My thoughts about the OU - Kansas Game - REALLY?

[OUBeliever56A]

I watched the game yesterday in a state of I really do not understand what I am seeing much of the time during the game. My thoughts are mostly, IWIK (I wish I Knew) this or that.

My thoughts:

In the first quarter the Sooners ran 15 plays if my count is right. Of those 15 plays, a running back carried the ball exactly 3 times for 9 yards. That was with a line of Rouse, Green, Raym, Mettauer and Guyton. I know that Sawchuk is what our #3 back, but please, on a cold, rainy day the Sooners give their starting RB the ball 3 times out of 15 plays in the quarter.

Instead the Sooner OC Lebby, give the ball to Freeman (#82) for 2 carriers that somehow gains 14 yards on plays scribbled in the dirt I think. Farooq carried the ball 2 times for 6 yards on various plays. Gabriel, maybe the poorest runner among the Sooners carried the ball 2 times for 9 yards.

On six pass plays, the Sooners threw the ball downfield 2 times. Downfield, in this case means less than 10 yards. the six passes resulted in 2 completions for 9 yards on passes sideways in the backfield to Farooq. 2 of the passes were incomplete, one short to Stogner on the left and one to Anderson where interference was called over the middle. the remaining two pass attempts resulted in one sack for a 1-yard loss on a 4th and 3 call and one Pick-6 for a TD on a pass out wide to the right to Farooq that was thrown a day late and inside of Farooq who was not expecting the ball.

On a day like yesterday, IWIK why the offense did not come out, even with Sawchuk in the backfield, and establish the running game by running the Sooners best running plays. This lateral passing game is getting old and the continued running wide and even up the middle with wide receivers instead of running backs is hard to understand. To me, the Sooners only see the two highlights of Freeman that were important and none of the other that were for the most part ineffective. Farooq is going nowhere as a running back. Help him to be a better wide receiver. Trying to use Gabriel as a bonafide runner is not a long term plan either. I guess Walker was suspended for the 1st quarter too. I heard Major was not dressed also for the game. When you are down to fewer options, run basic tried and true plays. Passes to Stoops over the middle, Something to Anderson when one-on-one. Give the ball to a running back off the edge or behind man blocking instead of zone blocking. It is basic, right?

By the time the 1st quarter ended and the second drive by Kansas ended in the 2nd quarter, OU trailed 14-0. The Sooners Walker into the backfield, and started to run the football. In 10 plays the Sooners covered 75 yards with 7 runs and 3 passes (all complete.) Walker had 25 of the yards on 5 carries. Farooq had one more for 4 yards. The 3 passes were for 30 yards. Gabriel has the last 7 for the TD on a run. A 15 yd penalty against Kansas and a movement penalty against OU accounted for the yardage covered the drive. I wonder where Lebby was for on that drive, someone else was definitely calling the plays on the drive. The drive made sense to me.

Meanwhile, someone had talked to the defense and the Sooners picked up a 3 and out on the next Kansas drive.

OU then RAN off a 66 yard drive with only one short pass in the drive. It was the Tawee Walker show. He carried the ball 6 times for 55 yards by my count. I think Lebby was taking a nap once again. It was a basic drive. How can the two drives in the second and the two drives in the first quarter be so different? Did Lebby try something and when it did not work and adjust or is there no confidence in Sawchuk? IWIK why the two quarters are so different. Is Walker that valuable?

On the ensuing kickoff with the scored tied at 14-14, Kansas fumbled the kickoff and OU recovered at the Kansas 17 yard line. Despite a phantom holding call against Green and the 10-yard penalty OU scored again behind Walker's running for 18 yards and Gabriel for 9 yards to take the lead 21-14. The block by Green was a total pancake effort. His had was not in the facemask and the power of green overwhelmed the defensive player. No way it was holding IMO.

On the last play of the half, Kansas took the ball 67 yards to kick a field goal. The big plays were a holding penalty on OU, a 24-yard pass play and a 18-yard run by the RB.

After the kickoff by Kansas, OU ran out the 50 seconds left on the clock.

The first drive of the 3rd quarter was by OU. After an initial 1st down, the Sooners ended up with a 3rd and 3 at the Kansas 49-yard line. Instead of feeding Walker with the ball, the Sooners run the jet sweep to Freman on a forward lateral to gain 0 yards. After a delay of game penalty attempting to draw Kansas offsides, the Sooners have to waste a timeout to successfully punt the ball to the Kansas 10. IWIK why the jet sweep was called. Were the Sooners looking for a big play by Freeman. Plays wide had not worked too well all day. Walker was picking up yards easily on the ground. I guess Lebby wanted to do something different.

Kansas punted after six plays. The second good defensive series of the day.

An unnecessary roughness penalty on Byrd stymied the beginnings of a drive by OU. IWIK knew why Byrd was in the game. After Green and Mettauer seeming to play well, all of a sudden the guards were Elliot and Byrd. Somewhere in there, Sexton also replaced Rouse at LT. I still have not heard why that change was made. Another IWIK. Sexton did seem to play well though. The punt by OU was off to the side for 31 yards. This kicking game for OU is brutal at times.

A 40 yard pass play Kansas lead to another field goal by Kansas from 29 yards. OU lead 21-20 at that time.

On the next OU drive, the offense returned to the Freeman and Farooq show. IWIK - why? Two sideways passed to Freeman did gain 11 yards and a 1st down. The next play with Farooq carrying the ball from the backfield resulted in a fumble recovered by Kansas. The tackle was made with the helmet on the ball so good for Kansas, but why not Walker, why not?

On the very next play, the QB ran naked bootleg all the way to the end zone as the defense by OU was somewhere on the other side of the field, being blocked or had their back covering a receiver that was not catching a pass. The 2-point attempt failed as the pass was poorly thrown. Kansas led 26-21.

OU's next drive was called by the good side of Lebby. Four runs by Walker for 21 yards, a short pass that ended up being a big play by Big-Play Drake Stoops (get the nickname off of Big-Game Bob) for 39 yards. Gabriel ran for 9 on a keeper before Sawchuck reached the ball over the goal line for a TD. Wait, where is Walker? On his last carry on the drive, he limped off the field and was seen getting an ankle taped. OU's two point try was not successful on a pass play. OU led 27-26. I understand that a point after does not help you much, but was a 2-point try needed, IWIK. Where is that book?

As the game turned into the 4th quarter, OU gave the Jayhawks 30 yards of penalty on a unnecessary roughness penalty on Dolby, and a unsportsmanlike penalty on the OU bench. I thought the penalty was a bit picky on Dolby, but how in the world does the 15 yards on the bench happen? That is not BV's plan at all. I was disappointed in that penalty. The next to last play in the drive also included a 'targeting' penalty on a sliding QB at the goal line. If I understand the rules right, Pearson will also miss the 1st half against OSU next week also. I thought the call was appropriate on Person according to the rules but he was slightly pushed by a blocker on the play. Kansas scored from the 1-foot line on the next play. The Kansas two point try failed once again Kansas led 32-27.

The following kickoff by Kansas became a very big deal on a play that is way too often a play between two commercial breaks. Kansas kicked the ball short which required Marcus Stripling, a DE, to call a make a play and catch the ball with oncoming Kansas players bearing down on him. I do not know whether Stripling has that skill set in his background or not, but wow, what a time to have to prove it. Stripling muffed the catch and Kansas recovered the ball. IWIK why there was not a receiver, TE is not in that up position unless Stripling has a history of catching the football. The little unexpected things can kill a team.

After the first play by Kansas gaining 20 yards on a pass play, the Sooner defense made an important stop in the next 3 plays and forced a field goal attempt that was wide right. Big fumble turned into no harm by the defense. Good job OU defense.

After an initial play of a downfield pass (rare in this game), to Anderson for 18 yards, OU ran the ball three times for 2 yards each. Walker carried the ball on the first play, his last play of the game. then Jovantae Barnes carried on the second play. Gabriel carried on the third play on a 3rd and 6 which I thought was odd, IWIK why no pass, can anyone say Stoops? OU punted to end the drive with about 8 minutes left.

After not playing real well on the day, OU' defense got the play that OU needed on the next Kansas drive. On a 3rd down play, Kendall Dolby made a nice play and broke up a pass with Billy Bowman reacting well to make the interception at the Kansas 24 yard line and returning the ball to the Kansas 14 yard line. Big Play!

Barnes carried twice for 11 yards and a first down. Gabriel carried for 2 before his next carry was a TD. OU led 33-32. Again the same situation, up by one, OU went for two. The pass play failed. That book thing again. but with two extra points, OU would have been up by 3, right? Monday-morning QBing maybe.

After OU kicked off, Kansas picked up a first down on a 11-yard pass. OU then forced a 4th and 4 play on defense with Kansas picking up the first down on a 10-yard pass play. After two incomplete passes by Kansas. The Weatherford defensive end was in exactly the right place at the right time to make the interception at the Oklahoma 49 and returned the ball to the Kansas 38 in what could be described as a Rugby scrum of players from both teams.

OKAY! Ou has the ball on the Kansas 38 with a little over 2:29 to play and ahead by 1 point over a valiant Kansas team on a rainy day in Lawrence. Surely the Sooners have this game in hand. But Kansas has 3 timeouts left. OU needs a first down. One first down. OU lines up with one back in the backfield and Kansas has 9 people in the box and 10 players within 7 yards of the ball, I noticed. OU has that big #4 out there on the near sideline one-on-one. Stoops is in the slot most likely one-on-one also. Gabriel hands off to Barnes running left for a 1-yard loss. Time out Kansas. Some setup, same box defense, same one-on-one choices. Gabriel fakes the hand off and keeps the ball running right for another 1-yard loss. Time out Kansas. 3rd and 12 with 2:19 left.

Same setup. Eight at least still in the box with one-on-one's available. Either OU is afraid to throw the ball on 3rd and 12 or they just do not want to throw the ball to stop the clock. Sometimes the fear of something keeps a thing from being successful. If I was a coach, I would want a QB to lobby for a pass in this situation. I would want a OC to want to throw the ball. If you can't be successful in this situation, what are we doing in this offense? Well, the Sooners ran the ball up the middle with Barnes for 5 yards. Time out Kansas. On 4th and 7, the Sooners looked like they were going for the play at the Kansas 35 yard line. But a movement penalty on Anderson interrupted that thought and after the five yard penalty, Oklahoma punted with 2:15 left in the game. OU ran exactly 14 seconds of the clock in their possession. Why not throw the ball in an attempt to pick up a first down? Play to win, right?

Well on the punt the Sooners had another breakdown. Elzinga's punt was placed pretty well, but the Kansas deep to catch the ball, did what he should do, he ran forward acting like the ball was kicked shorter. The OU outside player on the left going down to force the play, read the Kansas player and stopped in his tracks as the ball landed on about the 8 and took a bounce into the end zone for a touchback. IMO the OU player should have a good chance to maybe catch the punt and definately down the ball inside the 8 yard line if he just simply finds the ball and move to it instead of reading the Kansas player "deeking" on the play. IWIK why that was not the last thing the coaches told him before the punt. THE LAST THING! Kansas took over the ball on the 20 instead o inside the 8 yard line.

The first two Kansas plays gained 30 yards and moved the ball to the 50 yard line. An incomplete pass and two running plays for a total of 4 yards left Kansas with a 4th and 6 at the OU 46-yard line. On a delay route out to the right, Kansas picked up 37 yards on a pass to the right. Someone was not in position on the play for OU. With 58 seconds left, OU was in a bad place. they were getting no rush on the QB at all. From what I saw, most of the time a DE was dropping to help in coverage and still there were open receivers that picked up chunk yardage. The 4th down conversion was a very big play. I do not know for sure, but it looked like OU was willing to let Kansas score so they could get the ball back to try to score in the last seconds of the game. Kansas did score on the next running play from 9 yards out. I find it strange that with almost no passing offense the whole day, that was the plan. With the ball on the nine, I would have made Kansas earn that win. At the time, OU was leading by 1 point, 38-33. Why let them score? IWIK.

Once again, two point attempt by Kansas trying to make their lead 7 points failed. One take away, is that both teams needs to spend more practice time on two-point conversion plays.

The short Kansas kickoff was fielded by Farooq who returned it 19 yards to the 25 yard line. The first play for OU was a short pass to Barnes for 0 yards as he slipped to the ground on the catch. Where is Freeman when you need him? BUT wait, there was a holding penalty called on Mattauer. Now it is 1st and 20. After an incomplete pass to Stoops there was 34 seconds left and it was 2nd and 20. Gabriel connected with Stoops on the next play for 19 yards with OU calling their last time out with 24 seconds left. On 3rd and 1, OU threw the ball 'deep' but the ball hung up on Gabriel's throw. Brennan Thompson who the ball was intended for, had to stop for the ball and was interfered with by Kansas. But Thompson caught the ball and fell to the ground which cancelled the interference call. OU's ball on the Kansas 27 yard line. OU quickly got to the ball due to the interference call, and threw a pass to Barnes who got out of bounds after a four yard gain. OU snapped the ball with 6 seconds left, OU attempted a pass to the right side to Farooq that left 3 seconds on the clock on the incompletion. OU called timeout at that point to set up their last play at the Kansas 23-yard line. The play had Stogner running down the middle right with the ball thrown to him with multiple defenders around Stogner and other Sooner receivers. I do not think Stogner ever touched the ball. Game over.

Kansas won 38-33. It was not a strong game played by the Sooners. In the game, some key players like Stutsman and Walker and Gentry Williams had to leave the game. But still, the Sooners had a couple of chances to win this game.

The inability to pick-up that first down at the 2:00 minute mark was a crucial error by OU.

The inability to stop the Jayhawks on the last drive and Kansas score so easily was surprising and disappointing to me. There was no pass rush and no real coverage in the secondary.

OU goes back to the drawing board now at 7-1 as they prepare for Bedlam in Stillwater. What does this team do if Major and Walker can't play? What does OU do if Stutsman can't play? How do they get a pass rush? How does OU get the ball downfield successfully with a pass and pass protection? When will Lebby call a sound game every possession?

There are many IWIK's right now.

Still - Boomer Sooner!

[pippen]

On 3rd and 1, OU threw the ball 'deep' but the ball hung up on Gabriel's throw. Brennan Thompson who the ball was intended for, had to stop for the ball and was interfered with by Kansas. But Thompson caught the ball and fell to the ground which cancelled the interference call.

They picked up the flag. Didn't have the guts to call offensive PI on Thompson for the push-off.

[Oklahombre]

I posted this on a couple of message boards I visit...

As usual 56, you hit a homerun...

[TALSOONER]

Does anybody think our head coach is throttling our offense ?
Could Brent be the reason Jeff goes conservative at times ?

The play calling in the Kansas game didn't seem like the kind of game Libby normally calls....!

[Fly]

Most of what you say is spot on. But we do not have a great running back. Gabe & Teddy agree with that. They even said If Kan two
RB had come to OU they would be starters. I,m no expert but I watch a lot of foot ball. That is the one thing that has really stuck
out to me! I have NEVER seen the Sooner so thin of talent at RB. I see so many very good RBs at other schools not near the caliper of
OU. We need to recruit hard in that area if Lebby wants to run the ball. What we have is not going to improve our running game much.

Fly JMOHOP

[SoonerTony]

Most of what you say is spot on. But we do not have a great running back. Gabe & Teddy agree with that. They even said If Kan two
RB had come to OU they would be starters. I,m no expert but I watch a lot of foot ball. That is the one thing that has really stuck
out to me! I have NEVER seen the Sooner so thin of talent at RB. I see so many very good RBs at other schools not near the caliper of
OU. We need to recruit hard in that area if Lebby wants to run the ball. What we have is not going to improve our running game much.

Fly JMOHOP

Barnes and Sawchuk both ran well against Florida State but have both been dealing with injuries. Major is injured too and now Walker. With so many injuries to those guys, I don’t know why we haven’t given Smothers and Hicks an opportunity, either they aren’t ready or we want to redshirt them?
We have the #1 high school running back in the country committed for the 2024 class so hopefully he helps.

[Fly]

Well I knew we were banged up, but did not know it was that bad. That explains it.

Fly

[pippen]

Does anybody think our head coach is throttling our offense ?
Could Brent be the reason Jeff goes conservative at times ?

The play calling in the Kansas game didn't seem like the kind of game Libby normally calls....!

Yes, thoughts along these lines have crossed my mind, but "throttling" seems unlikely. Regardless, I really don't want to go back to the "trust the defense" days so prevalent in much of the Stoops era unless and until we really can, which I'm not sure is even totally possible in this era.

[Brisket]

I didn't understand Farooq in the backfield or all the WR sweeps either, but most troubling to me was the consistent "play not to lose" mentality displayed at the end of the 1st half & when they took over possession after Downs' INT with about 2 minutes to go in Q4.

OU took possession with 50 seconds left in the 1st half and all 3 TOs. One "fart & fall down" run play, and that was it. As DG & the offense showed vs. , they can move the ball quickly down the field with little time left. Why not even attempt to go get points??? OU was getting the ball to start the 2nd half, too, so that could've at least been a 10-point swing. Was the weather THAT bad? It didn't seem to impact the Kansas qb all that much. Was losing Anthony to injury that critical to the offense's ability to function? 2 weeks in a row now that the passing game has been suspect.

The post-Downs interception was concerning as well - same "play not to lose" mentality. You're +1 on the scoreboard, but well out of FG range for a very shaky kicker. Between the time necessary to get into FG range (probably 20+ more yards) & forcing KU to use their TOs, any points from this drive would have likely locked up a W. Why not TRY to score???

I understand the run on 1st down - get the clock moving; force them to use a TO. However, after another "fart and fall down" run play on 1st down, you're at 2nd & 11. KU is clearly loading the box to stuff the run. Walker, the only RB who had any real consistent success running the ball all day is hurt. No play action pass? No zone read/RPO concept? No man-beater pick/rub route combo? No 1:1 fade to 6'4" Anderson or 6'5" Gibson? Heck, the way the defense was stacking the box, NOW would've been a scenario to run the WR jet sweep to try to get outside & outflank the D.

None of that. Just 2 more runs into the backs of the OL to lose yardage. No real attempt to go WIN the game by scoring some points.
Mind boggling.