OU-Miami: a possession that haunts the Sooners
Everyone is talking about OU’s final offensive series against Miami, when the Sooners threatened but settled for a field goal. Here’s what I think was the killer series for the Sooners, who lost 21-20.
Second possession of the second half. Miami had just scored, one play after Landry Jones’ fumble, to take a 14-10 lead and commandeer all momentum.
But the Sooners came back. Mossis Madu returned the kickoff 21 yards to the OU 34-yard line, which on this night was excellent field position for the Sooners. Then Jones completed a 3rd-and-10 pass to Cameron Kinney for 12 yards. And OU got a pass interference penalty on 3rd-and-15. Finally, Jones sneaked for two yards on 3rd-and-1. OU had a first down at the Miami 33.
Then it all fell apart. Jones threw two straight incompletions. Chris Brown lost two yards on a 3rd-and-10 draw play. Worse yet, Trent Williams was called for unnecessary roughness, sending the Sooners back to the 50. Then Brown mouthed off, and 15 more penalty yards, this for unsportsmanlike conduct. Suddenly, OU went from first down in field-goal range to 4th-and-42 from its 35, one yard past where it had started THREE FIRST DOWNS AGO.
Fourth-and-42. Tress Way, who otherwise had a superb night punting, didn’t even get his subsequent punt 42 yards. It went 38 yards, to the Miami 27, the same general real estate OU had been just a moment before. Eight plays later, the Hurricanes had a touchdown and a 21-10 lead.
It was a runaway mine train of momentum for Miami, much of which could have been squelched with a scoring drive. Jimmy Stevens, bless his soul, suddenly is a decent kicker. From the Miami 33, even six or seven yards would have set up a 43-yard field goal. Maybe a 14-13 game.
Instead, OU played uphill all night, with one of the worst series of plays in recent Sooner history.
Everyone wants to talk about the fourth quarter. For good reason. But the third quarter beat the Sooners.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Comments
What about in the second quarter when we could have easily run 3 more plays if we had used a couple of timeouts. Instead, just let the clock run, and run, and run. Seems to me the O.C. has used injuries as an excuse for a lackluster playbook, or unwillingness to dig into said playbook.
Brad is right. It is the “non-offensive” coaching. I think the Oklahoma media are cowardly in their approach to the Oklahoma coaching staff. It is so common to see the media pointing the finger or talking under their breath about the amature athletes at OU, when their real focus should be on the decaying coaching at OU. Having played ball before, I can tell you that the Linebackers are not coached well in their pass coverage or attack of the line of scrimmage, and the offensive playcalling is predictable, non-agressive, and way out of sinc. This has been the case for a couple years now and ceartainly why we can’t win big games. Coach Stoops knows this and so does the Oklahoma media; whom are afraid of taking on men with money. Scaredy Cats.
I don’t entirely disagree with you, Berry, although I find Stoops’ “When something goes wrong, we’re shutting the offense down” comments this morning mystifying. At any rate, I have less of an issue with Kevin Wilson than I do with Stoops’ and Brent Venables’ stubborn insistence on matching up linebackers – who in this case are universally playing poorly, in the run and passing games – on wide receivers.
There’s no objective way anyone can look at the disastrous middle of the Sooner defense and think the Texas game will be anything but a rout. Jordan Shipley and Dan Buckner will be all over ESPN by the end of the day, each with a buck-fifty in the passing game.
Every Sooner fan pines for the “good old days – when we hung half a hundred” on teams. News flash! The “good old days” of the Stoops era are currently occurring. Top ten recruiting classes, significant games, Heisman winners, championships etc.
Try to enjoy it before you run off Stoops.
The days of Blake, Snelly and even the relatively successful Gary Gibbs aren’t too far off.
Funny thing is then everyone will pine for the “good old days” of the Stoops era.