Tag: Key Lawrence

Stock Report: Offense finding second win as season heads into final stretch

Taking a look at who is trending up and down for the Sooners after they beat the West Virginia Mountaineers 59-20.

Oklahoma’s domination of West Virginia was a welcome sight on the heels of two frustrating losses to Kansas and Oklahoma State. The losses put a trip to Arlington in doubt for the Big 12 title game.

After back-to-back losses, the Sooners had to dust themselves off, get back up, and fight. They did just that on Saturday.

They came out swinging and never looked back.

The offense looked as cohesive and explosive as it has all year and the defense put a stranglehold on a physical West Virginia rushing attack. From a coaching perspective, Venables looked comfortable, and his coordinators, in particular Jeff Lebby, were in sync the entire game.

As Oklahoma prepares for a trip to Provo, Utah, to take on BYU in its final regular season road trip of 2023, we look at how the team is trending heading into the game in the week’s stock report.

20 highest-graded Oklahoma Sooners through Week 10 per Pro Football Focus

The 20 highest-graded Oklahoma Sooners through week 10 per Pro Football Focus.

Though the Oklahoma Sooners are on a two-game losing streak, they’ve already surpassed their win total from a year ago with three games to go and a bowl game.

They still have a shot at a Big 12 title game berth. And after 6-7, that’s all we can really ask for.

The offense has shown improvement on third down and in the red zone. Dillon Gabriel is having a career year. The defense has shown significant improvement this season. A year ago, they allowed 30 or more points seven times. This year that’s only happened once against Kansas. Texas scored 30, but seven of those can be attributed to special teams on the blocked punt.

Yes, they lost winnable games the last two weeks, playing uncharacteristically sloppy football. Otherwise, they’ve been a really good team this year.

As they get ready to close the season, here are the top 20 highest-graded players according to Pro Football Focus through week 10.

Minimum 25% snap count

Offense: 177.75

Defense: 167.75

Bedlam Stock Report: Sooners 2022 signees making an impact

Taking a look at what’s trending up or down right now in Oklahoma’s program following their lost to Oklahoma State.

Oklahoma is in a tailspin. If things don’t improve quickly, they could begin to resemble the 2022 team that started fast but fell apart against some of the better teams in the Big 12.

There are still three games for the Sooners. They can go out and finish on a high note. While slim, Oklahoma still has a chance to make the Big 12 title game. They would need some help, but they’re not completely eliminated from the conference championship game.

In the interim, it’s all about improving as a team and letting the rest fall into place.

It’s time for this week’s stock report as we look at how things are trending up and down for the Oklahoma football team.[anyclip-media thumbnail=”undefined” playlistId=”undefined” content=”dW5kZWZpbmVk”][/anyclip-media]

Report Card: Poor grades all around as Oklahoma loses to Kansas

Oklahoma struggles nearly across the board areas but how did each position group grade out in the loss to Kansas?

Oklahoma took their first loss of the season on Saturday, falling to the [autotag]Kansas Jayhawks[/autotag] on a rainy and disgusting day in Lawrence. From the first play from scrimmage, it appeared Oklahoma would be in for a fight. And sure enough, that’s precisely what happened.

Oklahoma fell victim to another slow start on both sides of the ball. The Sooners were never able to get their passing game going. Due to the weather conditions, they relied heavily on their offensive line and running backs to generate offense.

The sooners will try and figure things out as they get set to take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys in what will be the last Bedlam for quite some time.

OU played a rough game on all fronts. Some things were encouraging, but a lot of the performance put forth was not good enough. We broke it down by position group below.

Oklahoma Sooners look to continue their turnover success

The second half of the season is about to get underway and the Sooners defense is ready to improve on their first half performance.

The rise of the Oklahoma Sooners has been the talk of the town after their big win in the [autotag]Cotton Bowl[/autotag]. The Sooners are currently sitting at 6-0 and are the only unbeaten team in the [autotag]Big 12[/autotag].

There are a lot of reasons as to why this is. From the offense continuing to get better in year two under [autotag]Jeff Lebby[/autotag] to the defense showing vast improvement under [autotag]Ted Roof[/autotag]. The Sooners defense ranks No. 52 in the nation in total defense after finishing No. 122 a year ago.

A big reason for the turnaround has been takeaways. The Sooners rank No. 3 in turnovers and No. 2 in interceptions this season.

Key Lawrence spoke to reporters last week about why they’ve had so much success forcing turnovers. “It’s not really a focus. We just let the defense work for us,” Lawrence said. “Coach has a great defensive plan, and he knows schemes well. Hand in hand, it’s a lot of stress that we do. We just try to stress, and a lot of those things we just have to work for us.”

That’s a different mindset from what the team had under the previous regime. [autotag]Alex Grinch[/autotag] put so much emphasis on causing turnovers that it ultimately led to players being out of position trying to make a play or missing easy tackles.

In this scheme, it’s more about being in the right spot, and if you do that, the turnovers will come, as we’ve seen this season. The players on defense are getting in the right spots and making plays on the football.

Now they have to continue to do that as the Sooners enter the second half of the season.

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.

Midseason positional review: How have the Oklahoma Sooners looked at the midway point?

How have each position group done so far for the Oklahoma Sooners at the midway point?

The Oklahoma Sooners have hit the midway point of the 2023 college football season. The Sooners are undefeated at 6-0 in year two under [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag]. Venables is now 13-7

Offensively they’ve been pretty good. They rank No. 6 in total offense, No. 9 in 3rd down offense, No. 2 in 1st down offense, and No. 4 in scoring offense.

The defense has also been pretty good and shown vast improvement. They rank No. 50 in total defense, No. 12 in 3rd down defense, No. 31 in rush defense, and No. 2 in turnovers forced.

There is still much improvement that needs to be made for both units, but so far, they’ve made significant strides.

Prior to the season, I broke down each position group, so let’s go through and see how they are doing at this point and give them a midseason grade.

15 highest-graded Oklahoma Sooners through Week 5 per Pro Football Focus

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

Football is a team game, but it’s made up of individual performances that enhance the whole. This season, the Sooners are playing well on both sides of the ball and have a top-five scoring offense and defense.

But what’s happening in 2023 is a change of pace from years past.

Of the Sooners’ top 15 highest-graded players, according to Pro Football Focus, nine of them are on the defensive side of the ball. Oklahoma has an elite offense but looks like they have an elite defense to match for what feels like the first time in forever.

Minimum Offensive Snaps: 99

Minimum Defensive Snaps: 89

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.

Final thoughts on Oklahoma Sooners vs. Iowa State Cyclones

The Oklahoma Sooners take on the Iowa State Cyclones tonight and here are a few final thoughts on the matchup.

The Oklahoma Sooners welcome to Norman a team that’s been a nemesis of sorts in recent years, the [autotag]Iowa State Cyclones[/autotag].

Though Iowa State hasn’t been a national power, they’ve made life difficult on the Sooners, picking up a pair of wins in the Matt Campbell era. The 2022 matchup was the first game in Campbell’s tenure that the Oklahoma Sooners won by two touchdowns or more.

And that was the Sooners worst team in 25 years.

It won’t be an easy matchup, but the Sooners are more than talented enough to come away with another big win on the season.

Getting ready for the primetime matchup, here are some final thoughts for Oklahoma vs. Iowa State.