What we learned from a 41-12 loss to Baylor

For almost a half Mike Stoop’s was looking like a magician wooing the crowds at the circus.

The Sooners had a 5-3 lead in the second quarter at mighty, shifty Baylor, thanks to a remarkable safety scored by LB Dominique Alexander. The Bears fans were stunned, worried their undefeated team was facing disappointment.

Then the bottom of the magic box fell out.  Baylor went on to an easy 41-12 win over Oklahoma.

No, not because of Stoops’ defensive play calling. And, not really because of his defense at all, although his squad’s tackling skills became suspect later in the game.

Rather, it was the Oklahoma offense that exposed the Sooners as they went down to a disgusting defeat – the fourth worst in Coach Bob Stoops’ tenure and the last game they will ever play at Floyd  Casey Stadium in Waco, Texas.

The offense was pretty offensive, challenging the officials to throw their flags and throw them often.  Dropping passes. Tossing interceptions (2).  Not converting on third downs.

And, most importantly, the Oklahoma offense appeared lacking in any semblance of a game plan.  Was it to run between the tackles? Was it to pass on the perimeter? What was it exactly?

I credit those Baylor Bears for having a stellar defense. But, when you put 9 and sometimes 10 defenders in “the box” at the line of scrimmage, it’s not that difficult to defend a no-back offense with a QB who runs like he has lead-filled boots. The Bell Dozer ran out of gas last year. This year its wheels have been pilfered and it sits as a rusty wreck somewhere along I-35.

Meanwhile, for the third time this season I come away from an OU game wondering if Blake Bell will survive as a starter. The few glimpses of Trevor Knight – who entered the game for some unknown reason as it turned out – made me wonder if the coaches are wondering the same thing.

Bell is a spotty passer, who sometimes looks brilliant, but more often than not is an inaccurate passer (he completed only 15 of 35 passes) – a rarity at the school that produced Landry Jones, Sam Bradford, Jason White and, yes…some guy named Josh Heupel.

Which brings me to my last point:  The “Heup” was a great QB. A gamer. A winner. A national champion.

But, Heup is no offensive play caller. He will get lucky on occasion. He even makes some adjustments, but not until the game is over and the fat lady is warming up her vocal cords. That’s what happened Thursday night in Waco.  By the time the Sooners got their offense sorted out, this game was already decided.

One Sooner fan posted on Twitter in the 3^rd quarter of this game that we should all go to church this week and pray that Heupel gets a head coaching job somewhere. Anywhere.

Let us not forget that Baylor was a huge favorite going into this game. They are indeed the No. 5 team in the country.  But, as most Sooners are feeling now, this was one of the lousiest performances we’ve seen since the John Blake era, and we can place much of the blame on Heupel’s schizophrenic play calling.

The truths that we have learned at this point in the 2013 campaign are:

1) Blake Bell has maxed out his upside. Let’s play for the future like Bob Stoops was thinking when he named Trevor Knight the starter – we’ll lose a few now, but the upside could be tremendous; 2) get Chuck Long or Mark Mangino back to Norman because we need some better play calling; and 3) pray.

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