How Oklahoma Can Implement Two-Minute Drill Urgency Into Regular Offense

It seems like some of Oklahoma's best offensive drives of the season have come when playing from behind with nothing to lose.

NORMAN — One of Oklahoma’s biggest problems in Saturdays loss to Baylor happened to be the short offensive possessions that continuously killed momentum. The Sooners’ empty drives carried a lot of weight.

Obviously, Dillon Gabriel's three interceptions played a big part in the game’s momentum swings. And of course there are many different things that go into a loss like this, including the abysmal run defense. 

But in the second half, Oklahoma’s offense stalling twice while combining for 28 yards between the two drives was the nail in the coffin.

“Offensively, we’re hitting our strides and then a couple times we just shot ourselves in the foot,” Marvin Mims said. “I think that’s the story of the day. Numbers-wise, we’re looking real good, but there’s a couple drives we shot ourselves in the foot especially in their territory, put the defense in bad situations. But other than that, offensively we’re playing good ball. Just a couple of mistakes.”

Out of halftime, the Bears went on an impressive 10-play 75-yard drive to extend the lead to 10. Momentum was slipping and Oklahoma’s offense desperately needed to generate something to give the defense time to figure it out. Oklahoma’s response spanned three plays for negative-three yards and 1:29 off the clock.

Then, late in the third quarter, Oklahoma’s defense seemed to be finding a groove. After forcing back-to-back punts, the Sooners had the ball trailing 31-28. Eric Gray was finding success on the ground, and the offense looked to be stringing together a positive drive. 

After a false start on second-and-short, Oklahoma was suddenly faced with a third-down look at the Baylor 46-yard line.

With less than 10 seconds left in the third quarter, and the game clock running, the Sooners didn’t need to run a play. Instead, Gabriel hurried the offense to the line of scrimmage, and the Sooners hurried a run play to the left side for virtually no gain. 

Oklahoma had a chance to think about the biggest play of the game for an extra television timeout, but instead, they settled for a deflating punt.

“We didn’t gain quite enough to go for it,” offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby said. “We wanted to have an opportunity to go pin them. That’s the thought there.”

Baylor marched right down the field on the following possession, and even though Oklahoma’s offense came alive late in the fourth quarter, it was too little, too late. The window was missed.

After the buildup of momentum behind two weeks of wins, Oklahoma’s crushing loss felt eerily similar to the defeat to Kansas State. 

Opportunities were missed by the offense when it mattered most, putting the game in the hands of the inconsistent defensive unit. Oklahoma’s offense seems to operate much better with nothing to lose, playing catch-up in the final minutes of the game.

“We’re going to work at our speed. When we’re going, we’re one of the fastest offenses in the country. Coach Lebby harps on it all the time.”

“It just comes with the preparation. Us running the plays, us knowing what we’re doing, not second guessing anything, us getting lined up, Dillon getting ready to snap the ball. The faster we play, we know what we’re doing. Just getting comfortable with the playbook. We have the game plan. We get it on Monday, go through it throughout that week. The more we go through that, the more we can play faster as an offense.”

Oklahoma’s final drive against Baylor took 5:12 off the clock on 14 plays, good for 75 yards and a touchdown. Against Kansas State, the Sooners marched 75 yards in 1:23 for a score. Neither score ended up mattering, though.

Moving forward, Oklahoma will have to implement urgency and pace to the offense throughout the game to avoid deflating drives.