The Oklahoma Sooners improved to 5-4 with a 59-14 victory over the Maine Black Bears on Saturday. OU broke a three-game losing streak with the 45-point win on an overcast day in Norman.
While the game wasn’t in doubt against the Football Championship Subdivision opponent, OU started way too slowly. It punted on its first offensive drive. The Black Bears went right down the field on their opening drive to take a 7-0 lead.
Oklahoma then locked in, scoring on all but one other possession and stifling any other efforts by Maine until the Sooners were deep on the depth chart. They used their superior talent to overwhelm Maine.
Slow starts on offense are nothing new. The Sooners have struggled to score all season. What was concerning was the ease with which Maine dictated the action the first time it had the ball. The Sooners have started well on defense for the most part, but they have given up a relatively easy touchdown drive on the opening possession of their last three games.
Third-year head coach [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] was asked about the bad start at his postgame press conference. He expressed his displeasure in the way his defense started things off on Saturday.
“Today I was really disappointed,” Venables said of the defense’s opening drive. “We’ve got to be better than that. We did some undisciplined things early in the game. I understand guys get tired, you know, they’re making some plays, we’re making plays later in the game sometimes that it, or maybe it’s out of control, and guys get a little bit sloppy, the guys that come in, they’re not used to being out there as much. But right early in the game we didn’t have edges to our defense several times and just some undisciplined defense. And so whether it’s eyes or adjustments or structure, it was a lot of little things and really disappointing. But they did respond, and we’ve got to be better. (I) challenged them at halftime; thought they responded pretty good.”
Venables went on to detail his message to the team, which was that the Sooners had to respect the game, show up and play at an elite level, regardless of the caliber of the opponent across the line of scrimmage.
Oklahoma has much tougher opponents coming up on the schedule, and subpar starts could prove critical in their hunt for a bowl berth. After the poor start, the Sooners played very well as the more talented team on their home field on Saturday. They will not be the more talented team very often during the next month, so they have to find a way to get rolling sooner if they want to create a spark to finish the season strongly.
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