Sooners will live or die by the O-line
It wasn’t Jacory Harris’ acumen at Miami quarterback that did Oklahoma in. Nor was it the injury to star receiver Ryan Broyles (left shoulder injury). Or any coach’s play calling. Or bad officiating.
It was a suspect offensive line that many sports pundits said going into this season would be the Sooner’s achilles heal which sealed Oklahoma’s fate in their narrow 21-20 loss to the Hurricane in Miami on Saturday night.
On repeated occasions the right side of the Oklahoma offensive line gave up pass rushes, blitzes and committed holding penalties (a holding penalty means the offensive lineman is getting whipped, and he has no option left but to grab and hold).
The key play came came on the second play of the second half, when the right side of Oklahoma’s offensive line let Miami cornerback Brandon Harris to reach QB Landry Jones untouched and knock the ball from his hands before he could get a pass away. Hurricane defensiveman Joe Joseph recovered. Miami then scored on an 11-yard pass play, taking the lead at 14-10, and the game took a decidedly pro-Miami shift from which OU never recovered.
Unlike most of the last 10 years, the Sooners are playing with a notably no-name offensive line this year. Whether anyone can step up to make the big plays on offense will be seen as the Sooners go into conference play this week against Baylor.
The loss ended any hopes of a repeat to the BCS Championship game. But, the Sooners can still salvage a good season with a Big 12 Championship.
“Win out, that’s all we can do,” summed up DT Gerald McCoy.