How Oklahoma beat Texas is no mystery. The Sooners got past the Longhorns on big plays made by some big-time players.
Curtis Lofton stripped Jamaal Charles a moment before Charles carried air into the end zone. Sam Bradford engineered a picture-perfect 94-yard fourth-quarter touchdown drive. DeMarco Murray provided a signature dash he’ll be challenged to top the rest of his days. And Auston English had a sack and a stop for no gain when anything else might have been the difference.
There will never be a substitute for such gridiron heroics.
All the same, there’s really no substitute for superhumanity not being required to get past Texas last Saturday, Missouri this one and whoever else comes along with a mind toward stopping the Sooners.
Because the hard reality is every one of those great plays might have been unnecessary had OU not given up 141 kickoff return yards to Texas’ Quan Cosby, or if the Sooners had not taken nine penalties for 87 yards, one of them an illegal block that turned Reggie Smith’s potentially game-changing interception into a footnote, because Nic Harris tried getting away with something everybody knows to be flag-worthy.
As proud as Bob Stoops was when the rain started falling at the Texas State Fair, he would have been tying himself in knots for all the blunders the Sooners committed that made exactly what made him so proud so necessary.
Given a few days to let the elation wear off and the Sooner coach was sounding alarm bells Tuesday. Once again he accused his team of not “playing very smart right now,” a mantra he chimed for the first time in the postgame misery that was OU’s Rocky Mountain experience.
“I’m not going to sit here and complain about holding penalties, when that can be called every down either way,” he said. “But a block below the waist on a return when we’re about to get in the red zone? We’ve got to be more disciplined that that.”
And that was hardly the end of the Sooners’ list of miscues.
Jermaine Gresham caught two touchdown passes, but his most impressive grab came in double coverage for 34 yards, only a holding call brought it back.
Yet if that’s one of those flags Stoops can live with, the fact that Cosby brought the kick back all the way back to the 41 right after Bradford engineered the drive of his young life isn’t. Because it’s just that kind of letdown that can get a team beat.
It’s not like Stoops needed what happened at Colorado to understand as much, but it’s a good reminder for the nation that follows his team. The difference between success and failure can be miniscule.
“If you’re not at your best and you lack a little bit of intensity or focus, and you’re off just a hair and they get one play, or they get two plays … it doesn’t take much to be off your game for it to change things,” Stoops said. “If you make you’re share of mistakes, it can happen, and it happens easily.”
The best thing about that quote is “intensity or focus,” because it’s not enough to play hard, nor is it enough to play smart. Championship teams have to do both.
Likely, explaining it this way is a tad dramatic, but it’s not inaccurate to say OU’s season is teetering. Lose Saturday and the Sooners are really out of the national title picture, even though winning out might well set up an Alamodome rematch with Mizzou.
But the real battle is internal.
The Sooners are young, though clearly good. At times, they have already been great. Several of them are capable of the fantastic singular play that can be the difference between victory and defeat. Meanwhile, those very same guys are plenty capable of losing their composure, relaxing at the wrong time or looking for a shortcut, the kind that draws a flag and brings a big play back.
Which way the see-saw ultimately falls should dictate the Sooners’ ultimate fortune.
Clay Horning
366-3526
cfhorning@normantranscript.com
OU Sports
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A team of big plays or blunders?
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