The last two weeks have been a massive setback to the start of the Brent Venables era. But again, it’s just the start. Five games does not make a coaching tenure.
Losses to Kansas State and TCU in back-to-back weeks revealed how far this team has to go to improve to the level of a national title contender. But that shouldn’t change the long-term outlook for Venables and the Oklahoma Sooners.
It’s been bad. You can’t get around that. The defense has allowed over 1,100 yards of total offense and nearly 100 points in two weeks despite looking really good the first three weeks of the season. However, this staff is just getting started in Norman. Should things be better than they are? Absolutely. Will they be better? The coaching histories of Venables and offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby suggest yes. They will be better than how they performed the last two weeks.
Poor discipline in coverage was the scourge of the Oklahoma Sooners in Saturday’s loss to TCU. They gave up huge plays to TCU pretty much every time TCU took a shot.
“The explosive runs are the ones that really are the ones that are back breakers,” Brent Venables had to say when speaking with the media following yesterday’s loss. “They’re gonna get some, some plays here or there, but you can’t give up the explosives. And today, you know, we did that. Like I said, I think they had the 67, 36, 69, 35 those are the rushes, and pass plays, 73 yards and 72 yards are both busted plays.”
TCU gashed Oklahoma with big plays all day. On the ground, through the air. It didn’t seem to matter the down and distance or the situation. Oklahoma’s defense was porous. Venables explained what happened on those busted plays.
“One’s a four over three concept, and we don’t zone it out, and should be in an overlap coverage on number two, and he runs down the seam,” Venables explained. “And then another was a 3-deep concept where one guy stops another run, guy runs a go route, and we’re in 3-deep, and our third player is not there. And next thing, you’re giving up big plays, touchdowns, you’re not being efficient on offense, and it got away from us.”
It’s hard to find anything positive in Oklahoma’s performance against TCU. It was bad. It took time to turn the Clemson Tigers into a defensive juggernaut. It’ll likely take time to do the same in Norman.
“We were bad, but we’re not that bad,” Venables said. “But it happened. And you can’t give away touchdowns to people and expect to win games. And so it avalanched on us today. And we did a poor job of getting out of it.”
The avalanche started a week ago at home vs. Kansas State, and it snowballed south to Fort Worth. As Oklahoma prepares for the Texas Longhorns in the Red River Showdown, the Sooners hope the storm doesn’t travel east on I-30 from Fort Worth to the Cotton Bowl.
TCU played great, but Oklahoma must prepare for a Texas team that features two of the best players in the conference, Bijan Robinson and Xavier Worthy. Regardless of who the quarterback is, the Sooners will have a difficult task ahead of them. Hopefully, they’re up to the challenge.
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