Oklahoma-Nebraska: Three Keys to the Game
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Manage the Environment
For a team that
has portrayed as largely inexperienced — some 40 percent of the roster has never played in an OU uniform, he says — playing in their first road game of the season on Saturday presents a real challenge.
“You've just got to have a road dog mentality,” said tight end Daniel Parker, who transferred after playing at Missouri. “You've got to have a different type of grit about you when you go on an away game.”
Teammates and OU fans celebrate Billy Bowman's fumble recovery.
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OU has been simulating crowd noise at practice all week. That’s nothing new — but it is new to what Venables refers to Team 128. Players have said they hear details from what’s supposed to be crowd noise. It’s apparently from a Super Bowl, and apparently one in which the Los Angeles Rams played. They talked this week about it being kind of annoying the way the sound is continuously looped.
But they’re not supposed to hear those things. They’re supposed to tune them out. If they can master that before Saturday, then it’ll be mission accomplished.
Expect the crowd to be extra juiced up after favorite son coach Scott Frost was fired after four ineffective years and a 1-2 start to this season. Whatever they can do to help former QB and now interim coach Mickey Joseph, they’re all-in.
“You're going into someone else's place,” said defensive end Reggie Grimes, “whereas, opposed to going to your place, it's your fans, your people, you're at home. Going away, it's different, it's hostile. You've got people booing you, it's a lot more amped up against you.”
OU players have gotten comfortable being in their own locker room, going out onto Owen Field through their own tunnel, seeing their own new LED light show and hearing their own crowd.
On Saturday, everything will belong to someone else. Staying focused on the game plan and their own individual assignments — and then going out and making plays — should be enough to win this game.
If that focus (or the playmaking) wavers, the Cornhuskers, who excel at hanging tight and playing close, could be ripe to score an upset.
Control Casey
Last week, Kent State quarterback Collin Schlee made the Oklahoma defense look silly at times. He would drop back to pass, get hit by an OU defensive lineman, then slither away. Sometimes he would simply juke defenders to get away.
“We knew he was a really mobile, athletic guy,” said OU defensive coordinator Ted Roof. “ … He did a great job, made us miss at times. That’s an issue we’ve got to work to clean up is missed tackles. Our tackling Saturday night is not where we expected it to be.”
Ethan Downs
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Players said it can sometimes be a little demoralizing to have the QB in your grasp and not bring him down.
“It's all about moving to the next play and hopefully learning from it,” Roof said, “not letting it be like a boulder that you carry around for the rest of the game.”
Escape is something Nebraska’s Casey Thompson excels at: sensing trouble, absorbing contact, resetting himself and getting out of danger. That has to be job one for the Sooner defense on Saturday.
“Yeah, the past two games, we had a couple of missed sacks” said noseguard Isaiah Coe. “ … It’s definitely more motivating, where, ‘OK, I just missed that play, let me get my technique right and make a play and do what you do best.’ “
“We missed tons of tackles last Saturday,” said defensive end Ethan Downs. “So we saw where we’re weak right now. We know we got to work on that in practice. We got to stay on top of that and finish following through. Even on a tackle like you said — beat your man, got good hands, good feet, and you get to that quarterback. Now wrapping them up, you know, grab his skin. Rip off his skin and push through him.”
No Offensive Lulls
Jeff Lebby’s offense has had its bright spots. But the Sooners have also had a few dark stretches.
Operating at a lightning pace, two straight three-and-outs against UTEP put the defense in a bad situation. And last week against Kent State, the Sooners had seven yards rushing and were nearly scoreless at halftime before a late TD march.
Eric Gray goes down against UTEP.
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“Didn’t run the football like we wanted to in the first half,” Lebby said. “Credit to Kent State. They did an unbelievable job. They changed how they fit things. I didn’t do a good great job adjusting early enough, then got to some things in the second half that helped us.”
The good news is that the Sooners have scored a touchdown right before halftime in both of their games, and then they’ve outscored their first two opponents 38-0 in the third quarter.
But in the second quarter, OU has three punts and has outscored its first two opponents just 14-13.
“You punt the football four straight times, then you have five straight scoring drives with four touchdowns,” Lebby said, “it really is a tale of two halves. Just proud of our guys man for continuing to stay together and being explosive when we needed to.”
Lebby’s plan is solid. But he’ll need to adjust on the fly a little quicker. If that means running against a light box or throwing it against a heavy one, he’ll have to be ready to change that plan against Nebraska and moving forward.
“I think the biggest thing (against Kent State) is I probably should have been a little more aggressive throwing the football,” Lebby said. “Wanted to establish the run game, was a little stubborn about that early on. … It was on me not throwing the ball around a little more to create some errors in the defense.”
