The best thing about the Tulsa game

[The Maestro]

It shows us that we have work to do to get better.

Not that a 41 point win is not easy, but this one came with some challenges. Apparently, Kevin Wilson said Sam missed a wide open touchdown in the corner of the end zone on the play he threw his interception...not to mention it was a five yard pass attempt on 3rd and goal from the 15. So Sam has work to do.

The DB's got a lot of hype before the season...they didn't play so bad...I just give more credit to Paul Smith. That first touchdown pass he had running to his left and throwing that way with his right arm on a rope to the receiver on the side of the end zone was a dang good pass. But they got the ball moved on them some so work to do.

Garrett Hartley. Forgot about Lou Groza. Focus on splitting the uprights every single time...especially the free gift point after touchdowns.

So we hit the road...not hostile by any means...and faced an offense that Arena Football League teams would think moves in motion a lot...and we settled in, overcame some adversity and now have work to do. This is good. We now can take that on our first true road game of the year and use the lessons from this week and next heading into the game of games again this year...Texas.

[PhiDeltBeers]

Let's not forget Tulsa has a good team and, by looking at their schedule, could easily win out going 11-1. I hope they do and wish them luck.

[sanantoniosooner]

I'm a big fan of learning lessons when they don't cost you much.

It is not a bad thing to have a list of crap for Bob to grill the team over after a game as long as it didn't cost us the game.

This defense is reminding me of some of the great one's we've had in recent years. Prone to giving up the giant play once in a while. As long as they can keep the dude out of the endzone on the big play we have a chance to stuff them or make them settle for a FG attempt.

[fadada1]

i think this game was a classic example of "bend, but don't break". we knew tulsa was going to sling it all over the field... and they did. their first TD was a heck of a throw. their second one was a flat out burn.

it was quite obvious we wore them down in the second half after their opening drive. kudos to the conditioning of our players. if the retarded commentators got anything correct last night, it was that our ability to rotate fresh (and just as skilled) players in the lineup will do nothing but benefit us.

i forsee a similar game against tech.

[Blues1]

Paul Smith is one hellav Quarterback - mobile - good speed - smart - accurate - And probably had one of his best two performances these last two weeks vs BYU and the Sooners...If we had avoided the pentalies the score would have been 62 to 14, SO TU got one more TD than - and we lost a TD - I guess you could say the without that first penality we would have won 69 to 14 - I rather have our guys working on improving their game than thinking we are the best thing since sliced bread - With Tech and Missou ahead of of us this was a great warm up scrimage to have.... :)
What other college teams do you know who get to scrimage on Friday night on national TV in front of millions of of college football fans..... :)
We are rockin'

[OKC-SLC]

We got exactly what we needed from this game:

-down early "on the road"

-early interception to recover from

-our players got to see that their conditioning, once again, is superior and thus a critical part of practice/training

-we get a big score against a respected opponent for the country to see and talk about (already on ESPN radio coming in this a.m. Fiutiak and Jim Donnan said they both would rank OU #1 in part because of last night)

-the secondary got a dose of what's up

[RedGiant]

The secondary got a heaping helping of what's up, but Bob seemed to get control of the situation in the second half. That is the most encouraging thing to take from the game. Bob running the D more is a good thing. Pass defense is their only weakness. Anybody that can't pass to win is in very deep trouble and in for a long night. Running is NOT gonna cut it. There are probably only 2 teams in the country that have a legit chance to beat OU.

[Partial Qualifier]

I'm a big fan of learning lessons when they don't cost you much.



and you KNOW Stoops does too. This Tulsa game = the 2nd-to-last summer scrimmage, you know, the "Oh not too happy, got a lot of work to do, etc.etc." scrimmage.

I have a feeling the coaches spent about 2 days on gameplanning for Tulsa last week and spent the rest of the time scouting CU and UT. Idunno why, just a hunch

[SoonerBOI]

This game was full of "trickeration" in the first half. And then we adjusted to the spread offense. Secondary needs some work. Hartley missed a couple of FG, which I hope will not haunt us down the road. I'll take the win. hopefully our beloved Sooners address some issues.:)

[Ash]

Our zone coverage still needs work. For me, it's actually a little disappointing. Hopefully you guys are right and it is a case of the players needing a wake up call, and hopefully they respond.

[Texas Golfer]

The secondary got a heaping helping of what's up, but Bob seemed to get control of the situation in the second half. That is the most encouraging thing to take from the game. Bob running the D more is a good thing. Pass defense is their only weakness. Anybody that can't pass to win is in very deep trouble and in for a long night. Running is NOT gonna cut it. There are probably only 2 teams in the country that have a legit chance to beat OU.

And neither is on our schedule.

[Widescreen]

I'm choosing to think of this as a more impressive KU game from 2000. We were torched a lot worse than last night and ended up winning the MNC including pounding Texas the very next week. In the previous 3 games, our secondary wasn't pressed at all so how could we have known what to work on? Now we do.

[GottaHavePride]

Garrett Hartley. Forgot about Lou Groza. Focus on splitting the uprights every single time...especially the free gift point after touchdowns.

How much of it was Hartley's fault, and how much of it is due to the protection in front of him breaking down? Tulsa was blowing past his blockers by overloading one side, and we never adjusted to it. The one that was blocked wasn't his fault, and the kick before that might have been a miss due to him rushing the kick to make up for lousy blocking, too.

[StoopTroup]

I think some of Hartley's misses are coming from low trajectory...

A few of those extra points he just took wide right...

[Spray]

I don't understand all the hand-wringing over the secondary. Last night reminded me of playing TTech- they'll move all night in between the 20's, but its important to get some picks and stops in the red zone. I thought the most important part of the secondary play going into the game would be the tackling, and it was good last night. They really only looked bad on the 48yd TD. It was important for the DL to get pressure because the secondary was going to be chasing around 5 receivers all night- if the QB gets more than 5-6 seconds, that offense is designed for him to find someone. I say mission accomplished, and I'll bet the secondary guys are dog tired today.

[RedGiant]

The problem is not the yards or the catches per se, it's that most of the catches were made in space. You do that against a team that has an actual athletic receiving corps and they'll make you pay. There were also a lot of missed opportunities that you can't count on USC, LSU, or Florida to miss. There isn't one team on OU's schedule that they shouldn't beat, so starting now on correcting for things that those three teams could capitalize on would be a wise idea because more than likely OU will be facing one of them.

[OKC-SLC]

It's no coincidence that they moved the ball in space.

There's a lot more space on the field between the 20's, and TU had success there. The field gets VERY small for an offense like that when you're in the red zone and the field + endzone = 30 yards.

[Crucifax Autumn]

I agree...These spread teams will ALWAYS move the ball in the middle of the field, thus the high yardage. But when they get in the red zone a truly good defense can shut them down.

I'm willing to bet that no one else gets this kinda yardage on us this season. Tech may come close, but I doubt they'll pass it if for no other reason than that we've seen it now and know what to do to correct our weaknesses.

[tulsaoilerfan]

Our zone coverage still needs work. For me, it's actually a little disappointing. Hopefully you guys are right and it is a case of the players needing a wake up call, and hopefully they respond.
Damn people, can't we give the other team credit once in a while? Paul Smith is a damn good QB, and he has a pretty good cast of receivers to throw to; it's unrealistic to have thought they wouldn't move the ball on us.

[Crucifax Autumn]

No...Everyone else sucks! If they didn't suck they'd be Sooners! LOL

[Tulsa_Fireman]

Damn people, can't we give the other team credit once in a while? Paul Smith is a damn good QB, and he has a pretty good cast of receivers to throw to...

Truth. Between Smith's downfield vision and playcalling that negated a lot of the value of pressure from the defensive front, I think we can say he did a fantastic job.

[Crucifax Autumn]

I think we can safely say he lost...but we can also safely say he'll win out.

[piusbovis]

I'm willing to bet that no one else gets this kinda yardage on us this season. Tech may come close, but I doubt they'll pass it if for no other reason than that we've seen it now and know what to do to correct our weaknesses.

I think this is the most important thing we gained from last night. Yeah, we gave up some points, but we also found out where we needed some work and then fixed it. If I remember correctly things tightened up in the second half after that first drive.

This was a good lead-in to conference play because now when we face up against a similar offense but with better players, a la tech, our boys are going to be a bit more familiar. And yeah Bradford had a "bad" game but he still ended up something like 72%

I don't want to sunshine pump it too hard like the pokes and make a moral victory out of something bad, but I'd much rather we learn of our weaknesses now, when we can work on them, than steamroll a bunch of weak big-XII opponents and then learn something is wrong in the big game.