Sooners secondary doesn’t get off the bus, ugly ugly game — sound familiar?
This is what I wrote last week:
First game is a loss to Houston. Houston is good. When did you ever see Oklahoma play well in the first game of the season? And this one is on the road.
And you thought I didn’t know what I was talking about?
Final score Houston 33 Oklahoma 23.
Everything about the OU-Houston game smelled of a sucky Sooner game. New people in the secondary. Cougars upsetting Florida State last bowl season. Houston wanting to get into the Big 12. On the road and lots of attention.
And Oklahoma had to play Dakota Austin at cornerback. He’s too small. He’s too slow. And he’s too out of position. There I said it.
But let’s not put all the blame on Austin. He’s 5-10 on his tippy toes. Coach Mike Stoops had him covering Houston’s stellar receiver Steven Dunbar, who stands at 6-3. What a great matchup (for Houston). Dunbar finished the day with 7 catches for 125 yards.
Labor Day Weekend Notes
Our realtime rants and ravings from Norman on the first college football weekend.
11 am That Alabama beat down of USC was telling. It is apparent the Crimson Tide is the best team in the country and the Pac12 has ways to go. With USC, Wisconsin and OU losing, we’re beginning to think the Oklahoma loss was the better loss of the bunch. Houston deserves to be a top 10 team.
Saturday
11:30 pm A troubling opening game for Oklahoma. The offensive line has some tweaking to do, but more importantly on offense the wide receivers had trouble getting separation — putting greater pressure on Mayfield to scramble against a Houston defense that was key on stopping his running. On defense, the secondary is a mess. It is the most troublesome part of the Oklahoma team because it will only take experience to fix it and the Sooners don’t have the luxury of an easy early schedule. There were breakdowns in team discipline (penalties) and the unfortunate kicking game failure, but we suspect those will get sorted out.
1;43 pm Sooners down by 16 at end of 3d. What we know now is the OU secondary is really bad. And allowing Houston to eat up clock and keep the ball away from the offense. Some questions about the Oklahoma O-line, but over all this mess of a game is on the defensive secondary.
12:37 pm Sooners down 19-17 at half. The Achilles heal for Oklahoma is a weak secondary. Lacking awareness and speed. Being outplayed by Cougars receivers. If Ward was a better passer the Sooners would be behind by three touchdowns.