Oklahoma's Dillon Gabriel, Marvin Mims Working on Deep Shots in Season of Inconsistency
NORMAN — Oklahoma’s offense has left plenty of points on the board through nine games.
The Sooners still project as one of the better offenses in the conference, sitting at No. 24 in the NCAA’s total offense rankings, but uncharacteristic mistakes have plagued Brent Venables’ first season as head coach.
Many different factors have contributed to Oklahoma’s surprising 5-4 record, like undisciplined penalties, crushing injuries and a struggling defensive unit. Even when the Sooners are fully healthy, though, it’s simply been an inconsistent product on the field.
One shaky aspect of Oklahoma’s offense has been the lack of home run plays. The Sooners have tried to air it out plenty, but there have been missed deep passes all over the field. The issue seems to finally be solving itself, as the connection between Dillon Gabriel and Marvin Mims came alive against Baylor.
After weeks of missing on long go-routes down the field, many of which Mims was open, it had to be a sigh of relief for the pair to finally connect on a 63-yard touchdown in the first quarter.
“We missed a couple deep shots early on in the season,” Mims said when asked about his chemistry with Gabriel. “Dillon got hurt for a game-and-a-half, so that hurt us too. Just for that last one to hit in Baylor, it felt great to get that back open.”
After Mims started the season with multiple massive performances, the quarterback injury and the overthrows cost the Sooners a lot of explosive plays and points on the board. Once Gabriel had settled back in, and Mims had a strong outing against Kansas, the star wide receiver had an out-of-character game against Iowa State. He recorded multiple drops, even when the ball was in the right spot, and finished the afternoon with two catches for 16 yards in Oklahoma’s win.
Mims responded in a big way on Saturday, reeling in four catches for 120 yards and a touchdown. More importantly, the wide receiver finally connected on a deep shot down field with his quarterback.
“The guy has been amazing all year," Venables said following Oklahoma's loss to Baylor. "You have a couple of drops, it’s not an indictment, sometimes it’s the game of football. Sometimes you execute and sometimes you don’t. We can’t expect anybody to play perfect. I think he, for the most part, is as close to perfect as you can be. So now the bars through the roof, unfairly, everyone deserves some grace. So again, Marvin today was who he’s been virtually for the entire season."
Through the ups-and-downs of an inconsistent season, it seems like the connection between Gabriel and Mims is in a good spot heading into the crucial stretch of games left on Oklahoma’s schedule.
The influx of losses have been deflating, but there’s plenty of room to make it much better or much worse over the last three games. It’s a good time to have the deep ball firing on all cylinders.
“I feel like it pumps up the whole team, you know, especially the offense,” Mims said about the explosive plays. “It gives them just some life, honestly, and I think we’re feeling good right now going into West Virginia.”
