By John Shinn
There were a lot of reasons Oklahoma lost to Nebraska 10-3 Saturday night. Turnovers, penalties and an inconsistent kicking game did the trick.
But anyone who's followed Sooner football this season knows those three issues are nothing new. They were there in the season opener the first week in September. It's the first week of November, and those problems are still there.
That fact had OU offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson doing a lot of soul searching. The kicking woes don't fall under his jurisdiction. Everything else does. His patience with the errors that have plagued OU's offense is gone.
"We've got to look at our players and our ability to respond in a proper way, and if guys aren't, then how do we handle that?" Wilson said. "That doesn't necessarily mean that you get rid of players, but we cannot allow for the same mistakes to continue to happen over and over."
Much like previous losses to BYU, Miami and Texas, a dominating defensive performance was wasted because of a wealth of offensive mistakes.
Quarterback Landry Jones threw five interceptions, which means he now holds the school record interceptions thrown and touchdown passes in a game.
But Wilson was more irked with the penalties that caused OU to keep pouring lead into its feet. The Sooners had nine on the night. Most were committed by the offensive line and after they had crossed into Nebraska territory.
If that's sounds familiar, it's the same course the Sooners followed in their season opening loss to BYU. That was the first game of the season. Nebraska was game No. 9.
"You're going to have mistakes. But when you keep making the same blunders, you have to take a serious look at who and what you're doing. Who you're doing it with and what you're doing," Wilson said. "That's not personally directed at one player, one person, one coach, one deal, other than our offense needs to function in a very efficient manner."
There's a frustration level that is growing thin for everyone involved. OU defenders refused to point fingers Saturday night. But they don't have to.
"We don't come in here to put up three points. That's not what we do," said wide receiver Ryan Broyles, who had eight catches for 74 yards. "We have 12, we win the game."
But 15 would have done it against BYU. Twenty-two was the magic number against Miami and 17 points would have done it against Texas.
Nebraska certainly had something to do with the Sooners problems. It kept OU out of the end zone by coming up with those five interceptions.
The Huskers are as talented defensively as any team OU's faced in the last couple seasons. It won't face a better one the rest of the regular season.
But just like every other loss, OU knows if it could take away the self-inflicted wounds, the outcome would likely be different. Those mistakes, however, have happened over and over again.
The Sooners (5-4, 3-2 Big 12) have three regular-season games left, starting with Texas A--M at 6 p.m. Saturday night at Owen Field. It's a chance to get back on track. They've shown they can rebound from crippling losses before. After the loss to Texas, OU played two of its best games in back-to-back wins over Kansas and Kansas State.
Saturday night's performance showed that consistency is still something the Sooner offense hasn't grasped.
"First thing an offense can do is beat itself," Wilson said, "and we have done things in four games that have cost us a chance to win all four games."
John Shinn 366-3536 jshinn@normantranscript.com
