Penalties Up Front Have Hurt the Oklahoma Offense, But the Sooners Are Improving
Oklahoma goes into this week’s home game with TCU ranked No. 4 in the AP Top 25 and undefeated at 6-0.
But the vibe around this team all season has been about wanting more, about achieving their potential, about some intrinsic quality that’s just been holding them back.
Offensively, it’s been all about the offensive line. If the o-line plays better, the Sooners run the football better and there’s less pressure on Spencer Rattler to perform. Also, if Rattler’s pass protection is better, he has less chaos around him and he has more time to find receivers.
And if the Sooners could knock out the penalties all across the offensive line, Rattler and the Sooner offense would have more manageable down-and-distance situations.
For the season, OU ranks 54th in the nation in penalties at 6.0 per game, and 60th in penalty yards at 52.7 per game.
“Trust me, we’ve had more penalty education this year than at any point in my career, any point,” OU o-line coach Bill Bedenbaugh said on Tuesday. “We’ve shown them penalties, shown other people’s penalties. How they’re calling penalties. We’ve done it as much as anybody.”
Against Tulane, the OU offensive line committed four false-start penalties. A holding penalty against Western Carolina wiped out a 38-yard Kennedy Brooks run. Two false start penalties against Nebraska disrupted drives. There were two holding penalties and a false start against West Virginia. Sooner linemen committed three false start infractions, four holds and a personal foul at Kansas State.
Last week against Texas, things got cleaned up until the o-line committed a holding penalty and a false start in the crucial fourth quarter.
Pre-snap penalties are unforgivable and can derail even the best game plans. Dead ball penalties, like Tyrese Robinson’s unsportsmanlike conduct foul on an extra point at K-State, can be crippling, as evidenced by the Wildcats’ touchdown return on the ensuing kickoff thanks to lousy field position.
Holding penalties, Bedenbaugh said, are fixable in practice.
“Bad technique,” Bedenbaugh said. “Again, that’s on me. You have to take the proper angles and understand how the defense is going to play the play we’re running and what they’re doing. Again, that falls back on me.”
Bedenbaugh pointed to Caleb Williams’ first touchdown pass to Marvin Mims in the Cotton Bowl last week.
“Really good protection,” Bedenbaugh said. “Guy started to get beat late — could have been in better position — had his arm wrapped around. Let go. Caleb could step up in the pocket.
“If that was last week or two weeks ago, do we get a holding penalty? Probably. It had nothing to do with effort but being in bad position. And then understanding that when you get to that position where they’re going to call holding, you have to let go. Then whatever happens, happens.”
Bedenbaugh doesn’t mind spreading the truth about how his players perform and where they need to be better.
“The very first game, where we had some false starts, which shouldn’t happen, because they were shifting and moving,” he said. “Our defense does that. We practice against them. What is that? That’s a focus. Heck, a false start’s a false start. You can’t go until we snap the ball. But again, we see that stuff all the time. That’s a mental focus deal. You gotta be focused in and understand what’s happening.
“Some holdings, do I agree that they’re holding? No. But that’s just part of it. They’re gonna call some things. For the most part, if you play with proper technique, for the most part, you’re not going to get called on holding calls. And like I tell them, if they do, it’s on me. If you do exactly what I’m coaching you to do, and they call holding, it’s my fault.
“They’re refs. They’re humans. They see some things. … But again, when you’re in the heat of the battle, and if you’ve ever played offensive line, (you know) it’s hard. You know your quarterback’s about to get hit, you know somebody’s about to get tackled. And you know you don’t want it to be your fault. Things happen.”
Bedenbaugh acknowledged that he’s glad to be able to slim down the rotation to five or six guys. Early in the season, as he was looking for the best players and the best combinations, there were bodies in and out. That can affect an offensive line’s chemistry and communication.
But, he said, even halfway through the season, it remains a work in progress.
“I do wish I could say, ‘This dude is that clear-cut starter, and nobody else is even close to him.’ Yeah, I do,” Bedenbaugh said. “But we’re not at that point.”
He also looks no further than the Red River Rivalry to illustrate how his group is improving — even over the course of a single game.
“After the first two series, we weren’t worth a damn,” he said, “but then as the game went on, we played pretty good for the rest of the game. And again, I think it just came down to those guys were confident. They didn’t worry about doing anything but their job. The score didn’t matter. It was doing your job play after play.”
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