Happy Saturday, Sooner fans. Our Sooners, 2-2 overall and 11th in the SEC are fresh off a bye week and an exasperating loss at Georgia two weeks ago. The Sooners were hoisted by their own petard yet again as John Mateer turned the ball over 3 times in the resulting blowout.
The bye gave the Sooners the opportunity to make any number of changes to try and get the season back on track. Brent Venables instead made no personnel changes and is pinning his hopes on his offense, his coordinator and his quarterback miraculously improving.
The only material change for the Sooners was the length of the injury report, which one might have expected to get shorter. But no, not only are key players like offensive lineman Michael Fasusi and Eddy Pierre-Louis still likely out, but the Sooners lost Eli Bowen to an "ankle" on Wednesday.
I know I said this last year and possibly the year before, but losing players to injury in practice is not bad luck. It's bad coaching, and with this team, it's systemic and really needs to be challenged.
OFFENSE
There is a non-zero chance the Sooners and John Mateer in particular, can hang onto the ball and perhaps put together something resembling a competent offense that is designed to create and exploit weaknesses against the longhorn defense.
There is a much higher probability that Ben Arbuckle will stick to what he is most comfortable with in hopes that John Mateer won't shit the bed.
Best case scenario for the Sooners is they have some early success moving the ball and can, at minimum, flip the field and give the defense a fighting chance to force a punt.
If the Sooners can get a little confidence and energize the team and the crowd, anything can happen in this one. But so help me if the first couple of drives result in 3rd and long situations, 3 and outs, and short fields for the longhorns.
Undoubtedly the Sooners will look for ways to get Isaiah Sategna the ball, most likely with predictable jet sweeps. But I stand in solidarity with Natey and refuse to pick Mateer for my OPOG, so I'll go with Sategna, the most electric of anyone on the offense. And maybe he does something big on special teams.
DEFENSE
You know these guys will do the best they can with what their dealt. I just hope for their sake that they find themselves with a fighting chance, meaning a one score game, in the 4th quarter. I would love to see them at their most hyped, with a chance to finish the longhorns off. They deserve a good result.
Eli Bowen out is a major blow to the secondary though, and you better believe Steve Sarkisian is going to let Arch Manning take shots over the top early and often to see if the next man up can handle Cam Coleman.
This is a matchup between the best offensive play caller in college football against the best defensive play caller. If the Sooners offense could hold up their end, this could be a thriller.
I've got to go with my man David Stone in this one for DPOG. I want to see him pissed, fired up and blowing people up. I want him to get Arch throwing off his back foot.
These guys are going to have to overcome the Sooners offense and hang in there. They cannot commit stupid penalties to extend drives. Courtland Guillory cannot have more than one pass interference.
THE SCORE
I'm going full reverse jinx for the second week in a row. I am resigned to the idea that Brent Venables and the entire offense, coaches and players, have learned nothing in the last two weeks. They are who they are. They do what they do. QB draws out of empty backfield shotguns. Jet sweeps. Two yard runs off tackle.
I think the Sooners can score. I think the D will play lights out. But the Sooners offense is just too inept and stubborn to do enough. And god do I hope I'm wrong.
Sooners 13, texas 24
Boomer to the motherfuckin Sooner.
No comments:
Post a Comment