By John Shinn
Points and yards are piling up in the Big 12 Conference at an unheard of rate. Eleven of the 12 teams are averaging over 26 points a game and four are averaging more than 43.
To give an indication of how prolific the offenses have been, Oklahoma has allowed 101 points in its last three games and is still fourth in the league in scoring defense at 22.5 points per game. Not that that’s stopped message boards or talk radio shows from being inundated with Sooner fans demanding answers. They’re not alone.
“Where not satisfied with it,” OU coach Bob Stoops said.
But he along with defensive coordinator Brent Venables pointed out that the problems haven’t been consistent breakdowns of schemes, coverages or physical mistakes by players.
Some of the problems can be attributed to a perfect storm of really good quarterbacks, really good receivers and the spread offense lining up throughout the league. But Venables pointed to something else Monday.
The Sooners have allowed over 600 yards on what he considers big plays: runs greater than 15 yards and passes over 25 yards. What’s troubling is the Sooners allowed virtually none in the season’s first five games, but they’ve been everywhere against Texas, Kansas and Kansas State.
Most of those plays can be attributed to a quarterback escaping the pocket and a receiver breaking free of coverage. It’s very easy for defensive backs to lose focus on a receiver when they’re having to cover them for more than about four seconds.
“What we’ve really been focusing on is really finishing every play in practice from snap to whistle,” Venables said.
What would be more troubling is if the points OU was giving up came on steady, eight-to-10 play drives. That hasn’t been the case. Against Kansas State only one touchdown drive was longer than six plays. Against the Jayhawks, all the touchdown drives were six plays or less. Against the Longhorns it was three TDs that came on drives longer than six plays.
“We feel we’re giving things away. We’re not making teams take it from us,” linebacker Travis Lewis said.
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com
