Oklahoma Sooners 63, Texas Tech Red Raiders 27: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Not quite the same clean, dominant effort by the Sooners as last week, but Texas Tech brought vastly more competition offensively.

The Great

Running game

Texas Tech’s run defense sucks. I get that. Still, OU’s offensive line paved the way for more than 400 yards of rushing, and OU only punted once. Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon both had great days, averaging more than 9 yards per carry.

There were running lanes, and Perine and Mixon constantly dragged Tech defenders for extra yards on the second level. Everyone in college football knew that Perine could do this. Mixon had a breakout game, showing an amazing combination of power, speed, balance and moves.

It’s one thing to say that OU should have a good day running the ball. It’s quite another for this young OL to go out and dominate.

Defense

Twenty-seven points and more than 400 yards allowed does not seem like a great defensive effort. I’ll counter that, though:

• OU was playing without three defensive starters;
• OU committed two turnovers, which gave Tech great field position for 14 points;
• Texas Tech was averaging more than 600 yards of offense and 46 points per game.
• OU held Tech’s passing game to nearly half its average production.
• OU forced four turnovers, and if not for the mistakes by the offense in the first half, it would likely have been 35-3 OU at half.

Dakota Austin

Great job by Austin filling in for Zack Sanchez. Tech picked on him to start the game, but he got a key interception in the red zone before the half. In the second half, Tech barely threw in his direction.

Special props since it’s unclear how much practice time he got this week. OU’s other CBs Marcus Green and P.J. Mbanasor were hurt, forcing Austin into action.

The Good

Severity of Zack Sanchez's injury

Only a sprained ankle, not the fracture or torn Achilles that we all feared watching on TV.

The Bad

Texas Tech defense

It's awful. The Sooners only punted once. If not for OU's mistakes, the score easily could have reached 70.

The Ugly

Austin Siebert's miss

Seibert has had a great freshman season. In fact, he’s been so automatic that it’s been easy to forget he is a freshman.

Well, his horrible field goal that went wide left was pretty ugly. However, if he’s going to miss a gimme, better to do it in game where OU won by 36 than a close battle in the November gauntlet.

-Atlantasooner