The Bright Side: Defense

[Bourbon St Sooner]

I was looking at the stats of this game and came away even more impressed at the play of the defense. For that dumbass whorn poster who said they ran the ball all over us, in the 1st half they ran the ball 29 times for a 3.5 ypc average. Now take a look at the first four possessions of the second half.

OU: start on 20, 3 and out
Baylor: start at 31, 3 and out
OU: start on 4, 3 and out
Baylor: start on OU 34, TD

Baylor 31, OU 5 Game Over.

At that point, midway through the third, our defense had given up about 270 yards of total offense and 15 net points to the "greatest offense in the history of the universe". Our offense had given them 14 points and scored only 3. K State held them to similar yardage and fewer points, but they did it with their offense controlling the ball. Our defense had no such support.

All of this with a bunch of young guys from our last 2 recruiting classes that our local recruiting experts have told us suck. Clearly we need more 5* like Blake Bell.

:les: You should go up to every one of these guys and give them a kiss on the lips.

[Soonerjeepman]

I was impressed with the D. Unfortunately being inside the 10 - 3 times and coming away with 3 points killed the offense. (I guess 5) cause after 2 plays the guys got a safety.

missed FG, giving the pick with 1 min left on the 30..not good. could of should of etc ...we left at least 14 points on the board and minus the td before half it's a lot tighter game....

[Bourbon St Sooner]

Well, we knew coming in that if we couldn't run the ball and convert on 3rd down that we were going to be in big trouble. I think it's absolutely amazing that our D held up so well. Last year's D would have given up 800 yards to this team in similar circumstances.

[BermudaSooner]

The D did their part to keep us in this game--all I wanted for them to do. If Baylor gets flagged on more of their pick plays, it would have been even better. Can't put this loss on the D.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

Some things

1. They had a 94 yard drive after we'd stopped them because of a 3rd down offsides.
2. We are still weak at safety (something that 8x and I have been hashing over on the recruiting forums). It is just hard for me to blame our coaching staff because the only reason we are weak is Jefferson left as an early entrant. Under Stoops, we've lost twice as many early entrants at safety (4) than at any other position. Unfortunately, it is a position where you only get better by playing.
3. Linebacker still isn't where it needs to be. We are still playing way too much 3 yards downfield and not enough in their backfield. Until we get that sorted out, forcing turnovers is going to be problematic.
4. The 3-4 fits our personnel much better than the 4-3. It really allows us to put positionless athletes on the field (like Striker).

[BermudaSooner]

Some things

1. They had a 94 yard drive after we'd stopped them because of a 3rd down offsides.
2. We are still weak at safety (something that 8x and I have been hashing over on the recruiting forums). It is just hard for me to blame our coaching staff because the only reason we are weak is Jefferson left as an early entrant. Under Stoops, we've lost twice as many early entrants at safety (4) than at any other position. Unfortunately, it is a position where you only get better by playing.
3. Linebacker still isn't where it needs to be. We are still playing way too much 3 yards downfield and not enough in their backfield. Until we get that sorted out, forcing turnovers is going to be problematic.
4. The 3-4 fits our personnel much better than the 4-3. It really allows us to put positionless athletes on the field (like Striker).

That Striker jump on 3rd really hurt. I replayed the 2 Tapper offsides, but the crappy TV angle was too difficult to see. How the hell does a defensive lineman line up offsides? The damn ball is right in front of you.

The miscommunication between Colvin and Lynn was terrible.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

That Striker jump on 3rd really hurt. I replayed the 2 Tapper offsides, but the crappy TV angle was too difficult to see. How the hell does a defensive lineman line up offsides? The damn ball is right in front of you.

The miscommunication between Colvin and Lynn was terrible.

I give him a pass on the pick plays. As a senior, he should have handled it better but that was the first time I've seen it be that blatant. The bigger problem was all of his missed tackles. He could have stopped 5 or 6 long gains for 1-2 yard gains and missed them all.

I said this about Lynn 2 weeks ago

Lynn has been pretty good at safety because, as I mentioned in the game thread last week, ricochets always bounce right towards him. It is incredibly hard to put a value on turnovers, but I don't think it is enough to ignore his woeful run defense. And by woeful, I mean on 3 different occasions last Saturday he blocked one of our own guys. This isn't about poor tackling or poor angles, this is about the fact that when he closes up in run support it actually makes it harder for other guys to defend the run.

[SOONER44EVER]

They had receivers running wide open all game long. The Baylor QB overthrew at least 6 or 7 guys that were wide open in the first half alone. When he started getting on target they went right up and down the field. Their backup RB got 180 some yards. How could anyone be impressed by our D?

[dennis580]

Defense was extremely impressive considering that Baylor's offense was a unstoppable juggernaut.