Oklahoma's Special Teams Let Down a Key Piece of Tough Loss in Morgantown

The Sooners were bit by numerous big plays in special teams in Saturday's loss to West Virginia.

After serving as a significant strength as recently as two weeks ago in a win over Iowa State, Oklahoma’s special teams were far from special on Saturday in the Sooners’ latest loss.

In OU’s 23-20 defeat at the hands of West Virginia in Morgantown, the proverbial “third side of the ball” bit Brent Venables’ squad throughout the afternoon.

Oklahoma missed two field goals, allowed a big kickoff return that led to a Mountaineer touchdown just before half and also gave up a fake punt in what would go on to be a game-tying touchdown drive in the fourth quarter.

Needless to say, in a game decided by just three points, special teams played a major role in the Sooners suffering their fifth loss of the season on Saturday.

“Today, obviously, it (special teams) bit us,” Venables said postgame. “We've been outstanding there really most of the year. And today again, we had an alignment (on WVU's fake punt) that's supposed to be alert. … Not just an alert. But like an alignment that puts us in an alignment to stop the fake. I thought we did a good job of leveraging it. They tried to run around us. We set the edge and I thought the guy for them did a really nice job of cutting back and making a play. Overpursued just a little bit. Again, he got it by a yard.

“There’s a gazillion of those on the day in my opinion. We’ll look back on it and show it to our guys again on Monday and learn. There’s a lot of plays just like there where we’re not on the right side of it and we got punished for it.”

After a rocky first half offensively, Oklahoma put together its best drive of the day just before halftime, going 96 yards in just over a minute to jump put out to a 10-0 lead.

But, OU's kickoff coverage failed them as West Virginia’s Sam James responded by returning the ensuing kickoff 42 yards out to the WVU 47-yard line.

Just three plays later, quarterback Garrett Greene ran in the Mountaineers’ first touchdown to draw the game within one score going into halftime.

“Special teams is always a big part of the game,” defensive back Billy Bowman said. “That’s why it’s a three-phase game. So whoever wins the yards differential in special teams most likely will win the game, and we lost that today.”

Billy Bowman / Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports

Then there's the two missed field goals from the typically reliable Zach Schmit that both would have given the Sooners the lead had they been punched through.

The first one, a 54-yard attempt that came up short through less than ideal kicking conditions, was on the first drive of the game. The second, though, was certainly the bigger gut-punch of the two.

With 6 1/2 minutes to play, Oklahoma was presented with a fourth-and-3 at the West Virginia 29-yard line.

Despite the earlier miss on his first kick (Schmit did make a 32-yard attempt in the second quarter), Venables elected to try the redshirt sophomore kicker again for a 46-yard try rather than trust his offense.

The decision didn’t pay off, as Schmit’s kick doinked off the right upright to give the ball back to the Mountaineers.

Oklahoma would never see the ball again, as WVU then drained up the last six-plus minutes, hitting a game-winning field goal as time expired.

“Zach (Schmit) — he's been outstanding,” Venables said. “All the way since spring ball. And as you saw there he had plenty of leg. The conditions weren't that bad on the field. And, again, based on how we had been, the lack of execution all day, I didn't think we were going to miraculously come up with this big time conversion on fourth down offensively.”

All in all, it was far from a banner day for the Sooners in special teams as numerous key turning points of the game were seen with that unit on the field.

Venables and company have put a much larger emphasis on special teams than the previous regime, and for the most part it has paid dividends throughout the season.

But, on Saturday in Morgantown, West Virginia did more in the third phase of the game — likely serving as the difference in a tightly contested game.

While far from the only issue plaguing Oklahoma against the Mountaineers, special teams will certainly be an area where the Sooners will look to button things up going into Bedlam next weekend in Norman. 

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