Wildcat-astrophy: Sooners drop Big 12 opener 41-34
Last week in Lincoln the Sooners showed they could play complimentary football (a balanced offense and defense) — in a good way to beat Nebraska.
This week back in Norman they showed they could play complimentary football — in a bad way to lose to Kansas State.
Both squads bear the responsibility for failure on Owen Field on Saturday night, when the Wildcats upset No. 6 Oklahoma 41-34.
And a noticeably angry Coach Brent Venables said so in his post-game press conference.
“I am pissed about all the things that happened out there today….”
The only highlight of the game was a raucous crowd. But even some of them began to file out of the stadium with 8 minutes remaining when K-State extended their lead to 34-20 and the Sooners defense had no answer for KSU running back Deuce Vaughn (25 carries for 123 yards) and quarterback Adrian Martinez (21 carries for 148 yards).
On a third and 16 from their own 41 yard line, Martinez scrambled out of the pocket for 55 yards to seal the Sooners’ fate. The Wildcats scored two plays later, extending the lead they had maintained the entire game to 41-27 with 1:58 left.
“It broke our back at the most critical of time,” OU Coach Brent Venables said of Martinez’ play.
“I am pissed about all the things that happened out there today” – Brent Venables
Venables was harsher on his defense than his offense in his post-game press conference (“We missed a whole lot of layups on defense. And we just got whooped way to often too”), but he was also critical of penalties that stymied offensive momentum, particularly in the third quarter when the Sooners had a chance to take the lead.
In that quarter Sooner drives ended in a field goal after a holding penalty stopped a drive, a false start and delay penalties resulted in a punt, and a missed pass by QB Dillon Gabriel to Drake Stoops on fourth down at the KSU 39 ended another drive.
Gabriel finished the game with 26 completions on 39 attempts for 330 yards and four touchdowns.
Those numbers are good. But some missed throws at critical moments in the game, like the fourth down pass attempt to Stoops, stand out.
“He played good enough to win the game,” Venables said of his quarterback. “He gave us a chance to win the game, and we didn’t do our job as a football team to help him.”
But afterward, Gabriel put the loss on his own shoulders.
“I’m a bad loser for sure,” he said. “There’s a bunch of stuff we want back, but shoot, most importantly, I want a lot of things back that I’ve got to be better in and will be better in.”
Leading receiver was Marvin Mims, who caught four passes for 87 yards and one touchdown.
The Sooners ended the game with 11 penalties. The offense only converted four of 13 times on third down.
“We’re down in the mud right now, Ain’t no doubt bout it. We’re going to take this one on the chin and try to learn and grow from it,” he said.
“When we needed to be precise we needed precision. We weren’t as efficient as we needed to be on offense in the most critical of times. In the most critical times on defense, we were at our worst” Venables said.
“We didn’t do much good at anything on defense.”
Not much, indeed. The Wildcats amassed 550 yards total offense against a defense that had been bragged about the entire week, on the heels of a road win at Nebraska the week before.
The lone bright spot of the game was on offense: Eric Gray, who rushed for 115 yards on 16 carries.
The Sooners drop to 3-1 for the season and 0-1 in conference play.
Next game: At TCU. 11 am Saturday on ABC.
photo: ESPN
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