Oklahoma Beats Houston: Everything You Need to Know

The Sooners moved to 2-0 with a tough non-conference win; here are the Star of the Game, Play of the Game, this week's Stock Report and tonight's Crazy Stat.

Oklahoma defensive lineman Gracen Halton / NATHAN J. FISH/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK

NORMAN – Another non-conference game, another easy victory for No. 15-ranked Oklahoma, right?

Wrong.

The No. 15-ranked Sooners struggled to put together another strong performance on Saturday night with a 16-12 victory over Houston.

Defensive tackle Gracen Halton provided the winning margin by tackling a Houston runner in the end zone for a safety with 1:42 to play, forcing the Cougars to kick the ball back to the Sooners.

After last week’s 51-3 win over Temple, another blowout was expected – OU was a 27 ½-point favorite against a team that lost by 20 points to UNLV at home last week.

But Houston was a step up in quality from Temple, and there will be another similar rise next week when Tulane returns to Memorial Stadium. The Green Wave (1-1) led Kansas State by double digits at halftime and came within one play of sending Saturday’s contest to overtime before losing 34-27. Three years ago, Tulane recovered a late onside kick but came up short of upsetting the Sooners in Norman. Game time is 2:30 p.m. and ESPN2 has the broadcast.

Houston was not intimidated by the Sooners or the crowd of 83,653. And was better than anyone thought – certainly Oklahoma. Saturday’s performance quadrupled the number of red flags that were raised in a 48-point win in week one.

The truth is, the Sooners needs more stiff tests. After Tulane next week, No. 14 Tennessee is coming to town, and the Sooners’ inaugural season in the Southeastern Conference will have arrived in full force. The Vols had little trouble with North Carolina State on Saturday night in Charlotte.

Here are three things, a quick postgame injury report and one crazy stat you need to know about the Sooners’ victory over Houston.

Tonight’s Star

LB Danny Stutsman

We knew Oklahoma would be defense-heavy this season, but this was ridiculous. While the offense only offered punt after punt, Danny Stutsman was all over the field as he anchored an increasingly stingy defense.

Houston had more yards total offense (276-249), averaged more yards per play (4.8 to 4.1), was ust as good on third down (4-of-14 each), and Donovan Smith had a much higher completion percentage than Jackson Arnold (83 to 59).

But Stutsman made sure the Sooners avoided disasterhad 13 tackles, 10 solo and one tackle for loss – before the fourth quarter even started. He finished with 14 total tackles, 11 solo, and made sure the Cougars got nothing going on the ground (58 total yards rushing, just 1.7 per carry).

Play of the Game

For the second week in a row, Gracen Halton made a major impact on the game – this time to win it.

Last week against Temple, Halton had 1 1/2 quarterback sacks. This week against Houston, he jumped through the Houston offensive line and wrapped up running back Stacey Sneed just before Sneed for a 5-yard loss and a safety – just before Sneed got the football across the goal line and out of the end zone.

At first, replays seemed to show that Sneed was able to get himself and the ball just across the line, but the referee and replay official concluded that Halton stopped him behind the line. That gave the Sooners two points and forced Houston to kick the ball back to OU.

The whole thing was set up when Luke Elzinga's 51-yard punt ended yet another wayward Sooner possession and was downed at the 5-yard line.

Stock Report

Jackson Arnold – Down. Arnold missed one deep receiver after another, including a badly thrown ball early in the second half that was intercepted – his first pick of the year. Arnold looked off all night – uncomfortable, uncertain, and not confident. He also wasn’t accurate, completing 19-of-32 passes for 174 yards with two touchdown passes and the INT. The OU offense had three 3-and-outs, and one of their touchdown drives needed only 10 yards after Houston fumbled the opening punt.

Joshua Bates – Up. Way up. At least before his bonehead reaction at the end of the game that cost the team 15 yards. Bates played only 14 snaps last week after starting center Branson Hickman went down and Geirean Hatchett struggled with an arm injury. But Bates, a redshirt freshman from Colorado, was mostly very good on Saturday night against the Cougars’ beefy interior group of Carlos Allen and Anthony Holmes. He certainly didn’t dominate, but he clearly knows what he’s doing.

Brenen Thompson – Up. After a rough game last week against Temple, Thompson got his first career start against Houston and contributed a 10-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter and added a 33-yard grab in the second quarter, but also dropped a pass.

Jake Roberts – Up. Roberts, a Norman North product, caught his first touchdown for the Sooners with a second-quarter grab from Jackson Arnold. We saw Bauer Sharp stand out at the position last week, but Roberts started this week alongside Sharp and played well, including a first down grab early in the second half.

Defensive ends – Down. In the first half, starters Ethan Downs and R Mason Thomas combined for two tackles, no sacks, no pressures, no QB hits and no tackles for loss against Houston QB Donovan Smith. Their backups, Caiden Woullard and Trace Ford, had zero tackles.

Jovantae Barnes – Ran hard on his first-half opportunities and was easily the Sooners’ sharpest runner. He had 27 yards on four carries in the first half, including a nice 13-yard burst, while Gavin Sawchuk had three rushes for 2 yards in the first half and looked off.

Kani Walker – Down. Got his eyes in the wrong place and lost his assignment, which was Joseph Manjack on a 44-yard touchdown pass from Donovan Smith. Can’t have that.

Doug Deakin – Down. The new special teams coach was a star last week, but that star dropped this week as Billy Bowmand Peyton Bowen both fumbled punt returns (both recovered) and Tyler Keltner missed a 45-yard field goal in the fourth quarter. Not all Deakin’s fault, of course, but it’s certainly back to work for him and his units.

Injury Report

Most concerning at first was the left forearm of WR Deion Burks, who came off the field in obvious pain late in the first half. He seemed to have hurt in while blocking on an incomplete pass. Burks did return with a small wrap on the injury and caught a pass on OU’s second play of the second half.

RT Jake Taylor returned to the starting lineup – actually, Saturday was his first career start, but he won the job in the preseason before missing last week’s opener – but then went out late in the first half.

OL Geirean Hatchett warmed up but came back out in street clothes and sat on the sideline. C Branson Hickman suited up and went through some pregame warmups, but didn’t take any first-team reps in the pregame and never played.

WR Nic Anderson never suited up. OL Troy Everett didn’t suit up and didn’t look particularly close to doing so any time soon.

Crazy Stat

Oklahoma now has more touchdowns from the tight end in two games this season (2) than the Sooners did in 13 games last season (1).