Despite Sooners' winning streak, Lincoln Riley isn't satisfied: "Errors across the board"
When Lincoln Riley took the podium Tuesday afternoon for his weekly press conference, his tone didn't exactly resemble that of a coach whose team is on a five-game winning streak and has held three of its last four opponents to 14 points or less.
Instead, Riley harped repeatedly on Oklahoma's mistakes in a 41-13 victory over rival Oklahoma State on Saturday. Though the Sooners maintained total control throughout the primetime showdown, their 36-year-old head coach nonetheless perceived a myriad of shortcomings.
“Penalties, number one," said Riley. "I thought some things from a defensive execution standpoint, we missed a couple really easy, simple fits. Offensively, we had about a whole quarter of the game where we were just poor. … Just kind of musical chairs with errors across the board.”
Granted, the Sooners did have conspicuous lapses; it isn't just coachspeak or nitpicking from Riley. Tre Brown was flagged for pass interference twice, Brendan Radley-Hiles drew an egregious unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, and a coverage breakdown allowed Shane Illingworth to find Logan Carter for the Pokes' lone touchdown.
“The notion after a game like that is that everybody thinks everything’s perfect," said Riley. "The bad play tape is poor, and there’s way too much of it. And we’ve got our work cut out for us to try to clean that up.”
Now, as Oklahoma prepares for a road tilt with a 5-3 West Virginia team clinging to fading hopes of a Big 12 championship berth, Riley knows his team will have to play four quarters of clean football to keep their winning streak intact. The trek to Morgantown represents OU's longest road trip of the season. Last time they traveled more than 200 miles from home, the Sooners looked erratic and inconsistent in a 37-30 road loss to Iowa State last month. The task on Saturday won't be an easy one, especially against a Mountaineers team that boasts a rock-solid defense.
“Give Coach Brown and his staff a lot of credit; those guys have played some quality ball," Riley remarked. "A really good football team, obviously playing well on both sides of the ball. Defense has been a strength for them all year.”
West Virginia is the only Big 12 team that has yet to beat Oklahoma since joining the reconfigured conference in 2012. With how well the Sooners are playing on both sides of the ball, that's frankly unlikely to change on Saturday. But even with his team seemingly firing on all cylinders as the season draws to a close, Riley isn't taking anything to the bank.
"Every part of [West Virginia] is challenging."
To get the latest OU posts as they happen, join the SI Sooners Community by clicking “Follow” at the top right corner of the page (mobile users can click the notifications bell icon), and follow SI Sooners on Twitter @All_Sooners.
