It’s hard to get excited about a 41-3 victory over an overmatched Akron team.
What makes the victory even more hollow in my opinion is the lack of any kind of run game from the Sooners. That may sound harsh, but that’s where I’m at right now. I know the argument. Akron loaded up to stop the run and OU beat them through the air. You take what the defense gives you.
But if you watched closely, I didn’t see the Zips commit eight men in the box very often. For most of the game I thought they played OU pretty straight up. And the Sooners could not run on them. They couldn’t run on Akron.
Now don’t get me wrong. Mayfield and the receivers did live up to the hype after the first quarter. Baker was slinging it all over the field to a plethora of playmakers, one after the other. The Air Raid is alive and well in Norman. And that’s great against Akron. But the Sooners are going to need the running game to be a big part of this offense when the big boys start lining up against them. And if they couldn’t get it rolling against the Zippies?
To me that’s a pretty big red flag because as they say, this sh$t just got real. Tennessee and over a hundred thousand fans await this Saturday in Knoxville. The size, speed and athleticism just jumped exponentially.
Volunteer head coach Butch Jones has been building this team back with top 5 recruiting classes and he has them ready for the big stage. The Sooners need to run the ball well to set up play action to keep the Vol defense on its heals. Mayfield won’t be able to do it all with his arm. The offensive line needs to gel really quickly to give Perine and Mixon the opportunity to make plays. This will also keep the Volunteer offense of the field. Because they are potent.
So many unanswered questions leads to a Worry Meter spiking at 90% this week.
So many unanswered questions leads to a Worry Meter spiking at 90% this week.
New quarterback Josh Dobbs is the real deal. Oklahoma didn’t see him in the game last year as Vols quarterback Justin Worley was at the reigns for Tennessee. Worley got hurt in the middle of last season and Dobbs took over and hasn’t looked back. In just six games last year Dobbs threw for over 1200 yards and 9 TDs while tacking on over 400 yards rushing and another 8 rushing touchdowns.
And Dobbs may be the least of the Sooners worries. Tennessee has its own versions of Perine and Mixon in their backfield in the form of Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara.
Hurd is a five-star recruit coming into his sophomore campaign after a very productive freshman season that saw him amass 900 yards rushing. Kamara was a former Alabama running back that finds himself with the Vols after traveling the junior college route. Hurd is the bruiser a la Perine and Kamara fills the Mixon role nicely.
That should give the Sooner defense pause. Because we don’t yet know anything about the OU defense. Not against the anemic offense Akron threw out on the field. Can the Sooner defensive line bottle up Dobbs and keep him from making plays with his feet? Can they stop the one two punch of Hurd and Kamara? What about the OU defensive backs? Have they fixed the holes that opponents exploited time and time again last season?
So many unanswered questions leads to a Worry Meter spiking at 90% this week. Hope our boys can roll into SUC country…sorry, I mean SEC country and bring back a W. With all that being said…BOOMER!!!
– Dave
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