Game Thread: Oklahoma Sooners vs Houston Cougars 7:30pm EST ABC

[tnapucco]

...all these noobs in here are starting to make me itch...

 

[Wheat]

Ok Corky.. settle down a bit bruh

Meh, he's an Iowa fan, give him a break, LOL!~

 

[romeo212000]

Ok Corky.. settle down a bit bruh

Seriously. This dolt is just posting because he likes to read his own words or what?

 

[78Cyclones]

How many points did Northern Iowa score on that "vaunted" ISU D the other night?

ISU was incredibly lucky to have won that game, period, LOL!~

I'd be a bit worried if I were you...

The UNI offense had 262 total yards, kicked two long FGs in regulation and kicked two FGs and scored 1 TD on an iffy call that "stood" but was not confirmed upon review in the 3 OTs. The other TD was a defensive score by the Panthers on another reviewed play that "stood" but was not confirmed.

The Iowa State defense played very well in the game. The offense on the other hand...The point is that Iowa State is a Big Xii team that emphasizes defense - which is what my post was about. If OU had Iowa State's defense, the Sooners would be OUtstanding!

fyi: ISU ALWAYS worries about OU. Nothing new there.

 

[romeo212000]

The UNI offense had 262 total yards, kicked two long FGs in regulation and kicked two FGs and scored 1 TD on an iffy call that "stood" but was not confirmed upon review in the 3 OTs. The other TD was a defensive score by the Panthers on another reviewed play that "stood" but was not confirmed.

The Iowa State defense played very well in the game. The offense on the other hand...The point is that Iowa State is a Big Xii team that emphasizes defense - which is what my post was about. If OU had Iowa State's defense, the Sooners would be as good or better than Alabama and Clemson.

fyi: ISU ALWAYS worries about OU. Nothing new there.

Appreciate your thoughts. I have said all off season ISU is going to struggle to replace their offensive production. They just don’t reload like other teams do and they need experienced teams.

Also appreciated your thoughts on Oklahoma’s defense yesterday. Yours is actually one of the few opinions on this board that don’t seem to either be slanted by bias or fan boy tribalism. My thoughts are pretty similar to yours. Defense looked much better for the first half with a couple of big plays given up including that god awful effort by Tre Brown. You know what though? His ass was riding pine the next series. Haven’t seen that accountability in years from the previous regime. Thing started getting ugly in the third quarter when we started rotating a lot of bodies in and then gave up some stupid penalties, but you gotta build depth and see what you really have against real competition. Should anyone associated with Oklahoma be satisfied with it? Absolutely not. But I don’t think homerism to say it looked like they took a step in the right direction. There’s a lot to clean up but there’s a very real possibility they could have a decent defense by mid season.

 

[Diego Roll Tide]

I was thinking OU’s offensive pace was slower than in the past, and they ran a much lower # of plays than in the past.

Was that intentional? Or was it simply that the ypp was so high that it accounted for the lower # of plays?

 

[tnapucco]

I was thinking OU’s offensive pace was slower than in the past, and they ran a much lower # of plays than in the past.

Was that intentional? Or was it simply that the ypp was so high that it accounted for the lower # of plays?

23 passes vs 37 rushes.

A couple of good RedZone defenses.

We murdered some clock purposefully.

I have no idea if Riley had planned Hurts to do so much, I would reason NO...especially all the running.

I think Hurts missed quite a few good completion attempts. Hence his disappointment after the game. He knows he isn't seeing the field like he needs to and the game film will prove it.

 

[78Cyclones]

I have no idea if Riley had planned Hurts to do so much, I would reason NO...especially all the running.

Understatement of the year, as I doubt he game-planned for 508 yards from Jalen!

 

[Diego Roll Tide]

23 passes vs 37 rushes.

A couple of good RedZone defenses.

We murdered some clock purposefully.

I have no idea if Riley had planned Hurts to do so much, I would reason NO...especially all the running.

I think Hurts missed quite a few good completion attempts. Hence his disappointment after the game. He knows he isn't seeing the field like he needs to and the game film will prove it.

That has been his weakness. His throwing mechanics are good. His mobility is great, and not just for running. He will still look down the field. Going through progressions and using the entire field has been the Achilles heel, but he still looked very good overall and put up insane stats.

 

[romeo212000]

That has been his weakness. His throwing mechanics are good. His mobility is great, and not just for running. He will still look down the field. Going through progressions and using the entire field has been the Achilles heel, but he still looked very good overall and put up insane stats.

Pretty solid piece here on how Riley uses the tape teams will have on Hurts against them.

 

[Wheat]

Appreciate your thoughts. I have said all off season ISU is going to struggle to replace their offensive production. They just don’t reload like other teams do and they need experienced teams.

Also appreciated your thoughts on Oklahoma’s defense yesterday. Yours is actually one of the few opinions on this board that don’t seem to either be slanted by bias or fan boy tribalism. My thoughts are pretty similar to yours. Defense looked much better for the first half with a couple of big plays given up including that god awful effort by Tre Brown. You know what though? His ass was riding pine the next series. Haven’t seen that accountability in years from the previous regime. Thing started getting ugly in the third quarter when we started rotating a lot of bodies in and then gave up some stupid penalties, but you gotta build depth and see what you really have against real competition. Should anyone associated with Oklahoma be satisfied with it? Absolutely not. But I don’t think homerism to say it looked like they took a step in the right direction. There’s a lot to clean up but there’s a very real possibility they could have a decent defense by mid season.

this.

 

[DeafOranguntan]

One thing I have not seen mentioned here is the O line. For four guys with zero starts between them ( Creed Humphry only had 12 starts last year), they seemed to do okay. Time for them to gel is a good thing. We will see how they stand up to a better defense though.

Yeah, I'll be curious to see how they do against a good defense, though OU only plays one, maybe two even mediocre defenses a year (Iowa State and TCU were the only Big 12 teams with a top 50 defense). But I don't really think we can take anything from this game offensively. As I stated before, last year, Houston had the #127 defense. They averaged allowing something like 250 rushing yards a game. That points to a horrendous front 7. They also lost 9 starters, who just so happened to be their top 9 in production. So really, it was your guys with 0 starts, facing off against their guys with 0 starts. The difference was, your offensive line rookies were all blue chips and 4/5 were in the top 5 at their position coming out of high school, while Houston only has one player in their front 7 that was considered in the top 75 at their position (TCU transfer Isaiah Simmons).

But Oklahoma's offense will be fine. There's a lot of talent there, and they get to play against horrible defenses (I mean, Texas was the third best defense, and statistically, at #70, it was slightly worse than USC, Pitt's, and NC State's). And again, I do think Big 12 refs are partially at fault for that. But no matter what happens this season, I would guess that Oklahoma's offense will be top 5 quality, probably slightly worse than the last couple of years, but very good and capable of winning a championship. I definitely think you'll win the Big 12 with that.

I'm more curious about the defense, which did not looked improved to me, at least on the ground (Houston ran for more yards last night than their average against AAC teams last year-and that was with three new guys on the offensive line (same skill guys)).

Finally, I think Sooner fans who want to say that the offense is so amazing that they can win a championship with just a mediocre defense (in this thread) are ridiculous and dramatically overstating Oklahoma's offense. Last year, with Murray, who's incredible, OU averaged about 3 points more and 50 yards more per game than Alabama and Clemson. However, their average opponent's defense was #76 (and that's because Army raises them almost 10 spaces). They played more defenses below #100 than they did the top 50. Both Clemson's and Alabama's were approximately 55 (Clemson's defenses hovered around there, while Bama played some terrible defenses (Arkansas, Louisiana, Ole Miss) but also played 5 top 25 defenses). I think that big gap in average defense faced can more than explain the small statistical difference. Oklahoma has had one of the four most elite offenses the past few years (I don't know they've been better than Clemson, Alabama or Ohio State). Statistically, all the teams are very close. Even with Kyler Murray, who looked like a future NFL star in the preseason, Oklahoma really struggled against Alabama, not scoring until they took their foot off the gas to rest up for the next week. Because of that, I think Oklahoma needs an elite defense as well to compete, which Jalen seems to understand, and I think that's what makes them a threat this year.

 

[romeo212000]

Yeah, I'll be curious to see how they do against a good defense, though OU only plays one, maybe two even mediocre defenses a year (Iowa State and TCU were the only Big 12 teams with a top 50 defense). But I don't really think we can take anything from this game offensively. As I stated before, last year, Houston had the #127 defense. They averaged allowing something like 250 rushing yards a game. That points to a horrendous front 7. They also lost 9 starters, who just so happened to be their top 9 in production. So really, it was your guys with 0 starts, facing off against their guys with 0 starts. The difference was, your offensive line rookies were all blue chips and 4/5 were in the top 5 at their position coming out of high school, while Houston only has one player in their front 7 that was considered in the top 75 at their position (TCU transfer Isaiah Simmons).

But Oklahoma's offense will be fine. There's a lot of talent there, and they get to play against horrible defenses (I mean, Texas was the third best defense, and statistically, at #70, it was slightly worse than USC, Pitt's, and NC State's). And again, I do think Big 12 refs are partially at fault for that. But no matter what happens this season, I would guess that Oklahoma's offense will be top 5 quality, probably slightly worse than the last couple of years, but very good and capable of winning a championship. I definitely think you'll win the Big 12 with that.

I'm more curious about the defense, which did not looked improved to me, at least on the ground (Houston ran for more yards last night than their average against AAC teams last year-and that was with three new guys on the offensive line (same skill guys)).

Finally, I think Sooner fans who want to say that the offense is so amazing that they can win a championship with just a mediocre defense (in this thread) are ridiculous and dramatically overstating Oklahoma's offense. Last year, with Murray, who's incredible, OU averaged about 3 points more and 50 yards more per game than Alabama and Clemson. However, their average opponent's defense was #76 (and that's because Army raises them almost 10 spaces). They played more defenses below #100 than they did the top 50. Both Clemson's and Alabama's were approximately 55 (Clemson's defenses hovered around there, while Bama played some terrible defenses (Arkansas, Louisiana, Ole Miss) but also played 5 top 25 defenses). I think that big gap in average defense faced can more than explain the small statistical difference. Oklahoma has had one of the four most elite offenses the past few years (I don't know they've been better than Clemson, Alabama or Ohio State). Statistically, all the teams are very close. Even with Kyler Murray, who looked like a future NFL star in the preseason, Oklahoma really struggled against Alabama, not scoring until they took their foot off the gas to rest up for the next week. Because of that, I think Oklahoma needs an elite defense as well to compete, which Jalen seems to understand, and I think that's what makes them a threat this year.

I can’t disagree with most of this. Improving the defense is going to be a process this year and they did take a step in the right direction last night. At half time I think they’d held Houston to ten points on a busted play and less than 150 yards or something close to that. Things got a bit ugly when we started rotating a bunch of players in. Depth is absolutely an issue but there’s only one way to build it. Also, most of Houston’s rushing yards came from their quarterback on scrambles. King is a freak and he’s the best quarterback we’ll play in the regular season this year. The run defense definitely was the worst aspect of the defense on the evening though. Grinch’s D will get creased at times when OCs guess right and use his aggression against him.

All that being said, to say the defense did not look improved at all to you is just nonsense. Go back and watch that first half. They were living in Houstons backfield and King had a few bigger plays but for the most part was not doing anything. Houston was a legit top 5 offense last year and returned 8 starters including their freak athlete who put up video game numbers last year. Midway through the third quarter We started rotating a ton of bodies in and depth again is clearly an issue. That’s when things started looking ugly. Would I call them elite? Not by any stretch but progress was clearly evident. Again, this is clearly going to be a process and we likely won’t know much till the OU Texas game but to say they looked no better at all is just shows you didn’t watch them enough last year to realize how bad they really were or you’re just being disingenuous.

Btw, I am absolutely thrilled with Hurts’ comments after the game. He knows that wasn’t good enough. Don’t go celebrate that shit. Go get better.

 

[dennis580]

Hurts moves up to a solid 3rd in Heisman odds.

SportsLine.com

 

[AlaskaGuy]

 

[thunderc]

I was thinking OU’s offensive pace was slower than in the past, and they ran a much lower # of plays than in the past.

Was that intentional? Or was it simply that the ypp was so high that it accounted for the lower # of plays?

It was intentional, Hurts is not the QB they have had the last 2 years and they will adjust accordingly. He will do well, just not what they have had.

 

[Texas Jefe]

Hurts is a good quarterback, great athlete. The offense looked just exactly as I expected-Hurts will grow into it the more they play. He is not the passer Mayfield and Murray were, has a different skillset. But does not mean he cant be successful.

The defense, to a guy that watched my team play OU twice last year, did look better, just it did not last the entire game. I think they'll end up being better than last year's, the question is how much