On one hand, there were some things that were very encouraging. On Offense, DeMarco and Broyles were workhorses. The WR's as a unit were pretty solid. There were not a lot of drops (none that I can recall). Cameron Kenney seems more comfortable and DeJuan Miller caught a couple of key passes. There were no fumbles.
Unfortunately for the Offense, Lonnie was inconsistent at best and showed little, if any, improvement that I could tell. He seemed to lock in on receivers (only 5 players caught balls), was eager to move out of the pocket (read: happy feet), threw some awful balls and generally seemed out of sorts a lot of the time. This was just one game, of course, but the notion that we may have seen Lonnie's career ceiling already is disheartening. It's hard for me to watch the O-Line in person and I don't know a lot about that unit anyways (as far as nuances of the position) but I'm going to presume they were average/below average given that Lonnie was sacked 3 times and threw the ball away more times than that. Whether that's on the Line or Lonnie or WR's I don't know.
On defense there were also some positives if you can believe it. Jeremy Beal looked very good and was spending a great deal of time in the backfield. The LB's looked good as well. Ronnell came in for 3-4 situations and Tom Wort was all over the place. What a great name for a LB by the way, Tom Wort. Travis Lewis had a predictably quiet steady game. In the secondary Tony Jefferson caught my eye and Quinton M.F. Carter looked like the leader he should be.
However, virtually everyone in the secondary staked their claim to be the next "Gasrag McCoy", even Quinton and DeMontre Hurst (who they almost never threw to). At some point, somebody made an egregious error in coverage that cost the Sooners. At this point I'd say Jamelle Fleming or Jonathan Nelson are the leaders in the clubhouse though. What was odd but mildly encouraging was that on some of these mistakes, the defender was in good position, he just didn't turn to find the ball. It wasn't always a completely blown coverage.
For every positive there was a negative. Utah State played well, no doubt, but there is no reason in the world that game should have been close. Hopefully this performance got the attention of the right people. Even as close as this game wound up being, I still think this team can be really good. The mistakes seem fixable.
At the end of the day we're 1-0 and still in control of our own destiny. And, unlike teams of the past, this one on this day made plays when they had to and persevered. Yes, I am trying to be as positive as possible because now next week looks very, very scary.
Other Notes
- I can believe that OU would try to charge people to listen to games on the Internet. Such is the state of big time sports. I cannot believe anyone would be willing to pay. That's a crock. The good news is I believe every other game will be televised.
- I cannot say enough about DeMarco. 35 carries is a ton. He hit holes hard, hung on to the ball, showed some patience and had that breakaway speed in the open field. Very, very encouraging. Kudos to you on the call.
- Shouldn't Jamarkus McFarland be called "Booger" from now on? Sure, it's technically taken but anytime you have the chance to call someone Booger I feel it's my obligation as an American to do so.
- You know how football is such a copycat sport (Wildcat). Well, at Coach Camp this offseason I guess the big new thing was to run traditional running formations out of the shotgun. For instance, DeMarco lined up a lot behind Lonnie in the Shotgun. Or, there would be an off-balance I-Formation behind Lonnie in Shotgun. Utah State was doing this also. I can't remember seeing it before.
- This game had a terrible vibe. The crowd was shit.
