Through three games, Oklahoma’s offensive line has been dominant. The group has opened the holes and provided the time for the Sooners to score over 50 points in every game and average a gaudy 7 yards per play.
“The old guys, especially the starting five, are playing well,” offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said.
If it sounds like a case of deja vu, it should. The second-ranked Sooners put up almost identical numbers through three games last season. You could make a pretty serious argument that Saturday’s game with No. 24 TCU will show whether OU has really made improvement over a year ago.
At least, that’s the way OU’s offensive line sees it.
“We still have a lot of games to play,” guard Duke Robinson said. “It starts with an attitude of everyone wanting the same thing. We don’t want to be the same as last year.”
Last season, OU’s offensive line showed it was capable of great things. It paved the way for one of the highest-scoring offenses in the school’s history. The group also pounded teams into submission in three of OU’s biggest wins last season: Texas, Oklahoma State and against Missouri in the Big 12 championship game.
But the line couldn’t do it on a Saturday-to-Saturday basis. About once a month, there was that game where the focus wasn’t as sharp and the intensity wasn’t as edgy.
Signs of that popped up about a month into last season. The Sooners went up to Colorado and struggled to run the ball. They also had problems protecting Sam Bradford and lost.
Why is it important to bring up now?
Because, statistically, TCU has one of the best defenses OU will face this season. The Horned Frogs lead the nation in rush defense and total defense and are sixth in scoring defense at less than eight points per game. The Horned Frogs are more than capable of exposing a weakness.
“They’re a well disciplined, hard-playing football team,” OU coach Bob Stoops said.
One that is more than capable of derailing the Sooners’ national title hopes. It’s a game in which an average performance won’t be rewarded.
OU’s been a lot better than average thus far.
“So far, we’ve been efficient, but the goal is to keep it going,” OU offensive line coach James Patton said. “Our energy has been good. We’ve played fast and we’ve played hard. But you have to keep doing that every Saturday.”
The TCU game will be the next step. OU’s offensive line imposed its will on Tennessee-Chattanooga, Cincinnati and Washington. It pretty much outmuscled those teams. Do it again and a reliable pattern will have emerged during the non-conference schedule.
It will have gone through four games without the mental lapses and penalties that bit the Sooners last season. A foundation has been laid but it’s OU’s challenge to continue building upon it.
“We’re getting better every week, and that’s all you can ask for,” center Jon Cooper said. “We don’t want to reach a peak and plateau. We want to get better every week.”
Thus far OU’s offensive line has. But the hurdles are getting taller. TCU is the biggest game to date. It begins a string of three ranked teams — TCU, No. 7 Texas and No. 18 Kansas — the Sooners will play over their next four games.
The cushy part of the schedule is complete.
The Sooners are about to find out if their offensive line is ready to make the next step.
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com
OU Sports
The line up
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