Call me crazy, but I thought the Tulsa game was exciting. Not just in the "I want to win every game by at least 50 points" sort of way either. I'll admit it. I love Tulsa and their brand of ball. Any Tulsa fans who happen upon this meaningless blurb can re-read that if you need, but I mean it. Don't get me wrong. I'd rather OU have the offense we have, but for where Tulsa's at, their scheme works well for them. And there will probably be aspects of that scheme that find their way into gameplans at bigger schools. It also needs to be said, that crazy stuff is good for the sport. It's refreshing to see excessive creativity and "out of the box" thinking. It's hard to know what's coming next and it's fun to watch. The Sooner offense cranked out the production we expected, lots of yards and lots of points. There seemed to be a little more emphasis on basic plays than in the first three games. I'm fine with that. Opponents have seen a variety of things for which to prepare. Some fundamentals in base run plays needed to be polished. An opportunity to wear down Tulsa's front seven needed to be seized. Sam continues to impress, though he had an errant throw picked. I'm sort of glad he had a chance to experience that for the first time now instead of later. The RB's continue to impress and Patrick showed he's got his stride back. We're STILL throwing to the TE [YES!] and JI showed defenses why they'd better think twice before they key completely on Kelly. I can't shake the feeling we're going to see much more from this o-line that's already quite good. I'm talking about some key game down the line where these guys just take the thing over and drive somebody off the ball when we need it the most. I guess we could sit here and gripe that the defense gave up over 350 yards in the air and 21 points. Maybe there's some room for that, but I suspect Tulsa's offense is harder to stop than we might think. It's like every play is a trick play or something you really don't expect. In spite of giving up a lot of yards, much of those yards were between the 20's. Think back to some Tech games and you'll remember the defense gave up some yards, but held down the points. In fact, think of some Switzer defenses against early spread offenses in the days of yore. Similar story Saturday. The front seven continue to play well. The DE's are solid and we're seeing good push from the DT's. Our LB's are amazing compared to what I was hoping for at the beginning of the season. Some folks are disappointed at the DB's, but I'm not sure they performed that badly. Some schemes will yield an open receiver frequently if the play has just a moment to develop. And I'm a little slow to blame a specific DB because it's hard for fans to have a handle on exactly which coverage busted. Whatever questions we may have about coverage, it needs to be said the tackling is good. Special teams still show flashes of greatness and flashes of question marks. Did we have one missed FG and one missed PAT? I think that's right. That really needs to tighten up. But we also need to remember our guy can kick the long FG, consistently buries the KO, and coverage is good. OU is not playing the tough games some teams are playing, but different aspects of the team are being tested each week. I hear from friends, fans of other schools, that this team looks more like the real deal all the time. That gets easier to believe with each passing week and I like me some of that! Boomer Sooner!
I would LOVE to see us break the huddle with Manuel Johnson at QB and SB splitting out wide. Or to see DeMarco get the snap a la Darren McFadden.
Thanks for posting this. I was on the road back from working out in Ardmore to OKC Friday night as the game was starting and decided to watch the game at my mother's house instead of taking the extra time to go home. Mom is a great fan but she was completely driving me nuts with her panicking over how many yards we were giving up and this is exactly how I was splainin' it to her.
Great recap, as usual. I was one of those people that was little concerned about the secondary play. It wasn't so much the yards, I figured Tulsa would get their fair share. It was the play early in the first half when our DBs allowed their receivers to get behind them that concerned me. I'd only add that pressure up front plays a huge role in how effective the opponents passing game plays (we all know this), and the way they had Smith running around bought extra time for receivers to get open. Tough to defend because he's a good QB and very good at escaping pressure, IMHO. I was glad to see the running game get some emphasis and AP looking like he was at full strength. The power run game is just another weapon we can add to the offensive arsenal this year.
My $.02 is we won't see a better play-maker quarterback all year long beyond Tulsa. We'll see a team with a better running game, better receiver speed and undoubtedly better defenses, but Paul Smith is a special guy. You can't deny the kid's a stud when you look at what he did. Unfortunately for his team, they don't have the defense and the excess weapons we have, so they kinda dropped off after that third TD.
Mahlzan walked into a pretty good setup at Tulsa with Paul Smith as his QB. If he can replicate a semblance of this production next year, some good teams will be calling. I'd love to see some of his offense implemented into our scheme.
Great post! Well stated and thought out. I agree, Tulsa has an exciting team and they oughtta win a lot of games the rest of the season. It really is nice to see innovative play-calling.
There's a couple of plays that I think would work well for us, but we never seem to run them. Shovel pass. Have either Patrick or Murray in the backfield and have Bradford shovel it to them. Tech ran that play a couple of times this weekend and the cowgirls fell for it. Misdirection option- The year that we killed Texas 63-14 we ran it all the time.
From what I know about defending the spread, thats they way it works. While the the field is open, the spread works, but when the field shortens towards the goal line, the options are more limited. It's kinda a scary proposition, but we've seemed to be able to manage it pretty well in the past. It's the deep threat that worries me, but so far this year, with a few exceptions, we have defended that well.
Thanks for the additional comments. I agree with those who wouldn't mind seeing some of this stuff in our offense. I might not want it to be our bread and butter but some of it could help. Wilson's run some reverse, reverse pass type stuff. I'm sure he has more in store if the need arises.
Great read DE and you hit it spot on. To me Tulsa with its gadget plays were going to be a pretty stout test of this teams D and despite a few miscues it performed pretty well. With a veteran QB at the helm like Smith and the wizard running the offense, you can't help but think TU might crack the top 25 and win out...good on the boys in blue and gold. They do need help in the area of defense but showed some flashes that IF they can increase the depth of db/lb and shore up the ends that this will be a team for the rest of C-USA to worry about. Thanks again for the review.
