Oklahoma Defense – Syndication Server

Where does the Oklahoma Sooners defense rank in stop rate in 2024?

Where does the Oklahoma Sooners defense rank in stop rate this year?

This year, the Oklahoma Sooners boast the best defense they’ve had in a long time. It may not be the elite unit that head coach [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] and defensive coordinator [autotag]Zac Alley[/autotag] are shooting for, but it’s still the best in years.

Unfortunately, OU’s offense has fallen off a cliff, and the Sooners are just 6-5 in 2024 with one regular season game left. However, the OU defense was unbelievable in the upset win over Alabama last week.

One metric that shows how well the Oklahoma defense has played this year is “stop rate.” ESPN and staff writer Max Olson compiled all 134 FBS defenses in 2024, ranking them by their defensive stop rate.

What is stop rate? It’s a basic measurement of success: the percentage of a defense’s drives that end in punts, turnovers or a turnover on downs. – Olson, ESPN

Heading into the final week of the regular season, Oklahoma ranks 12th in the country in stop rate, stopping the opposition 72.1 percent of the time. It’s one spot below Miami (Ohio) and one spot above Indiana. The Sooners allow just 1.41 points per drive.

The job Venables and Alley have done with the defense this season has been excellent, especially considering the woeful place it was in when the head coach found it three years ago. No one can argue that he hasn’t improved that side of the ball mightily.

However, it’s what he does on the other side of the ball that will determine whether or not the Sooners get back to the place they want to be alongside the elites of college football.

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Oklahoma LB Danny Stutsman Pro Football Focus highest-graded run defender

OU’s leading tackler is Pro Football Focus’ highest-graded linebacker in the country against the run this season.

Oklahoma Sooners senior inside linebacker [autotag]Danny Stutsman[/autotag] will play in the final home game of his excellent college football career on Saturday, when OU hosts Alabama.

Stutsman’s four seasons in Norman have seen him come to the forefront of OU’s defensive transformation under third-year head coach [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag]. He’s become the vocal and emotional heartbeat of the Sooners over the last couple of years.

Stutsman has raised his level of play again in 2024, spearheading the best defense Oklahoma has had in a long time. He’s been particularly great at stopping the run. Pro Football Focus has recognized this as well, as they have Stutsman as their highest-graded linebacker in the nation when it comes to run defense.

Despite OU’s 5-5 campaign, the defense has rarely been the source of the problems, and even when they have, it’s normally been against the pass. The Sooners stop the run well, obviously led by No. 28.

Stutsman could have left the program when Lincoln Riley and Alex Grinch bolted for USC after the 2021 regular season. He instead decided to stay and help turn things around under Venables.

After last season, he could have jumped to the NFL, and would have likely been picked fairly early. He instead decided to stick around and lead the program into the SEC.

Though the wins haven’t come this year, and the season hasn’t gone the way anyone has expected, Stutsman certainly isn’t to blame for that. He’ll likely end up as OU’s leading tackler for the third season in a row, and he’s now moved into the top 10 all-time at Oklahoma in career tackles with 363 and counting.

One of the greatest defensive players of the past decade at Oklahoma will get one more outing in front of his home fans on Owen Field when the Sooners face the Crimson Tide in Week 13.

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Where does the Oklahoma Sooners defense rank in stop rate this season?

The Oklahoma Sooners are among the nation’s best in defensive stop rate.

The Oklahoma Sooners boast the best defense they’ve had in a long time this year. It may not be the elite unit that head coach [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] and defensive coordinator [autotag]Zac Alley[/autotag] are shooting for, but it’s still the best in years. Unfortunately, OU’s offense has fallen off a cliff, and the Sooners are just 5-5 in 2024 with two regular season games left.

One metric that shows how well the Oklahoma defense has played this year is stop rate. ESPN and staff writer Max Olson compiled all 134 FBS defenses in 2024, ranking them by their defensive stop rate.

What is stop rate? It’s a basic measurement of success: the percentage of a defense’s drives that end in punts, turnovers or a turnover on downs. – Olson, ESPN

Heading into the final two weeks of the regular season, Oklahoma ranks 18th in the country in stop rate, stopping the opposition 70.8 percent of the time. It’s one spot below Tulane and one spot about Northern Illinois. Remarkably, that’s only the sixth-best mark in the [autotag]SEC[/autotag].

Even more remarkable is that the Sooners have faced five of the top 17 defenses by this metric in the country: Texas (fourth), Tennessee (fifth), Ole Miss (seventh), South Carolina (15th), and Tulane (17th). OU’s next opponent, Alabama, actually has a higher stop rate than the Sooners as well, as they sit at ninth.

Oklahoma allows just 1.50 points per drive, which is impressive considering the fact that the Sooners have defended the most drives in the country this season, according to Venables, and they’ve been forced to play with a lot of short fields due to turnovers on offense.

However, it’s what he does on the other side of the ball that will determine whether or not the Sooners get back to the place they want to be alongside the elites of college football.

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

Missouri WR duo pose biggest threat to Oklahoma defense

Can Oklahoma’s defense slow down Luther Burden and Theo Wease?

The Oklahoma Sooners defense has been the strength of the team in 2024. They’re one of the best run defenses in the nation. But if there’s been a weakness it’s been in coverage.

It hasn’t been bad. The Sooners rank No. 67 in the nation in passing yards allowed per game. At the same time, they’ve been in situations against Tennessee, Texas, and South Carolina where their opponent didn’t feel the need to throw a whole lot due to the way the game played out.

The game against Ole Miss revealed some of the struggles the Sooners have had this season. Jaxson Dart, one of the best quarterbacks in the country, threw for over 300 yards. A number of his targets had plenty of space in the pass concept, making Dart’s job a lot easier. And that was without standout wide receiver Tre Harris in the lineup.

This week, as the Sooners get ready for Missouri, they face arguably the best receiver duo they’ve seen all season in future first round pick Luther Burden and former Sooner [autotag]Theo Wease[/autotag].

The two have combined for 77 receptions, 932 yards, and five touchdowns this season. Burden also has 105 yards rushing and two touchdowns this year as the Missouri Tigers look for multiple ways to get him the football.

One critical component to the Tigers passing game may not be available this week as Brady Cook has been battling a couple of injuries and was listed as questionable on the initial injury report.

Still, with a bye week to get Drew Pyne prepared, the Sooners can’t sleep on Missouri’s duo of Burden and Wease. They can create big plays in the passing game, especially if the Sooners suffer lapses in coverage.

For Oklahoma to get a win this week, they’ll need their defense playing sound coverage on the back end to help support their stout run defense.

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The Good, the bad and the ugly from the Oklahoma Sooners win over Temple

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from the Oklahoma Sooners week one win over the Temple Owls.

The Oklahoma Sooners had a strong start in their 51-3 win over the Temple Owls. They did just enough on offense to take advantage of a great defensive effort.

Oklahoma knew it didn’t need to go deep into the playbook to beat the Owls. While the offensive performance isn’t quite what we’d expect from the Sooners, it didn’t need to be for OU to win and cover the 42 1/2-point spread.

There was a lot of good in Oklahoma’s win over the Owls and some stuff that has to improve as the Sooners move through the 2024 season. Here’s a look at the first installment of the good, the bad and the ugly from Week 1.

The Good: Defense is Back in Norman

It’s just one game, but the Oklahoma Sooners defense looked great against the Temple Owls on Friday night.

The Sooners held Temple to less than 200 yards of total offense and 1.9 yards per carry. Oklahoma’s defense recorded six turnovers, the most in a game since 2003. It also recorded six sacks and nine tackles for loss. The production came from everyone.

The Owls couldn’t get much going offensively as the Sooners frustrated them with a relentless defensive effort.

The Sooners will face tougher teams down the road, but you have to be happy about what they put on the field to start the 2024 season.

The Bad: Run Game Needs Work

Yes, the Oklahoma Sooners ran for 217 yards. You take the 28 yards from sacks out of the equation and the yardage number jumps to 245. On the surface, that looks pretty good. But nearly a third of that rushing total came on the final drive when [autotag]Michael Hawkins[/autotag] and [autotag]Taylor Tatum[/autotag] added 76 yards to the total.

In the first half, OU ran for 4.1 yards per carry. By contrast, the Sooners averaged 9.1 yards per carry in the second half. A much better number, but Temple went deeper into the depth chart as the game went on.

Yes, the offense had a vanilla game plan, but the first-team offense should have been more effective against the Temple Owls. The unit was without [autotag]Jake Taylor[/autotag] and lost [autotag]Branson Hickman[/autotag] to injury in the early going.

The Sooners will have an opportunity to right the ship when they take on a Houston Cougars team that allowed UNLV to rush for nearly 200 yards and average 4.1 yards per carry.

The Ugly: Wide Receiver Depth takes another Hit

The Oklahoma Sooners wide receiver room was lauded this offseason for being one of the deepest in the nation. Well, that depth is going to be put to the test as the Sooners suffered another significant injury.

[autotag]Jalil Farooq[/autotag], who was third on the team in receiving yards in 2023, was expected to have another strong season but suffered a broken foot in the first quarter of the win over Temple. That’s the second significant injury suffered by the wide receiver during the last month. [autotag]Jayden Gibson[/autotag] was lost for the season in the preseason.

[autotag]Nic Anderson[/autotag] has been banged up and is expected to be ready to roll this week against the Cougars, and Oklahoma will need the breakout star from 2023 to have a repeat season this year.

[autotag]Deion Burks[/autotag] looked good and [autotag]Brenen Thompson[/autotag] is off to a nice start to the season. But the Sooners need Anderson back and will need a younger player to earn a significant role in the wide receiver rotation.

Oklahoma can’t afford another significant wide receiver injury.

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Brent Venables liked what he saw from the Oklahoma Defense vs. Temple

The Oklahoma Sooners defense was dominating in OU’s week one win against the Temple Owls.

The Oklahoma Sooners took their first step to creating an identity in their 51-3 win over the Temple Owls in week one. It looked like a Sooners team of old, with a defense that forced a ton of turnovers and created a ton of pressure on Temple quarterback Forrest Brock.

The Sooners held Temple to less than 200 total yards and held their rushing attack to less than two yards per carry. Oklahoma’s head coach was pleased with his defense’s performance.

“Thought the defense, from start to finish, really played outstanding. Again, six sacks, nine tackles for loss, forced six turnovers, and scored a touchdown. For the first time, I think we’ve had six turnovers in a game since 2003. We only had six forced fumbles last year, and we had four tonight. Really I loved how aggressive and confident our guys were moving around, flying to the ball and being aggressive and knocking the ball loose. Fantastic job by the defense.”

It would be easy to credit the Sooners’ efforts to the level of competition they were playing. And certainly, nobody is going to confuse Temple for the 2008 Oklahoma Sooners. However, Venables was pleased more with the fundamentals with which the Sooners’ defense played as much as anything.

Venables spoke about what he saw from a technical standpoint. “Vertical, active, stayed on our feet and did a really nice job in block recognition, squeezing and condensing gaps,” Venables said. “Some of our movements that we did up front, I thought they played with great pad level.”

You know, it really doesn’t have anything to do with them, that we’re the things that I’m talking about. It’s, it’s us. But I just thought we were sure of what we were doing completely, really good. Pad level, excellent with our hands. We got a lot of knockback, and we made it hard for them to run the ball downhill. They tried to run downhill.”

The OU defense played fast and physically. From the front four, which was disruptive in both the run and pass game, to the back seven, Venables and defensive coordinator Zac Alley’s defense looked the part of a title contending defense.

It’s just one week, but the Sooners played sound, fundamental, physical, and tenacious defense. They’ll have tougher challenges throughout the 2024 season, including next week’s game against the Houston Cougars. But it’s a great start to the season for the Oklahoma Sooners.

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Social media reacts to the Oklahoma Sooners 50-20 win over Iowa State

After it was close through the first quarter and a half, the Oklahoma Sooners went on to dominate Iowa State 50-20 and here’s how Social Media Reacted.

It was a tight ball game into the second quarter, but after Iowa State cut Oklahoma’s lead to one, it was all Sooners from there on out.

When it was 21-20, it began to feel like all of the Sooners-Cyclones matchups during the Lincoln Riley-Matt Campbell era, but then Oklahoma realized that this team is built different. The Sooners went on to score 29 unanswered points, creating the largest margin of victory in the matchup since a 52-16 win in 2015. That was the year before Campell arrived in Ames.

Dillon Gabriel had another great game, accounting for more than 400 combined passing and rushing yards and five total touchdowns. It was a fantastic performance to help get Oklahoma to 5-0 and set up an undefeated Red River Rivalry game in the Cotton Bowl.

Though there are still things to work on heading into the big-time showdown, the Sooners are heading in the right direction.

Here’s how social media reacted to the win.

5 takeaways from the Oklahoma Sooners win 20-6 win over Cincinnati

The Oklahoma Sooners got a strong performance from their defense en route to a 20-6 win over Cincinnati. Here are five takeaways from the performance.

The Oklahoma Sooners kept their undefeated start to the season intact with a 20-6 win over the Cincinnati Bearcats.

It was a strong performance from a defense that was one of the worst in college football a season ago. Now they’re allowing just 8.5 points per game and held a top 10 rush offense in check.

Now 4-0 and 1-0 in Big 12 play, the Sooners look like a legitimate conference title contender.

It was a good performance in a difficult road environment against a well-coached Cincinnati team.

Let’s take a look at five takeaways from the win.

‘We are a fast, complete, suffocating defense’: Reggie Pearson notices a change in Oklahoma’s defense

While he wasn’t at Oklahoma a year ago, Reggie Pearson said he notices a big change compared to a season ago.

It was early in the game against the Arkansas State Red Wolves. Red Wolves quarterback [autotag]J.T. Strout[/autotag] scrambled to the right and just after he crossed the out-of-bounds line, Oklahoma Sooners safety [autotag]Reggie Pearson[/autotag] laid a huge hit.

That hit drew a 15-yard penalty on the Sooners. But what happened the very next play was something we aren’t typically used to seeing from an [autotag]Oklahoma defense[/autotag].

We’ve seen it countless times. A bad penalty eventually leads to a touchdown as the defense is never able to recover. But not on Saturday. Instead the very next play Pearson blew up a running play for a one-yard loss. Two plays later, the Red Wolves were punting.

While Pearson wasn’t at Oklahoma a year ago, he told reporters there is a difference between this year’s unit and last year’s unit.

“We are a fast, complete, suffocating defense,” Pearson said. “I feel like that’s what has changed from last year from what I’ve seen from OU’s defense to now. Just being on every single play and rallying to everything and making sure we get guys down. Honing in on our communication. That’s a big thing too. We’re super physical. We’re faster than a lot of people thought we were.”

That physicality and speed were on display early and often. While it was against a lower-level opponent, you could still tell it just looked different than a year ago. Will the results be different than a year ago is the main question.

One Oklahoma has a chance to further answer come this Saturday at 5 p.m. CT.

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‘The standard doesn’t change for Oklahoma’: Danny Stutsman ready to put 2022 behind them

The Sooners pitched just the fourth shut out in the last 10 years, now the team is ready to put last year’s woes behind them.

The Oklahoma Sooners started their season off with a bang after a dominating performance versus the Arkansas State Red Wolves. The offense, defense and special teams all got into the action and contributed to the 73-0 win.

When you score 73 points, typically everything is about the offense but the defense deserves its flowers. The defense pitched its fourth shutout in the last 10 years and only the second shutout versus a Division I opponent.

Danny Stutsman told reporters after the game, while the Sooners got off to a hot start a year ago, this year feels different. “We have 63 new guys,” Stutsman said. “We have a new team, a whole new atmosphere, a new everything and just the way we came out there, last year UTEP scored and I think we pitched a shutout so obviously something changed.”

The team looked more comfortable, especially on the defensive side of the ball. The were sure of themselves, which helped them fly around. Stutsman said this is step one in putting last year behind them.

“The standard doesn’t change for Oklahoma,” Stutsman said. “I think year in and year out the standard is conference championship and then play for the College Football Playoff, then keep going from there. I think that’s what it is regardless of a 6-7 season last year and being team 129 this year.”

The players and coaches know the standard. The players before them set that standard. It’s now up to them to defend it. Team 129 is off to a great start.

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