Oklahoma's Defense Must Fight the Urge to Press to 'Make Plays' Amidst Offensive Struggles

OU's defense locked Texas down for a quarter, but mental mistakes allowed the top-ranked Longhorns to get into rhythm in the Cotton Bowl.

Texas Longhorns wide receiver DeAndre Moore Jr. (0) fights for yardage against Oklahoma Sooners defensive back Eli Bowen (23) in the second quarter during the Red River Rivalry. / Ricardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

DALLAS — The first quarter couldn’t have gone much better for Oklahoma’s defense. 

The Sooners held Texas to 13 yards of offense and Billy Bowman Jr. intercepted Quinn Ewers. 

But the offense was only able to muster a field goal for all the good work, and the Longhorns’ fortunes turned. 

Ewers gave Texas its first first down of the day with a 26-yard completion on the Longhorns’ sideline to DeAndre Moore Jr. 

Then poor tackling helped Ewers move the ball the rest of the way down the field and put Texas up 7-3.

As it turned out, that’s all the top-ranked Longhorns would need to down No. 18 OU 34-3.

Texas (6-0, 2-0 SEC) finished the game with 406 yards of offense, including 177 rushing yards, as Steve Sarkisian buried Brent Venables for his second time as the head coach of the Sooners (4-2, 1-2).

“We did a really poor job setting the edges,” Venables said after the loss. “We did a really poor job consistently setting edges, we get nosy trying to make plays and they bounce the ball outside and around. Just can't do that so I didn't think we played very disciplined football like we needed to to give ourselves a chance.”

After the game, linebacker Danny Stutsman stressed the need of every player on the defense to not make each play too big. 

“It really just takes everyone. It’s one of 11,” he said. “Everyone has to do their job. When it comes to tackling, we have to practice harder during practice. That’s what it comes down. Being better on those Tuesday-Wednesdays, those physical days. Not letting a missed tackle in practice go by.”

But as the offense continues to flounder, its apparent the defense feels the pressure to win the game on its own. 

That’s a dangerous road, however, because a talented and disciplined offense like Sarkisian’s group is more than equipped to punish the Sooners if a player is out of position in an attempt to make a game-changing play. 

“I think that we try to make plays a lot of times and not do our job,” OU defensive coordinator Zac Alley said. “I feel that. And I’m always on the sideline the whole time, I’m, ‘Hey listen, just do your job and the plays will come to you. Do your job and the plays will come to you.’ So sometimes we have bad eyes, we do things that put us out of position because we’re trying to make a play instead of doing our job really well.”

It’s a battle the defense will have to fight the rest fo the year, because the offense is showing no signs of improvement. 

That pressure can’t spill over into poor tackling, either. 

The Longhorns immediately turned Michael Hawkins Jr.’s first half fumble into seven points due to a swath of poor tackling — something that also popped up at times in the second quarter against Auburn. 

“We’ve got to tackle better,” Alley said. “It think that’s the number one thing I see is just the physicality and the way that we played. There were drives that were like three-and-out, three-and-out and then 10 play, 75 yard touchdown drive and we missed eight tackles. We had an opportunity.”

The result was a deficit that snowballed to a point Oklahoma couldn’t overcome. 

“We just gift-wrapped them just opportunities, like just gave it to 'em,” Bowman said. “As a defense, we're better than that, like coach said. We take full accountability, especially me and Danny, but end of story, we gave it to 'em. In my mind, they didn't earn what they got shortly after that interception.”

How the Sooners can handle the adversity mentally will go a long way toward shaping the next few weeks. 

If the defense can play within itself, it can keep OU in games. 

But to play nearly perfect, they can’t take the field expecting to score. They simply have to trust the plan laid out by Venables and Alley and execute. 

“I tell them all the time, it doesn’t matter what the situation is, what’s going on, they roll the ball out there wherever they spot it our job’s to spot it,” Alley said. “Everything else is irrelevant to that. So our singular focus is wherever they’re pouting the ball down, our job is to go three-and-out. 

“I said today I’ve never lost a game where I gave up zero. And if we do that we’re going to win games. So that’s kind of our mindset and how we try to attack each day.”