For much of the season, OU’s defense has been a strong suit, once lifting an offense without an identity.
That dynamic flipped the past two games.
After BYU scored more points in the first half than in its previous three games and registered season-highs in rushing yards and yards per attempts last week against the Sooners, concerns were raised about their defense.
While OU’s first half against TCU showed a glimpse of its once-dominant defense that allowed only 34 points in the first four games and received a “little better than solid” rating from head coach Brent Venables, the second half raised more concerns than the previous week.
“Abysmal,” Venables said. “An abomination to football (for) three straight drives.”
After taking a 42-16 lead into halftime, the Sooners’ defense conceded 228 yards and three consecutive touchdown drives in the third quarter, plus a two-point conversion, to allow the Horned Frogs back into the game down two scores.
It came in a quarter that’s served the Sooners well to this point in the season. The Sooners had allowed three touchdowns and 37 total points in 11 games entering Friday’s game. They allowed three touchdowns and 22 points against the Horned Frogs.
“We take great pride (in being) really good in the third quarter all season long. Then we were really bad on defense in the third quarter,” Venables said. “ … We relaxed and we missed tackles and we missed some (run) fits, and it wasn’t just one guy.
“ … All of it starts with us as coaches. If we (make) a bad call, we put them in a tough position, fix it. Don’t do that. But we got to do a better job from an execution (standpoint) at times too. Good teams will punish you, and that’s what happened.”
OU’s pass rush was once again questionable after garnering one sack on the day and having just two over the past five games. While the defensive line had seemingly overcome the hump it faced in the first half of the season with five sacks and 10 tackles for loss against Texas, it’s faced a sack lull once more.
While Roof acknowledged the failure to sack TCU quarterback Josh Hoover as much as he’d like, he praised how affected Hoover was by the pass rush and how much he had to evade a clustered pocket.
Sophomore defensive lineman R Mason Thomas, who led the team with 1.5 tackles for loss, noticed Hoover speed up his mental clock on dropbacks as the game progressed. Though the production on the statsheet shows a poor effort in the pass rush, Thomas chalks it up to teams studying how well the unit did against Texas and other teams earlier in the season.
“I think it’s really offenses adjusting to us,” Thomas said when asked about the decline in sacks. “We know we can get (to the quarterback), and they’ve seen us do it for the first half of the season. So (they’re) adjusting and doing sprint-out (bootlegs) or how they step up in the pocket or they speed up their process, their routes are shorter.
“So I think us, the first half of the season, having all those pressures or sacks, it just made it better because when you’re speeding up the process, you’re getting the ball out in like two (or) two-and-a-half seconds, your receivers have to be really, really good to do that.”
The same can’t be said for other aspects of OU’s defense.
After allowing BYU to surpass its season-high in rushing yards and yard per carry a week ago, TCU rushed for 176 yards, 104 of which came in the third quarter, and 6.1 yards per carry, its highest mark since week one against Colorado, against the Sooners’ defense.
OU’s pass coverage wasn’t much better. Of the 10 TCU receivers who caught a pass, eight of them recorded over 20 receiving yards.
When the Sooners had a chance to stop the Horned Frogs on a third-and-2 from their own 30, they gave up 27-yard completion before allowing a 32-yard rushing touchdown three plays later. The next drive, TCU converted a 30-yard pass play on 4th-and-10 before eventually scoring to draw within 14.
“A play here, or a play there,” defensive coordinator Ted Roof said, “especially a momentum play like when we have a chance to (force) negative yardage and force (them into) second-and-12 and instead, we missed a tackle and it goes for a first down. All those different types of scenarios, we got a chance to get off the field on third down, and don’t. It’s a combination of a lot of things. Today wasn’t our best performance, but at the same time there were some good things that happened during the course of the day.
“We’ve gotta do a better job moving forward. Whatever’s next, we’ve got to play better our next game.”
It all paired together to make for one of the worst defensive quarters of Venables’ two year tenure. While OU’s defense couldn’t play much worse if it tried in the third, Venables was pleased with the response in the fourth quarter and overall first half effort.
Despite the concerns of a lapse happening just prior to a potential Big 12 Championship appearance and bowl game, he and the Sooners are confident they’ll shape up for the postseason.
“It’s not just one thing. It’s one guy here, one guy there, the next time is this or a call or whatever,” Roof said. “I’m not gonna hang it on one person or one thing, but that allowed them to stay in the game. So we all got to do a better job.”
“It’s 100% correctable. That’s the encouraging thing.”
Senior day, decisions loom
Oklahoma honored 26 seniors on Saturday before its contest against the Horned Frogs.
Among those exhausting their final season of eligibility are defensive lineman Jordan Kelley, defensive lineman Jonah Laulu, offensive lineman McKade Mettauer, Pearson, offensive tackle Walter Rouse, offensive lineman Caleb Shaffer, tight end Austin Stogner, wide receiver Drake Stoops, defensive end Marcus Stripling and defensive lineman Phil Paea.
Of the rest of the players honored, wide receiver LV Bunkley-Shelton, defensive end Trace Ford, offensive tackle Tyler Guyton, defensive lineman Jacob Lacey, defensive back Key Lawrence, running back Marcus Major, linebacker Konnor Near, offensive lineman Andrew Raym, linebacker Shane Whitter, defensive lineman Da’Jon Terry, defensive end Reggie Grimes, defensive back Woodi Washington, Gabriel and defensive back Pierce Hudgens all have remaining eligibility if they chose to return after this season.
Similar to many others, Washington was not ready to declare his future plans quite yet.
“I’m really not sure what I’m gonna do yet,” Washington said. “But we’ll see what the future holds.”
Junior Billy Bowman, who hones an attractive draft stock after recording his second pick six in as many weeks and setting the school record for interception return yards, is too focused on what may still be in store for the Sooners to make his decision of whether to return for his senior season.
“Right now, we still got a Big 12 Championship game to play in, hopefully,” Bowman said. “And (we have) a bowl game to play in. So I do not know yet.”
Gabriel also wasn’t ready to decide on his future, but gave a longer answer when asked about the matter. Gabriel spent the week too consumed with whether he’d be available to play against the Horned Frogs to ponder his plans next season.
His status for Friday’s game was in the air for much of the week after missing the second half against BYU with an “upper body injury” and being in concussion protocol for parts of the week.
Freshman and former five-star Jackson Arnold is thought to take over for Gabriel next season, much like he did in the second half against the Cougars. Gabriel’s mom told the OU Daily this will likely be his last season with the Sooners earlier in the season.
“I truly believe God’s got a plan for everything in the future,” Gabriel said. “I’m just taking it one day at a time. I think with what happened last week to being here, I think God has an interesting way of just keeping you present. I was so focused on just getting myself to a good point to play and then playing today.
“It’s weird how God works, but I think being present is something that I’m still working on and trying to be fully aware of.”