Oklahoma Showed Clear Signs of Growth to Close Out Cincinnati in Big 12 Opener

CINCINNATI — The start of Saturday’s second half felt unsettlingly familiar for Oklahoma.

The No. 14-ranked Sooners controlled the proceedings in the first half at Nippert Stadium, but failed to capitalize on Cincinnati’s mistakes to only take a 10-3 lead into halftime of the Bearcats’ Big 12 curtain raiser.

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OU got the ball out of the intermission with a chance to extend the lead back to two scores, but then it stubbed its toe.

Instead of converting the a third-and-7 to start the half, an illegal shift negated Drake Stoops’ 8-yard catch to move the chains.

Quarterback Dillon Gabriel was then unable to connect on third-and-12, giving the ball and momentum back to the hosts.

Cincinnati marched 49 yards on 12 plays, nailing a 54-yard field goal to cut OU’s advantage to 10-6, energizing the Bearcats’ raucous student section.

A year ago, the Sooners’ next drive would have stalled, opening the door for a dogfight for the rest of the second half.

Instead, offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby went back to the ground attack.

Despite rushing for 35 yards in the first half, Oklahoma called six running plays to go on a 75-yard touchdown drive.

“That was huge,” Lebby said of the drive. “We want a lot back. Had chances to put it away a heck of a lot sooner than we did. But defensively, we played just incredible and then made just enough plays when we needed to offensively.”

Running back Marcus Major started the drive with an 18-yard rush, finally finding the rhythm he lacked in the first half.

Oklahoma only faced one third down on the drive, but Gabriel found Andrel Anthony to move the sticks and allow OU’s defense to stay aggressive with the 11-point lead.

“Really important,” Gabriel said. “… Just continue to find ways to move the chains, which I thought we did well at times.

“But I thought the finishing at the end was just as important. That drive at the end in particular was an important one.”

From there the defense took over.

Oklahoma stopped Cincinnati fourth-and-2 on their own 20-yard line, the highlight of a quarter where the Sooners held the Bearcats to 1-of-5 on third and fourth downs.

“We talked about that a lot going into the week,” OU coach Brent Venables said after the game. “There’s going to be opposition. There’s going to be real adversity throughout the course of the season. In two of the three weeks, we didn’t have a lot of pushback. Today, obviously, we did.

“… We complemented each other at the right times… That’s how you build a team. There’s a lot of different ways to build a team. I’m proud of our guys’ effort.”

All offseason both the coaches and the players touted the incremental improvements the team needed to make to turn around the five one-score losses from 2022.

Through four weeks, OU has answered the bell.

SMU pulled within a field goal in Week 2, trailing 14-11 early in the fourth quarter in Norman, but the Sooners closed the contest on a 14-0 run.

Saturday, the Sooners tacked on another field goal after the third quarter touchdown, finishing its Big 12 opener on a 10-0 run to win 20-6 and send the fans at Nippert Stadium packing.

“This team is resilient,” Oklahoma offensive tackle Walter Rouse said. “I know I wasn’t here last year, but I just know this team, we’re just different all around.”

Last year’s OU squad would have found a way to stumble out of Cincinnati 3-1.

Despite imperfect performances on both sides of the ball, Oklahoma (4-0 overall, 1-0 Big 12) put together a good enough stretch late in the third quarter and early in the fourth quarter to put the Bearcats (2-2, 0-1) away.

“It’s complementary football,” OU safety Billy Bowman said. “The offense helps the defense. It’s not people who are over there sitting, ‘Ah, offense can’t get it done. We gotta go back out there.’

“No, it’s ‘let’s go pick the offense up.’ And the same thing with the offense, it’s not, ‘aw, they can’t get a stop.’ It’s, ‘we believe in the defense, we believe in the offense.’ And special teams as well.”

Still, the message was clear across the board after the win — there is still plenty of room between the level Oklahoma is currently playing at to improve and reach the team’s full potential.

“A win is a win, so I don't want to complain about that,” Gabriel said. “I think there's things we can get better at. But at the same time, finding ways to win in games where there might be a struggle or adversity, that's important. And then seeing us compliment each other as well.

“The defense played their butt off. I want to emphasize that. They played unreal.”

The Sooners have one last test before this year’s marquee meeting with Texas.

Iowa State, fresh off a 34-27 win over Oklahoma State, will visit Norman next weekend.

Its a classic look-ahead spot for OU.

A date with No. 3 Texas, and a chance to avenge last year’s 49-0 embarrassment at the hands of the Longhorns, sits just on the horizon.

But the Sooners remember the pain of last year, not just the loss in the Cotton Bowl, and are intent on letting the failures of 2022 motivate them all the way through OU’s last trip trek around the Big 12.

“We didn’t forget nothing,” safety Key Lawrence said. “We know everything that’s coming. We know nothing’s going to be handed to us.

“Winning is not easy because everyone would be undefeated if that was the case. So we’ve just got to understand we’re hungry.

“We know what we want to do. We know what we gotta do to get there and we’re going to keep our head down and keep working.”

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