- Landry Jones is an easy target. He threw five picks. And most of the other 53 passes he threw weren't much to write home about either.
- Kevin Wilson's a good target as well. The Hail Mary with thirty seconds left was just bizarre. We did little misdirection. I know that was a good D, but I felt we could have tried more things.
- Bob Stoops. Everything's his fault. It's his fault we're 5-4, and it's his fault we don't haven't experienced 5-4 in a long time.
However, I submit to you it's a players' game and the players lost this one. Specifically, the offensive line. The bottom line is we can't run the ball effectively, and we can't protect the passer, regardless of who it is. We say Sam's had some misfortune with his injuries this year and his draft rating will suffer, but how much would his stock have fallen if he were behind this line every game?
I submit to you some facts. In the Sooner record book available at soonersports.com, there are 62 seasons listed with rushing yards and rushing attempts. If you rank them by yards per carry, we are presently headed for the 55th ranked season in terms of rushing attempts. As for the Stoops Era, it's the third worst performance of his teams. Those that were worse? 2001, with a pre-knee injury Jason White and never injured Nate Hybl; and 2003 with Jason White as a statue and Kejuan Jones as your featured back.
With a line unable to sustain a running game, the Sooners had to resort to throwing the ball 50 times in the game b/c it was the lesser of two evils. Even with Landy not throwing well, the coaches felt there was more upside - and downside - to throwing the ball than giving it to Chris or DeMarco to be gang tackled at or behind the line of scrimmage. Murray ran the ball 14 times Saturday. Eight times he gained two yards or less. Twice the o-line had 15 yard penalties after his runs. Chris Brown ran the ball 11 times. 5 times he gained two yards or less.
Another place to turn is the kicking game. We've made ONE field goal longer than 40 yards in the last 23 games, a 42 yarder against Texas A&M last year. That's just atrocious. Tress Way is 1 for 5 kicking field goals. Jimmy Stevens is 11 for 13, but 0-2 fr 40+ yards. Houston, on the other hand, has a kid kick a 53 yard game winning field goal as time expired. The kicker's previous career long made FG? 34 yards. Perhaps Jimmy or Tress is due?
Combine these two areas together and it's a lethal combination as you enter scoring range. The field shrinks, so it's more difficult to pass, and you can't run effectively courtesy of the spotty offensive line. The lack of confidence in your FG kicker makes you go for it on fourth down in what should be a FG area, and points are at a premium, but you can't make a kick.
The o-line was an area of concern at the beginning of the year. Stoops blasted the unit during the offseason. Turns out he was correct.
Many are comparing this to 2005, an 8-4 year with a freshman quarterback where our losses were by 7, 17, 33 and 2. In three of those games we weren't competitive.
This has not been the case this year. The D has kept them in games. Now it's time for the o-line to answer the challenge and finish strong.
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