'Grimy' Oklahoma Shows Plenty of Grit in Huge Win Over Missouri

COLUMN

NORMAN — Brent Venables usually looks down at the stat sheet after a win and reels off a series of superlatives.

After No. 8 Oklahoma’s 17-6 win over No. 22 Missouri on Saturday, Venables looked down and came up with another description.

“Call them ‘grimy,’” Venables said. “That’s a very grimy group, and I say that with great, great respect.”

Outside of maybe Isaiah Sategna’s 87-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter, there was very little that was pretty about what the Sooners did Saturday, as they battered the Tigers’ vaunted run game, kept Beau Pribula scrambling, made more plays on special teams, did just enough offensively and stayed alive for a College Football Playoff berth.

“Whether it’s an ugly win or a pretty win, we’re going to find a way to win,” Eli Bowen said.

The Sooners were outgained for the fourth consecutive game, this time 301-276, they rushed for just 103 yards and had just 14 first downs.

For the first time since joining the SEC, Oklahoma won a conference game without scoring any defensive points.

“The stats aren’t really — there’s nothing to, quote-unquote, really brag about for y’all, look to pump up,” Venables said. “Everybody gets excited about a lot of offensive statistical things that show up, but man, we had more yards per play and more yards per carry. … We did what we needed to do to win.”

The team embraces Venables’ “grimy” description.

“It just doesn’t have to be pretty,” quarterback John Mateer said. “Football’s not a pretty game. It’s not a cute game. You gotta push the pile and be the most physical team. And I think that’s what he means.

“Like, it’s not gonna be perfect and all well-flowing, but when the waters get rough, that’s when we enjoy it.”

The Sooners showed that against Missouri.

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After Ahmad Hardy, the nation’s leading rusher coming in, gained 42 yards on the Tigers' first two drives, Oklahoma held him to just 15 yards the rest of the way. Missouri rushed for 0 net yards in the second half.

The Tigers' first drive lasted 8 minutes, 23 seconds. None of Missouri's other 12 drives lasted longer than 3:26, and none after the second lasted even three minutes. In the second half, Mizzou's offensive possessions finished with punt, punt, interception, punt, punt, fourth down and interception. OU's defense finished with five three-and-outs.

After Danny Okoye was called for a needless unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the sidelines after a big third-down stop, the Sooners came right back and got a broken up pass by Robert Spears-Jennings on first down and a big tackle for loss from Owen Heinecke on second to force a punt early in the second quarter.

After perhaps his worst pass of the season, throwing well behind Sategna over the middle, Mateer connected with the speedster on the next play for the Sooners’ longest play of the season.

Oklahoma looked to be squandering good field position a bit later in the second following a pair of incomplete passes, Mateer ran for 15 yards on a third-down conversion and hit Javonnie Gibson a play later for his second touchdown pass.

“It’s not easy to win any game in the SEC,” Mateer said. “But we came together.”

Reggie Powers III was ejected for targeting late in the third quarter for launching into Kevin Coleman’s head. But on the next play, Jacobe Johnson raced over to help in coverage and picked off Pribula to keep the Tigers from seizing momentum.

“We’re tenacious,” Peyton Bowen said.

Venables doesn’t throw out compliments easily, so Bowen treasured the descriptor.

“Whenever he’s saying we’re a grimy group — we’re physical, we’re tough — you’re kind of like, ‘Dang, OK, Coach V really thinks that,’” Bowen said. “That gives us more confidence in the end because I feel like how we practice and work, it gives us confidence during the week and having those words coming from him, it gets us even more.”

The Sooners came up with answer after answer, and now they’re one win away from their first College Football Playoff berth since 2019.

All it will take now is a win over LSU next week for OU to be in the field. It will be hard for the Sooners to win without more offensive production, but with defense and special teams playing the way they are, it's hard to imagine Oklahoma getting pushed around the field by LSU.

“We talk and we put it into action,” defensive lineman Gracen Halton said. “No matter what we talk, we can say some grimy things, but we’re going to do some grimy things on the field with our pads. Swarming to the ball, hitting guys left and right, getting to the quarterback — that’s what grimy is.”