Tag: Oklahoma Defense

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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ESPN’s midseason grade of Oklahoma’s Brent Venables shortsighted

ESPN’s grade of Brent Venables at the midway point of 2022 doesn’t see the big picture. Good things are still coming for the Oklahoma Sooners.

The first year of the Brent Venables era hasn’t gone as well as Venables or anybody else would have expected. After three wins to open the season, the Sooners dropped their next three, the first three games in Big 12 play, and gave up 40+ points each week.

ESPN graded each head coach in their new locale at the midway point of the season. Though it’s still early in his tenure, ESPN didn’t look too favorably on Venables after giving the Oklahoma Football program a B+ for the hire at the time Venables was brought on board. ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg gave Venables a D+ (ESPN+).

The grade might seem harsh, as Oklahoma played almost two games without star quarterback Dillon Gabriel and faced other personnel challenges. The Sooners also rebounded nicely on Saturday against short-handed Kansas, piling up points and yards and limiting some of the defensive meltdowns that had surfaced in the previous three games. But what happened against TCU and particularly Texas is unforgivable for a program such as Oklahoma and a coach with Venables’ credentials on defense. Oklahoma endured its first three-game losing streak since 1998 and absorbed its worst shutout loss in team history, while allowing its highest points total ever to Texas. Although the Sooners bounced back in Gabriel’s return on Saturday, they still allowed 42 points to a Kansas team playing with its backup quarterback. “You’ve got to continue to plant seeds of belief, not seeds of doubt and destruction,” Venables told me in September. “These players, they expect to win. We want them to play well. You’ve got to find that delicate balance as you’re building a culture and standards. You’ve got to nurture it too. In the middle of competition, in the middle of failure, mental stress and chaos, your job as a coach is to help in telling the truth, so you’re learning personalities and how to get the most out of guys and pushing the right buttons.” – Rittenberg, ESPN

You’re right, Adam. It is a bit harsh. Expectations were probably too high for a team that lost six defensive starters, five of which were selected in the 2022 NFL draft. Three of those five were key figures to your defensive front that accounts for the lack of pressure the Sooners are creating from their defensive line. The losses of Nik Bonitto, Isaiah Thomas, and Perrion Winfrey weigh heavier than they did at the start of the season.

Throughout the losing streak, Venables discussed the need for the players to be better and for the coaches to improve as well. In particular, there were things on the defensive side of the ball that needed to improve.

While the Sooners gave up 42 points in their win over Kansas, they had a stretch where they stopped the Kansas offense on four-straight possessions with three punts and an interception mixed in for good measure. It was enough for the Sooners’ offense to jump out to a 35-21 halftime lead and control the game the rest of the way.

Brent Venables knows how to coach. He’s been doing it a very long time and has spent time under some of the best in the business over the last 30 years. There’s little doubt that Oklahoma will be a formidable program moving forward. It may take this year and next to get everything established that he wants in Norman, but the defense will come around. He’s been coaching defense at a high level for far too long for it not to evolve into one of the best in the country in a few years’ time.

This is just year one. The results in year one aren’t great, but good thing we don’t judge a book before we reach it’s climax. The “fast, suffocating defense” is on the way.

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Oklahoma’s defense has spent the offseason taking ownership

Defensive coordinator Ted Roof talks about Oklahoma’s defense as they prepared to start fall camp and he discussed the defense’s buy-in.

Oklahoma has left the Mike Stoops defensive days behind them. That started with the hiring of Alex Grinch, who helped shape the unit into a somewhat respectable defense. While it eventually hit a wall under Grinch’s direction, the days of being lambasted for weeks upon end are long gone.

Enter Brent Venables, college football’s best defensive mind over the last 10 years, as the new head coach of Oklahoma, a place he’s won a national championship as their defensive coordinator. He’ll no longer be the coordinator of the defense, that role has been passed to Ted Roof. As the team gets started with fall camp, Roof’s words about Oklahoma offer encouraging signs that the Sooners are on the precipice of breaking through the proverbial wall they ran into under Grinch.

When speaking with the media ahead of fall camp, Roof spoke on numerous topics, including the defense’s football IQ and the players’ willingness to get better on their own.

When asked about the biggest areas of progress from the defense since arriving, Roof had this to say,

“Well, I see an improved football IQ. And you can tell that the guys have been working because of that, as far as knowing assignments, understanding the defense, understanding where their help is because playing team defense is a big deal, as far as knowing where your help is and playing opposite your help; where, if you’ve got help outside, you want to make sure you stay inside leverage, things like that, the details of that, that allow you to play fast and allow you not to have to think and process as opposed to reacting.

“And so in addition to that, (it’s) learning offense, too, meaning formation tendencies, motions, shifts, all the receiver splits, all those things that go into the pre-snap process that the more you can understand that and recognize that, the faster you can play because then you can anticipate. And I think that’s what the great players do, they anticipate. They play ahead of the play instead of behind the play. …”

Oklahoma’s defenders immersing themselves in the nuances of football, understanding tendencies, knowing route combinations and even minute details such as receiver splits are something that should be refreshing to the ears of many Sooner faithful.

Knowing and understanding details like this are the difference between being a top-60 defense and a top-20 defense.

Venables’ 2014 Clemson defense led the nation in total defense, while his 2018 version led the nation in scoring defense. The Sooners want to level up into an elite defense and this staff’s tutelage could be the thing that gets them there. However, there has to be buy-in, and the buy-in comes from the players going the extra mile and immersing themselves in the fine details.

How does this level of commitment happen though? It starts with the players and the players taking ownership. That starts with doing things and coordinating player-led practices and workouts when NCAA rules prohibit coach interaction. Roof spoke on that in detail.

“Well, there are NCAA rules that we have to follow as far as a certain amount of hours that we can require them to be here, but you never regret doing more than what’s required,” Roof said. “And our guys have spent a lot of time on their own this summer, and I think we’ve had a great summer. I think we’re better defensively now than when we started the summer. But we should be. But some places aren’t. So, I’ve been real proud of the way that our guys have worked, and I think we’ve made some strides and looking forward to getting started. But being player-led, that’s a big deal. Coaches can do this and do that, but when your players take ownership and it becomes player led, then you’re moving in a really good direction.”

Oklahoma is less than a month away from unveiling its new defense to the world. With full buy-in from the staff and most importantly the players, Oklahoma can begin to try and push themselves to a level on defense that Norman hasn’t seen in years.

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Final thoughts on the Oklahoma Sooners matchup with the Baylor Bears

As the Oklahoma Sooners get set to take on the Baylor Bears here are this week’s final thoughts heading into the matchup.

There’s no more important game than the one in front of the Oklahoma Sooners as they get set to face the Baylor Bears today as part of Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff. At the same time, today’s matchup in Waco sets the stage for the next month of the Sooners’ season.

Each game from now until the Big 12 championship will be a high-profile matchup as the Oklahoma Sooners look to make their case for inclusion in the College Football Playoff.

Today they face their toughest test of the season in the Baylor Bears. A win this week will help the Oklahoma Sooners make their case as one of the best four teams in the country.

Let’s take a look at this week’s final thoughts as the Oklahoma Sooners look to continue their undefeated season against the Baylor Bears.

The good, the bad and the ugly from Oklahoma’s 52-31 win over TCU

This week’s the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from the Oklahoma Sooners 52-31 win over the TCU Horned Frogs.

Though the final score may indicate a 21-point win for the Oklahoma Sooners, there were times the game felt closer than it was. TCU scratched and clawed to keep this game close, but the Sooners offense was too much, and the defense came up with timely stops.

So, as we do each week, let’s take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly from the Sooners Week 7 win over the TCU Horned Frogs. 

The Good: A Star is Born

Where were you the night Caleb Williams took the college football world by storm?

Like many of you, I was with family, watching the game with my wife while my daughter was watching “Hotel Transylvania 3.”

Even though the 5-year-old isn’t entirely into football yet, she’ll still let out a hearty “Sooner” when called upon. And Williams provided more than enough of those moments to keep her intrigued by what was going on.

Williams has had about as strong a start to a college career as one could hope for. After helping the Sooners rally to beat the Texas Longhorns last week in a thriller in the Cotton Bowl, Williams topped that performance, going 18 of 23 for 295 yards and four touchdowns. He added a score on the ground and 66 rushing yards in a game the true freshman looked entirely in control of.

Even when it seemed like the TCU pressure was starting to mount, Williams responded with a big play or a bounce-back drive. On a night when the defense was dealing with many injuries in the secondary, Williams was the momentum killer.

The Oklahoma offense regularly responded to Horned Frogs scores with scores of its own, and TCU could never get the game as close in the second half as it was with a few minutes left to play before halftime (17-14).

It couldn’t have gone any better if someone had written the script. Things will get tough later in the season against Baylor, Iowa State, and Oklahoma State, but for now, it’s a strong beginning to what looks to be a promising career for the true freshman quarterback.

Up Next: The Bad

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REPORT: Delarrin Turner-Yell unavailable for game vs. Kansas State

As the Oklahoma Sooners attempt to remain undefeated in 2021 they’ll have to face Kansas State without safety Delarrin Turner-Yell.

All of the injury intrigue this week has been on the Kansas State side of things with the mystery surrounding quarterback Skylar Thompson. However, the Oklahoma Sooners are dealing with injuries as well and were dealt a blow with pregame news that Delarrin Turner-Yell didn’t make the trip to Manhattan.

Per former Oklahoma Sooners offensive lineman-turned Sirius XM host Gabe Ikard, Turner-Yell won’t be available this week after he suffered an injury last week in the Sooners win over West Virginia.

Turner-Yell suffered a lower-leg injury in the second half of last week’s game, a game where he had an impressive interception in the first quarter.

Starting in his place will be redshirt senior Justin Broiles.

The loss of Delarrin Turner-Yell will be felt by an Oklahoma Sooners defense that has been playing well this season. Turner-Yell has played more than anyone other than Pat Fields for the Sooners defense and he leads Oklahoma in tackles.

While Broiles will start expect to see Key Lawrence get a lot of work this week as Alex Grinch likes to play a lot of players on his defense and will try to find the best fit.

Though it’s unknown why Justin Harrington entered into the transfer portal, the timing is certainly curious with the injury to Turner-Yell keeping him in Norman for today’s game.

The Oklahoma Sooners are looking to vanquish a foe they haven’t beaten in two seasons and remain undefeated. In order to do so, they’ll do it without one of their leaders on the defense.

Bold Predictions for the Oklahoma Sooners Defense vs. WCU

As the Sooners defense looks to bounce back after a forgettable second-half performance, here are some bold predictions for the game vs. WCU

Oklahoma is back in action on Saturday as they welcome FCS Western Carolina University into Norman for the official home opener. The Sooners are looking for a complete performance after what many considered a letdown against Tulane. Oklahoma won, but it was hardly pretty at times. Part of the reason for that most certainly can be attributed to the defense.

With the opportunity for a bounce-back performance against what should be an overmatched Catamounts team, look for the defense to crank things up a notch and more closely resemble the defense that closed the 2020 season.

Continue on for some bold predictions for the Sooners defensive for the upcoming game against WVU:

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