By John Shinn
Oklahoma defensive tackle Gerald McCoy knows where he wants to be for the final minutes of Saturday's showdown with Texas.
"I would love for the game to be close in the end, I would really love for the game to be in the defense's hands at the end of the game, I really would," he said.
Statistically, you'd think most Sooner fans would agree with the All-American defensive tackle. The unit has given up 41 points in five games. It's held the ranked foes (BYU and Miami) to three touchdowns or less. Last week, it held Baylor to seven points and pitched a second-half shutout.
But there's one glaring omission from the Sooner defense's midseason r?sum? and a reason why most wearing crimson in the Cotton Bowl Saturday would be antsy in that scenario: The Sooners haven't produced a fourth-quarter, game-winning stop this season.
BYU topped the Sooners 14-13 on the strength of a 16-play drive late in the fourth quarter. Miami corralled its victory by running the final four minutes off the clock.
Several opportunities to halt critical conversions were missed each time.
"It's just not making plays when we need to," middle linebacker Ryan Reynolds said. "It's just different things each time, little things here and there."
OU defensive coordinator Brent Venables tries not to focus on the one play that could have changed things. He harps on all the little things that go into that one play. They are there every time the ball is snapped. OU's defense will be on the field for at least 60 of those snaps Saturday. Every one of them will affect the outcome.
But he also knows his unit will likely be in a make-or-break position at some point.
"For us to have an opportunity to win, we will need to play well," he said. "We have our hands full and we'll need to play well early, we need to play well in the middle and we need to play well at the end. I think it has a chance to be a heck of a ball game. We're going to need to make some plays and have some game-changing types of plays to have a chance to win."
The Sooner defense used to make them an annual basis at the Cotton Bowl every October. When OU ran off a five-game winning streak over the Longhorns from 2000-2004, defense was the foundation. The 14-3 victory in 2001 and the 12-0 win in 2004 rank right up there with any performance in the rivalry's lengthy history.
Even with two Heisman Trophy caliber quarterbacks on the field, either OU or Texas will figure out a way to make some stops.
Those stops will decide what flag is planted in the middle of the field after the game.
OU has failed to get them twice this season. They're the reason the 20th-ranked Sooners (3-2, 1-0 Big 12) are currently out of the national championship, while the third-ranked Longhorns (5-0, 2-0) can focus on postseason aspirations.
"Our defense personally, in my eyes, has a lot to prove because of situations like that," McCoy said.
John Shinn 366-3536 jshinn@normantranscript.com
