Oklahoma-West Virginia: One Big Thing

Dillon Gabriel and offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby are confident the Sooners' quarterback can eliminate the sudden rash of turnovers.

Oklahoma critics can pile on the defense all they want — it’s become a weekly tradition over the last decade or so — but there’s a hard truth to face on the other side of the football.

Quarterback Dillon Gabriel must be better than he was last week.

Gabriel’s three first-half interceptions against Baylor allowed the Bears to score 10 easy points, which translated into a 38-35 upset in Norman.

It matched Gabriel’s career-high for picks in a game, dating back to the fifth start of his career, a three-INT performance in a loss at Cincinnati during his freshman season.

“Sometimes it doesn’t go your way,” Gabriel said after practice Tuesday night. “Sometimes you have to make better decisions and take some calculated risks. I didn’t do that. Yeah, just didn’t go my way necessarily.”

Gabriel and the Sooners will want to get the turnovers cleaned up in Saturday’s Big 12 Conference game at West Virginia. OU (5-4 overall, 2-4 Big 12) heads to Morgantown as a 7.5-point favorite over the Mountaineers (3-6, 1-5), but Gabriel knows any such cushion is a mirage if he can’t take care of the football.

It was the second time in three games Gabriel committed three turnovers. Two weeks prior, in a home game against Kansas, Gabriel threw an interception and lost two fumbles as he returned from concussion.

The pick against KU was his first of the season. Now he has five.

His first interception last week against Baylor was batted in the air by a defender at the line of scrimmage. His second was deflected by tight end Brayden Willis — a little high, a little hot, but catchable if Willis’s left arm wasn’t entangled with a defender. Gabriel’s third INT was just ugly, trying to fit the football into a tight window with a defender in front of Jalil Farooq and another behind. The ball went high and the back defender grabbed it.

“The first one we want back,” offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby said. “Just had a chance to get it out of our hand a little earlier to the field side. And then the second throw was an absolutely incredible ball. Frustrated by that one with the outcome, but he threw just a great ball. B-Will gets his right hand on it, wasn't able to get his left one up. And then the third one, going through it and talking him through it, Dillon hasn’t done that all year. He has not put the ball in harm's way. And he did there and he knows that and we want that one back.”

Lebby’s coaching history with Gabriel — one year at UCF, which included that three-pick game at Cincinnati — gives him an insight into his quarterback’s psyche. Lebby indicated he doesn’t have to go into damage control mode or perform any emergency repairs on Gabriel’s confidence.

“Dillan’s played a lot of ball,” Lebby said. “ … He's been in the building all day today. He’s spending his own time watching his own tape. Doing recovery. And he's gonna go about his business the way he did last week. But he'll be ready to play and he'll be fully confident in the plan and what we're gonna go do on Saturday.”

There’s plenty of evidence that Gabriel will do exactly that — bounce back Saturday against WVU. Back in 2019, after throwing those three picks against the Bearcats, he only threw two more interceptions (both in a loss at Tulsa ) the rest of the season, a span of 232 attempts.

“Shoot, I think we do a lot of great things,” Gabriel said. “Then there are some bumps in the road that hurt us, for sure. The recurring theme is wanting a couple plays back each game. Those plays that also help dictate the game.”