season in the Big 12 by dispatching one of their long-time foes in the conference one last time. Saturday evening, the Sooners pulled away from the Iowa State Cyclones and in a 50-20 blowout.

The game itself started off with a bang as Billy Bowman returned an interception to open the scoring for the Sooners before the offense even took the field.

A couple of coverage busts led to two Iowa State touchdowns and kept the Cyclones in the game early into the second quarter. Oklahoma would respond, scoring the game’s next 29 points to seal the victory.

The Sooners played a good game for the most part. While they continue to evolve and grow as a team, they can now turn their attention to their biggest game of the season. In the aftermath of the win, here are 5 takeaways after watching Oklahoma get to 5-0 on the season.

15 highest-graded Oklahoma Sooners through Week 4 per Pro Football Focus

Four games into the season, who are the highest-graded Oklahoma Sooners according to Pro Football Focus.

The Oklahoma Sooners are playing good football as they head into Week 5. They’re 4-0 and allowing an average of 8.5 points per game. Though the offense scored just 20 points against Cincinnati, Dillon Gabriel left a little meat on the bone with a couple of bad overthrows and a fumble inside the 10-yard line.

It could have easily been a 34-6 game.

But, the Sooners are 4-0 and looking like a contender in the Big 12. They’ll have to continue to prove it on the field, but for the most part, they’re looking like a much-improved football team.

Through four weeks, the Sooners have received some standout performances, but who has earned the best grades from Pro Football Focus through four games?

Here are the top 15 graded Sooners who have played at least 77 snaps or 25% of the possible snaps this season.

No. 14 Oklahoma Sooners beat Cincinnati Bearcats 20-6

The Oklahoma Sooners opened Big 12 play with a 20-6 win over the Cincinnati Bearcats on the backs of a huge defensive effort.

The Oklahoma Sooners and the [autotag]Cincinnati Bearcats[/autotag] opened Big 12 play on Saturday. This was the third-ever meeting between the two schools.

The Bearcats scored first on their second possession. They were aided by a pass interference call on [autotag]Gentry Williams[/autotag], but the Sooners defense stopped the Bearcats offense allowing just a field goal.

The Sooners then put together a fairly nice drive, but miscues hurt them. First, [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] missed a wide-open [autotag]Jalil Farooq[/autotag] for a walk-in touchdown. Next, [autotag]Marcus Major[/autotag] slipped on what have been a first down on second down. On the following play, Gabriel fumbled on the quarterback run.

The Sooners’ defense got a stop on the following possession before Gabriel put together a methodical drive capped off by a touchdown pass to [autotag]Nic Anderson[/autotag]. It was Anderson’s fourth of the season.

To start the second quarter, the defense forced a three and out after Danny Stutsman laid the wood on a third down short yardage run.

On the ensuing drive, the Sooners were backed up on their own goalline, facing a 3rd and 19 and looking like they were going to be forced to punt. The Sooners drive didn’t look good as they had a 3rd and 19 from their own 3. But Major was able to find a hole and get a big gain. They would eventually cap the drive off with a field goal to go up 10-3.

The Bearcats came right back to put the pressure on the Oklahoma defense. After a huge gain were set up nicely deep into Oklahoma territory. Emory Jones then threw a jump ball to the front corner of the end zone. [autotag]Woodi Washington[/autotag] provided fantastic coverage, and the ball was intercepted by [autotag]Key Lawrence[/autotag], who picked it off, ranging over from the middle of the field.

Both defenses dominated the rest of the half, but right before the break, Oklahoma shanked a punt to set up Cincinnati in OU’s territory. The Bearcats got down to the Sooners 10-yard line and lined up for a field goal. Cincinnati kicker Carter Brown missed it wide left, and the score would stay 10-3 Sooners going into halftime.

The Sooners outgained the Bearcats 245-175 in the first thirty minutes and the defense shut down the Bearcats’ No. 8 ranked run game, holding them to 39 yards at the half.

The third quarter was much of the same. The Sooners struggled to get anything going on their first possession, punting it back to the Bearcats.

Cincinnati went on a methodical 12-play drive that ended in a 55-yard field goal after a Jonah Laulu sack.

The Sooners responded right back and scored a touchdown on a Gabriel keeper after a nine-play, 75-yard drive where the Sooners were able to find a little success on the ground.

The Bearcats were threatening on their first drive of the fourth quarter, but pressure led Jones to throw into coverage and after the ball was tipped multiple times, [autotag]Billy Bowman[/autotag] came down with the Sooners’ second interception of the game.

Oklahoma’s defense came up big on a fourth down on the Bearcats’ next two drives and was able to cruise to the 14-point win to move to 4-0 on the season and 1-0 in Big 12 play.

Dillon Gabriel completed 68% of his passes for 322 yards and had a passing and rushing touchdown in the game. It was a good performance, but it could have been even bigger after overthrowing multiple wide receivers in the game and a missed defensive pass interference in the end zone.

[autotag]Andrel Anthony[/autotag] continued his breakout season, catching seven passes for 117 yards. [autotag]Marcus Major[/autotag] led the way on the ground with 63 yards on 15 carries and had a couple of big runs called back due to a penalty. He averaged 4.2 yards per carry and also had a pair of catches for 18 yards in the win.

[autotag]Danny Stutsman[/autotag] continued his incredible start to the 2023 season with another fantastic effort. The Sooners leader racked up 13 total tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, and a sack. He had multiple fourth-down stops to get the Sooners defense off the field.

The Sooners defense held the Bearcats top-10 rushing attack to 3.7 yards per carry and just 3 of 15 on third down. Quarterback Emory Jones completed just 54% of his passes for 235 yards and was held to 42 yards on 15 attempts (2.8 yards per carry) by the Oklahoma defense.

The Sooners now return back to Owen Field after their two-game road trip to face the Iowa State Cyclones.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Jaron on Twitter @JaronSpor.

Report Card: Saturday against Tulsa was about passing final nonconference test with flying colors

Oklahoma dominated Tulsa from beginning to end. Take a look as we go position by position and hand out grades for the performance.

Saturday’s dismantling of Tulsa was a much-needed conclusion for the Sooners to their nonconference schedule. The Sooners needed to erase any doubts, bouncing back and disposing of teams handily after a grind-it-out win against SMU.

The concerns about the conservative nature of the offense against SMU were put to rest as Oklahoma slung the ball all over the field for 476 yards.

Defensively, the Sooners grounded the Tulsa passing attack, allowing less than 250 yards through the air.

It was a convincing win and a pleasant, feel-good tuneup before they turn their heads to Cincinnati. Big 12 play is upon them, but before we turn the page, let’s pass out grades for this weekend’s performances.

Gentry Williams makes the most of his homecoming in win over Tulsa

The Tulsa native was the first of five Sooners to get an interception on Saturday.

The Oklahoma Sooners are coming off another dominant performance on both sides of the ball in their win over Tulsa. The Sooners beat the [autotag]Tulsa Golden Hurricane[/autotag] 66-17 over to move to 3-0.

The defense picked off five passes (and could have had several more), which is the most since 2003 vs. the [autotag]Texas Tech Red Raiders[/autotag]. One of those interceptions was by [autotag]Gentry Williams[/autotag] who made his return home.

He told reporters after the game, the defense is playing well but there are still things to clean up.

“I think we did pretty good for today,” Williams said. “We had a couple of mental lapses in the second quarter but I think overall we were able to get a good grasp of what we needed to do today and execute.”

In the second quarter, the Golden Hurricane scored on two straight possessions at the end of the half and followed that up with a scoring drive to start the third quarter. Outside of that the Sooners stifled the Golden Hurricane offense.

Williams broke down the play that ended with his first interception of the season. “The receiver made a good route, the ball was in the air and I just played it,” he said.

It wasn’t as simple as Williams made it sound. Williams stayed stride for stride with the receiver, turned and eventually went past the receiver to pick it off. It was a sign of how special he can be if he can just fight off whatever injury is nagging him each game.

Now, the Sooners are in a familiar place at 3-0 heading into conference play. It will only get tougher from here on out, and Williams will be a big part of the Oklahoma Sooners success.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Jaron on Twitter @JaronSpor.

3 stars from the Oklahoma Sooners wire-to-wire domination of Tulsa

Oklahoma fired on all cylinders against Tulsa. Here are this week’s three stars from the Sooners 66-17 win.

The Oklahoma fan base asked for more explosive plays, and Jeff Lebby ensured his offense delivered on Saturday in Tulsa. Oklahoma’s passing offense put up 476 yards and threw for six touchdowns on the way to a 66-17 win.

Oklahoma never trailed and was in complete control throughout. The game was a stark difference from what the Sooners looked like against SMU, especially on the offensive side of the ball.

Oklahoma took on the identity of a battering ram against the Mustangs. This week, the offense transformed into long-range combat specialists, opening the passing offense to attack in a variety of ways. It was a sight to behold and allowed Oklahoma to showcase the growth it has experienced in the expansive receiver room.

Defensively, the good times continued to roll as the Sooners held Tulsa under 300 yards of total offense and finished the game with five interceptions. The Sooners turned those five interceptions into 34 points. Overall, it was another complete effort from beginning to end, with complementary football played by Brent Venables’ Sooners.

A handful of players were worthy of recognition for their performance, but we felt these three needed to be highlighted the most.

Up Next: 3 Stars of the Game

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Five Takeaways from Oklahoma’s dominating win over in-state foe Tulsa

Oklahoma brought the hammer down on in-state foe Tulsa on Saturday as they won 66-17. We have our five takeaways from the game.

Oklahoma wrapped up their nonconference schedule for the 2023 regular season on Saturday with pure domination of their in-state foe, the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Oklahoma blew the doors off Tulsa 66-17.

From the outset, the Sooners had a weird start as starting receiver and kick returner Jalil Farooq fumbled the opening kick to Tulsa. But from then on, the Sooners were in control.

The week there was a lot of focus on Oklahoma’s offense and the conservative approach against SMU.

Jeff Lebby answered those concerns quickly, and the defense continued their improved and inspired play on the way to a runaway victory.

With the game fresh on our minds, here are our five takeaways from Oklahoma’s win.