The Bad: Missed Tackles
Per Pro Football Focus, the Oklahoma Sooners had 15 missed tackles in Saturday’s win. In the loss to Kansas State last season, they only had seven missed tackles. In the loss the following week to Iowa State, the Sooners had 14 missed tackles.
The Tulane Green Wave forced the Sooners to miss 15 tackles.
And it wasn’t isolated to just one unit of the defense. It was a problem from front to back.
The defensive front (Nik Bonitto included) missed four. The linebackers missed five tackles and the defensive backs missed six tackles.
Now, it’s not surprising when a cornerback misses a tackle, they aren’t usually the strongest tacklers on your team, but when your linebackers are missing five, that’s concerning.
Of course, it’s week one, and it’s the first real game action of the season. The Sooners were able to improve their tackling from the Iowa State game on last year, but it’s an issue that’s reared its ugly head again.
Sometimes, the downside to playing fast, is that it can lead a player to play out of control. The Sooners “Speed D” needs to play fast and then get in control when they go to make the tackle.
While the tackling wasn’t as good as one would like it to be, the Sooners made the tackle they needed to make to get off the field. On 4th and 13, and feeling pressure, Michael Pratt scrambled to his right before dashing upfield attempting to run for the first down. After avoiding a near sack, Pratt picked up a big chunk of the yardage before being tripped up and falling a yard short of the first down marker.
It has to get better by the time the Sooners reach Big 12 play. With Deuce Vaughn, Breece Hall, and Bijan Robinson on the schedule, the Sooners will have their hands full if they can’t clean up their tackling.
Stay tuned for The Ugly
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