No Answers for Oklahoma, Brent Venables as TCU Blows Out the Sooners
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FORT WORTH, TX — There are no positives to spin for Oklahoma coming out of Amon G. Carter Stadium on Saturday.
None.
Maybe worst of all is the specter of having to be back in the Metroplex seven days from now trying not to get similarly embarrassed by Texas.
The Sooners’ best player lost a fumble on the third play of the game, and it was all downhill from there in a 55-24 blowout defeat at the hands of TCU.
"We gotta get them better and help them quickly," first-year coach Brent Venables said. "Things don’t get any easier for us."
Oklahoma had beaten TCU eight years running, but that streak ended with an ignominious thud.
Quarterback Dillon Gabriel was at first wildly inaccurate, then suffered what looked like a potential head injury — the most high profile of a significant run of ongoing medical maladies for OU, with maybe the most serious being a fourth-quarter injury to defensive back Damond Harmon, who lay motionless for 15-20 minutes and needed a backboard and medical cart to get off the field. Harmon's chin and facemask hit a TCU runner's thigh as he was falling.
"I don’t have an update (on Gabriel)," Venables said. "He’s in concussion protocol. I didn’t think a whole lot about the hit. It’s football. You don’t like it. It’s part of the game. My concern is for Dillon and his health and his safety.
"I didn’t really see anything (on Harmon)," Venables continued. "There was a run right at Damond and I think he got knocked backwards. He’s had a history of some back issues. The surgeon was there and felt like his neck was stable and OK. ... Obviously he was in some pain."
The defense, supposedly renewed by the return of its defensive whiz head coach, was as bad as it’s been at any point during the past decade of dreadful defense, giving up 480 yards in the first half alone and yielding touchdowns of 73, 69, 67 and 62 yards — two runs and two passes.
"Can’t give up the explosives," Venables said. "Today, we did that.
"We were bad, but we’re not that bad. But, it happened. You can’t give away touchdowns."
Most disquieting, at first, is Gabriel’s injury. He escaped the pocket on a second-quarter scramble and slid feet first to pick up yardage, but as he did, TCU linebacker Jamoi Hodge dove over him and hit Gabriel with a forearm to the head. Gabriel’s head then contacted the ground, and he laid motionless on the field for several minutes at OU’s medical staff rushed to tend to him.
He spent another 20 minutes or so in the sideline injury tent, then walked under his own power to the OU locker room and did not return.
That brought on backup Davis Beville for his first extensive action of the season, and Beville never seemed to settle in.
At least the initial news was encouraging about Harmon's injury.
Long-term, the most disconcerting issue is now the Oklahoma defense.
A week after the Sooners were embarrassed at home by Kansas State, things only got worse in Fort Worth.
In stepping in after Lincoln Riley and his offense-first mindset left for USC last December, Venables said he would employ a “physical, punishing, relentless, suffocating defense.”
Saturday was a stark reminder of just how far away the Sooners are from accomplishing that vision. TCU finished with 668 total yards, including 361 rushing.
Quarterback Max Duggan hypothetically introduced himself to Heisman voters with a massive game, both running and throwing. The Horned Frogs exposed OU’s three-man defensive line with runs off the edge that produced big play after big play. The TCU wideouts out-competed the OU secondary, which was stricken early by a multitude of pass interference penalties.
And missed tackles piled up like purple welts inflicted over and over by the TCU offense.
Duggan finished with 302 yards passing and three touchdowns and another 116 yards rushing and two TDs. Kendre Miller ran for 136 yards and two scores.
Freshman Jovantae Barnes led OU with 100 yards and two TDs. Tight end Brayden Willis produced the only real offensive highlight, a 78-yard catch and run that ended at the TCU 1-yard line. Gabriel finished just 7-of-16 for 126 yards.
But an early fumble by wideout Marvin Mims set the tone for one mistake after another.
"I hate it," Mims said. "That’s the first time I ever, I think, had a turnover in college. Felt like I let my team down. ... It sucks."
Now, the Sooners will lick their wounds and try to regroup in time for next Saturday’s showdown against a Texas team that reportedly will get starting quarterback Quinn Ewars back in the lineup.
"We'll get it fixed," said defensive coordinator Ted Roof.
"Of course it's correctable," said offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby.
It’ll be a tall task — especially since the Sooners will head to the Cotton Bowl coming off their worst defeat since the 62-28 College Football Playoff loss to LSU in the 2019 Peach Bowl. It’s OU’s worst conference loss since a 48-14 home blowout to Baylor in 2014.
Ironically, it was that loss, and the 40-6 loss to Venables’ Clemson team in the Russell Athletic Bowl, that set things in motion for Bob Stoops to hire Riley as offensive coordinator and eventually head coach.
Now the Stoops-Riley path has led to Venables, who clearly didn’t have any answers for Saturday’s onslaught.
"It’s not a new thing," Venables said. "The formula for success and winning are the same things it’s always been. The psyche can be a fragile thing. They’re gonna respond how we respond.
"Have some accountability, everyone take ownership, address the issues that were there, improve your fundamentals, put ‘em in schemes that are advantageous and then we gotta get our guys to execute."
