I was only able to watch about the last quarter and a half of the OU-Miami game on Saturday night, but I saw enough to make some flippant observations.
Offense
Landry Jones might be really good, but we won’t find out until next year because he has no one to throw to this year. Now that Ryan Broyles is out, OU has no one who can do anything with the ball after the catch. The guys at Boomer & Sooner have watched more OU games and have opined on the receiver situation at length. They’re a bunch of possession guys at this point (assuming the actually possess the ball). Cameron Kenney had a decent game, but now he’s your number one. Jones has a strong arm, but no one can get deep unless it’s play action. And no one will fall for play action unless you can run the ball. Unless they have one of the Griffin brothers at safety. Or a Lab.
This is a bad offensive line. Trent Williams is about 20 pounds overweight and out of shape. Right tackle is a comedy of errors between Jarvis Jones and Cory Brandon . That position alone is worth about three penalties a game, mix and match holding and procedure. They’ve started five different guards in four games which is needless to say not good for oline cohesiveness. And as Scipio texted me, center Ben Habern spent his high school career blocking Clipper Coopers.
I can’t recall Miami blitzing much at all. They just used a four man line and downhill playing linebackers to control the Sooner offense. Some are faulting Kevin Wilson for a conservative game plan, but I don’t think he had much choice. OU struggled in pass blocking all night, and Jones probably wouldn’t have had enough time to look downfield. And even if he did, who is he going to throw to?
Defense
OU’s front four is very good. Jeremy Beal and Gerald McCoy are both All American types. But defensive tackles can be doubled so the guys behind them need to do something. Ryan Reynolds was horrible. Horrible. He spent the entire night filling the wrong gap, and I’m not sure he’s ever seen a counter before. I’m not sure if any of the Sooner linebackers have. It’s not that hard of a read to make. Not sure they’ve ever seen a tight end before either. They were completely lost covering the Miami tight end.
I also thought they blitzed too much. OU’s front four could have provided enough pressure imo, but they continually brought additional blitzers leaving Miami receivers in one on one coverage. If I’m an OU coach, that’s the last thing I want. Jacory Harris spent the entire night I watched throwing easy underneath passes.
Summary
This is an OU team with a very good defense and a mediocre offense. But that’s actually good enough to beat everyone left on their schedule except Texas. But I don’t think they will.
For the Sooner perspective and to see which of their own they are considering eating, check out Boomer & Sooner and Tilting @ Windmills.