You're not going to get very far beating up the Sooner offense. It has lost the world to injury, yes, but the body of work's not bad.
The Sooners are scoring more than 33 points a game and trail only Texas and Texas Tech when it comes to lighting the Big 12 scoreboard.
Measured by yardage rather than points, the Sooner offense trails only Texas A--M and Texas Tech in the conference statbook.
Landry Jones, let's face it, has been pretty good. Certainly better than Rhett Bomar in his redshirt freshman season.
But here's the thing.
It's all true, but hardly accurate. Because everybody knows the Sooner offense has had all kinds of problems this season.
The issues begin with an inconsistent and immature offensive line, but have bled into red zone issues, third-down issues, settling-for-field-goal issues or, the way that's gone, settling-for-nothing issues.
Those issues have turned OU into a "tweener" of a team: good enough to look great against weak competition but not good enough to beat the big dogs (or even a pathetically offensive-challenged Nebraska team in Lincoln).
Which leads into today.
The Red Raiders crushed Nebraska at Lincoln, have recent history on their side in Lubbock and beating OU, even a beaten-up OU, still means everything in the flatlands of the Texas Panhandle.
Of course, nobody would be surprised to see the Sooners prevail. It's happened before and if the past is any judge, OU's problems today won't be on the defensive side of the ball.
So, road woes and all, OU can win today. More than that, it should win today if only because the Sooner offense owes the Sooner defense for carrying its troubled water just about the whole season.
Indeed, the offense should take a page from the defense today. The Sooner Nation should hope it already has.
"This has probably been our best (defense) as far as wanting to practice well. They are really smart defensively," OU coach Bob Stoops said. "They can see how an offense is trying to create gaps and how we need to cancel them."
That last part Stoops mentioned, the Sooner offense can hardly duplicate. On the other hand, the 11 on the field when OU snaps the ball can know when the snap is coming, not move until it comes and not take any cheap shots once the play is complete.
Stoops had more to say about his defense.
"They understand where they need to be and understand their part of the structure," he said. "They trust the other guy to be where he's supposed to be and try not to do too much. The trust comes when they all know they're on the same page."
Almost any sport can be a beautiful thing when everything comes together and that's been the Sooner defense most of the season. Today, Sooner offenders must mimic Sooner defenders.
They must know where they need to be, trust teammates will do the same and remain on the same page. And they must do it where it hasn't been done before, save three second-half drives against a soon-to-implode bunch from Kansas.
On the road.
Saving the season means winning out and winning today means the offense must put its best foot forward, and never before the snap.
Just because it hasn't happened all season doesn't mean it can't happen today. Really, the way the season's gone, it's the least the Sooner offense can do.
Clay Horning 366-3526 cfhorning@normantranscript.com
