OU-Iowa State: Three keys to the game

Playing better defense, taking care of the football, and coming together in a hostile atmosphere are at the top of Oklahoma's to-do list against Iowa State

Brian Asamoah sacks Skylar Thompson :: Pool photo / Kevin Jairaj

Play some defense

There should be little debate that Oklahoma’s defense was as good as it’s been under Lincoln Riley in the opening stages of last week’s game with Kansas State. The Wildcats didn’t get a first down until the second quarter, and didn’t get their second first down until their fourth possession of the day. There was no room to run, and Skylar Thompson had little time to throw.

But things changed after Spencer Rattler’s second interception, and Thompson found a receiver deep behind Tre Brown for a touchdown. That didn’t exactly open the flood gates — K-State didn’t pick up another first down until late in the third quarter, when Deuce Vaughn slipped a tackle and went 77 yards with a screen pass — but the confluence of events gave K-State some confidence and certainly some momentum.

Against the Cyclones this week, Oklahoma’s defense faces a much more demanding task. Brock Purdy is the Big 12’s best pro prospect at quarterback and might be the league’s most refined passer. Breece Hall ranks third in the nation at 128.5 rushing yards per game.

Tight end Charlie Kolar, a Norman North product, led Big 12 tight ends last year with 51 catches, 697 yards and seven TDs, and was a second-team All-America in 2019. Cyclone receivers Joe Scates and Landen Akers got free for 44- and 49-yard receptions last week against TCU, and big-play Tarique Milton might finally be full-speed for this game.

And if the Sooners play another game without a defensive takeaway, they’ll be hard-pressed to win. OU’s only takeaway this season — an interception by Delarrin Turner-Yell against Missouri State — was gift, a throwaway lob by Bears QB Jaden Johnson.

Here’s the trick: Iowa State’s probably not going to help the Sooners much. They do already have three giveaways in 2020, but in 13 games last season, Iowa State lost only seven fumbles and nine interceptions.

Last week’s funky play where Purdy tried to avoid a sack, whirled around and threw the ball away only to have a TCU defender catch it and score was out of character for him. In his career, Purdy has committed exactly zero turnovers in the red zone. (During that stretch, he’s also accounted for 36 career red sone TDs.)

Reeves Mundschau gets a punt blocked against Kansas State :: Pool photo / David Stacy

Value the football

Only three teams in the country have a worse turnover ratio than Oklahoma’s minus-2.0 per game (and one of those is Duke, which has given the football away 14 times).

Half of that equation is obviously the defense’s inability to take the football away. But the other half, clearly, is the Sooners’ inability to value the football on offense. Last week OU was minus-4, with three Spencer Rattler interceptions and a Seth McGowan fumble. That doesn't even include the Sooners' blocked punt.

Rattler doesn’t necessarily seem loose with the football, although two of his three picks were bad throws (one, Lincoln Riley said, was reckless; the other was behind his receiver in the final seconds) and the third was batted at the line of scrimmage.

McGowan’s fumble probably won’t be a lingering issue — he seems to have adequate ball security when he runs — but he does move around a lot. He jukes, he cuts, and he cuts again. That much motion tends to get the football away from the body somewhat, and coupled with a big hit from a K-State defender, that cost him the ball last week.

Iowa State has three takeaways so far this season, but the Cyclones are capable of so much more. Defensive ends JaQuan Bailey and Will McDonald have combined for six career forced fumbles, DBs Greg Eisworth, Anthony Johnson and Lawrence White have five interceptions and four forced fumbles, and linebackers Mike Rose and O’Rien Vance have one pick and three forced fumbles.

OU needs to take care of the football against this defense.

Theo Wease at Baylor / Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Road warriors

Somehow, Lincoln Riley has continued the streak Bob Stoops started, and the Sooners are 22-1 in true road games in Riley’s five seasons (13-1 as head coach). The only loss came last year at Kansas State. Does this Oklahoma team have the makeup to stretch that road excellence? It will be difficult.

These Sooners are young, and they’ve only been tested once — last week’s loss to K-State — and they failed that test. Riley’s teams have wrapped themselves in an us-against-the-world mindset in winning tight road games at Baylor, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Texas Tech, West Virginia and Baylor again.

If this OU team can wrangle a victory in Ames, it could become a defining moment of the 2020 season.

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