Oklahoma's Offense Leaves More Questions Than Answers in Bedlam Victory

Oklahoma held on to beat the Cowboys late, but the Sooners' win brings new concerns.

NORMAN — In a game that Oklahoma desperately needed to win, both to make a bowl game and capitalize on a massive recruiting weekend, the Sooners walked away victorious with a 28-13 win over No. 22-ranked Oklahoma State. 

The underlying story though, is how Oklahoma somehow generated more questions than answers in the team’s biggest win of the season.

After the season Oklahoma has endured, it would be hard to find anyone complaining after a win. 

Coming into the contest at 5-5 with two games remaining, the Sooners were in serious danger of missing out on postseason eligibility with a loss to Oklahoma State. OU accomplished its end goal of winning the game, of course, but after being outscored in the final three quarters and failing to generate any positive offensive momentum after the first 15 minutes, it almost feels like a deflating win.

The Sooners failed to generate a single point after the 1:09 mark in the first quarter and the defense was tasked with uphill battles time and time again. Even though Brent Venables’ defensive unit stood strong, this game easily could’ve gone a different direction.

"Well it started fast," offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby said. "Obviously we did the things that we wanted to do. We were able to get in a rhythm and roll.

"Then, it was something different every single series after that. We didn’t make some plays. Obviously we had some drops. I have to do a better job of putting us in better position to be able to go create some first downs and some momentum, and really some tempo and some feel. I’m proud of the way we started, but after that we really struggled."

Struggled is putting it kindly.

Oklahoma’s stagnant offense, and specifically failure to convert on third downs, plagued the Sooners all night long and almost defined the game. On the night, OU finished 1-for-14 on third down plays and 0-for-1 on fourth down. That's one week after going 1-for-11 at West Virginia.

After setting up Dillon Gabriel and the offense with fast, easy quick-hitters in the first quarter, Oklahoma completely went away from everything that seemed to work.

Outside of the percentages on big-down plays, the lack of game control and clock awareness was alarming. The Sooners longest drive of the night was 2:45 minutes, ending in a score and coming on the second series of the game. Beyond that, Oklahoma’s longest drive outside of the first quarter was a three-play, eight-yard drive that failed to span more than a minutes-and-a-half, ending in 1:27. Time and time again in the fourth quarter, Oklahoma’s defense came up with important, timely stops. Every defensive stop, though, was seemingly followed up with a deflating three-and-out.

"I was probably a little too conservative at times late in the third and in the fourth quarter running the football the way we did," Lebby said. "We had opportunities to open it up and didn’t. It’s all about getting ourselves into rhythm and being able to manage the entire thing.

"That was frustrating. There were so much self-inflicted things going on. That’s going to start and end with me. We have to be better. We had so many opportunities to blow the thing out and not make it close."

On top of the consistent three-and-outs, the perplexing clock management down the stretch is a serious question. Oklahoma was in control of a 15-point lead nearly the entire fourth quarter. Milking the game clock would be the obvious choice for most any offense in the country, but the Sooners couldn’t seem to give its defense a break. 

With the game clock running down the stretch, Oklahoma’s offense routinely hurried to the line of scrimmage leaving over 15 seconds left on the play clock when the ball was snapped, and the Sooners’ final six series of the game ended in three plays and a punt.

That's something Venables said he most certainly was not pleased with.

Part of Oklahoma’s problem seemed to be the inconsistent play calling throughout the game. The Sooners had errant passes on obvious running downs, deep shots when the running backs were rolling and long developing plays that never quite panned out.

"Two weeks in a row," Lebby said of Oklahoma's third-down struggles. "We have to be better, we have to make plays and we have to do better in protection. I have to put us in better situations where we’re not in third-and-longs. We have to get that cleaned up as we go on the road.

"There was some frustration with executing and some things coming off the sideline that have to be better. That’s on us. We just put ourselves in some really bad situations, not being able to execute cleanly and that showed up."

The Sooners can thank the defense for Saturday’s rivalry win, and even though it’s a big step in the identity Venables wants to build, many questions still remain. Both the defense and offense have had flashes of greatness over the course of the season, but the offense’s dysfunction this late in the season should be concerning and, Gabriel said, remains frustrating.

"Yeah, it’s frustrating," Oklahoma's quarterback said postgame. "We come in every single day and work our asses off to find a way to win. When you’re not executing on third down or not moving the chains, you’re not giving yourself a chance. I think the most frustrating part is that it is self inflicted. We just have to focus on those certain situations and execute. I take it upon myself to be better for our guys. I touch the ball every single play."