By John Shinn
Football counts two fundamentals that are as old as the game — tackling and blocking.
Oklahoma was happy with one after its season-opening 24-17 victory over Alabama-Birmingham and irritated with the other.
OU coach Bob Stoops had no problem explaining which one caught his ire Tuesday at his weekly press conference.
“Tackling was poor and that is something we’ve got to continue to work on,” he said. “Hopefully the more we play, the better we’ll be at it. There are just some fundamental discipline areas that I think we can be better at and tackling is one in particular.”
It’s the most basic part of defense, yet the Sooners seemed to struggle at it against UAB. Defensive coordinator Brent Venables said the missed tackles amounted to an extra 115 yards for the Blazers.
The additional yards had many wondering if OU had taken tackling for granted in the preseason.
Players say no. They took Saturday’s performance as an insult to themselves.
“The coaches stress tackling a lot to us before the games,” linebacker Lewis Baker said. “They stress to us (the importance) of being in the right place at the right time because that can cause missed tackles. Obviously, we had a lot of missed tackles … It was about fundamentals and effort.
“The coaches said our effort was there but when we watched film, we could see sometimes it wasn’t. We know we can be great. We put it on ourselves. We missed all those tackles and we know we can be a great defense but we have yet to prove it.”
The Sooners’ next chance will be at 2:30 p.m. Saturday when Washington visits Owen Field.
It’s a safe bet the Huskies (1-0) will have a little more offensive firepower than UAB. Quarterback Isaiah Stanback is one of the best in the country due to running back-like speed and passing ability.
Mistakes will be magnified if they continue.
However, Venables said the performance in the season opener has shifted some of the Sooners’ focus in practice.
OU has always tried to err on the safe side when it comes to banging around its players in the preseason. Whistles are blown quick and players are rarely taken to the ground.
Venables said that had to change and practices have become more physical over the last two days.
“What happens is the scout team gets punished,” he said. “It comes down to, ‘Guys, we’ve assumed wrong.’ Being balanced, being in position and having a quick whistle and moving on to the next play didn’t work.”
So, what’s the current theme of the Sooners’ practices.
“We have to get to the ball, wrap up and take the right angle,” linebacker Zach Latimer said. “We need to get them on the ground. The theme is we’re going to have to hold on to them.”
Of course, these are the type of things that always emerge from the first game of the season. Some things go as planned, others don’t.
Clearly, tackling issues came as a surprise. Fixing the problem has already become OU’s top priority.
“The expectations we have and the way we are as a team, we want to be a lot better,” linebacker Rufus Alexander said. “This was surprising. We take a lot of pride in the way we play defense. Those are things that break down a defense.”
John Shinn366-3536jshinn@normantranscript.com
