After Spencer Rattler's Sluggish Start, There's No Need to Bail Out on Oklahoma ... Yet

Much like the rest of the No. 2-ranked Oklahoma Sooners, Spencer Rattler’s 2021 Heisman Campaign started with a stroke of disaster.

On the second play of the game, Rattler sailed a forced ball past Marvin Mims and into the arms of Tulane’s Jadon Candy, who pulled down an easy interception.

Head coach Lincoln Riley, who had praised Rattler’s mastery of the offense in the offseason, said he was a little bit perplexed with how events unfolding on the opening possession for the Sooners.

“The game got off to a little bit of a strange start with the pick,” Riley said after the game, “and then they took it down and scored. Not quite how you dreamed it up after all these months.”

Perhaps most concerning, the interception appeared to be a reappearance of one of Rattler’s problems from the start of last season. The OU quarterback had running back Eric Gray wide open in the flat, but instead Rattler opted to force a ball into double coverage, trying to hit a home run and start the season off with a bang.

But to Rattler’s credit, he acknowledged his mistake after the game.

“First throw down the field, the safety, (I) thought he was dropping deeper,” Rattler said. “He made a great play on the ball. … I probably should have dumped it down.”

It certainly wasn’t the start many expected for a quarterback who is being projected as a potential No. 1-overall draft pick, but the performance against Tulane is by no means the final say on Rattler’s 2021.

Despite the early mistake, Rattler actually finished with a pretty efficient showing against the Green Wave.

Though he did add to his interception total, finishing the day throwing two picks, Rattler ended the contest with a 30-of-39 passing performance, throwing for 304 yards and a touchdown and adding another score on the ground.

“I thought his decision making overall was pretty strong,” Riley said. “A couple bad decisions. Not a ton. The worst decision he had was the check down to Stogner in the two-minute drill before half. Other than that, he missed a few throws that he typically makes.

“I give Tulane credit. They made phenomenal plays on the ball when they picked him off. He was OK. I mean, he was OK. He can play better and he’s going to need to play better.”

Rattler is no stranger to nice stat lines in a performance that he himself would otherwise grade as below par.

In last year’s shocking second-half collapse against Kansas State, Rattler completed 30-of-41 passes for 387 yards and four touchdowns despite throwing three interceptions.

The key to his improvement last year was centered more on cutting out the bad plays and poor decisions. This isn’t uncharted territory for Rattler, as he made those improvements a year ago.

One fix Rattler can make against Western Carolina is to rediscover his footwork. A number of his misses against Tulane could be chalked up to Rattler falling out of the throw, trying to loft the ball in off his back foot as opposed to stepping into the throw.

Perhaps Rattler lacked complete faith in his offensive line, replacing two starters from last year and missing camp standout Andrew Raym.

Time will tell if getting Raym into the lineup will help settle Rattler, as the Oklahoma center was held out of the fray in the first half due to absences at practice.

“Raym, for medical reasons, had the miss a good amount of practice time,” Riley said after the game. “He was battling with (Robert) Congel anyway. We got him back here at the end of the week and were able to played him a little bit there in the second half.”

All in all, it wasn’t the start for Rattler anyone expected, but there’s still plenty of time for him to replicate his in-season development in 2020 and play at the levels that Oklahoma fans have become accustomed to out of their quarterback.

“There are things I can do to prepare him better and prepared the group around him,” Riley said. “He had his moments where he was really, really good and gave us a lot of chances and was excellent at times.

“But there were certainly a few we’re going to want back. We’re going to need him to play better and (be) coached better the rest of the way out.”

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