The Bad – Turnovers Sink Sooners
Turnovers are going to happen with young quarterbacks. You see it all over the place on college football Saturdays. Shoot, in the Georgia-Texas game, Carson Beck and Quinn Ewers combined for six interceptions.
Oklahoma’s turnovers were compiled because they happened on the first three drives of the game and two were returned for touchdowns. And for the second straight week, the Sooners lost the game over a several minute stretch because of turnovers.
While the turnovers will get attributed to the quarterback, the quarterback wasn’t soley responsible for them. Michael Hawkins Jr. was under duress on both interceptions, getting hit as he threw the second. When he attempted to evade pressure a linebacker was allowed a free run into his chest, causing the fumble.
Also, it didn’t help that once again the offensive coordinators were reluctant to run the ball early with Hawkins in the game. The Sooners didn’t call their first run play until the third series, which was a seven-yard run by Jovantae Barnes.
Barnes lost a fumble later in the game but was simply attempting to make a play and the Sooners nearly had several more turnovers on fumbles and dropped passes that got batted into the air.
It was a terrible game from a ball security standpoint even after the quarterback change. For a team that preaches protecting the football, the Oklahoma Sooners have been terrible on that front in the last couple of weeks.
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