Knee-Jerking: Oklahoma Sooners 38, TCU Horned Frogs 20
The story of Oklahoma’s 38-20 win over TCU on Saturday was, well... new stories:
- After some prodding by Baker Mayfield for Sooner Nation to get rowdy, Owen Field’s eroding home-field advantage re-emerged in full force.
- Despite giving up a few big plays early in the game, OU’s defense put the clamps down on Kenny Hill and the TCU offense. A freshman-laden secondary more than held its own versus the Horned Frogs’ speedy wide receivers.
- Lincoln Riley hit the cruise control button in the second half, and it didn’t come back to bite him. The Sooners ground down TCU in the second half with a rushing attack that didn’t even need to score a point to snuff the life out of the Horned Frogs.
- OU only committed four penalties for 29 yards.
- Previously shaky Austin Seibert drilled a field goal from 49 yards out.
All in all, Mayfield, running back Rodney Anderson and OU’s mauling offensive line obliterated one of the country’s best defenses in the span of two quarters. Meanwhile, the maligned defense proved it could stiffen up with improved coverage.
With just two games left to go in the regular season, the Sooners have recaptured their form from back when they worked over Ohio State. Best of luck to anyone trying to slow them down now.
Other musings:
*Inserting Tre Brown and Tre Norwood into the starting lineup at cornerback appeared to give the D a little juice. And by that I mean they actually made plays on the ball down the field.
The early injury this season to Jordan Parker entrenched Jordan Thomas and Parnell Motley as starting cornerbacks. Is it possible that knowing their jobs were secure affected their mentality on the field? It might not matter now, as the freshmen now look to have supplanted them.
*Defensive line coach Ruffin McNeill already earned his salary this season with the job he has done getting Du’Vonta Lampkin up to speed. The big fella is playing his ass off at the nose tackle position on every down that he’s on the field. I’d contend Lampkin is OU’s second-best player on defense at the moment.
*The touchdown throw Mayfield made to Grant Calcaterra - yowza. The rookie tight end made an equally good catch.
*Speaking of rookies, I can’t remember a more impactful freshman class at OU: CeeDee Lamb, Trey Sermon, Calcaterra, Kenneth Murray, Robert Barnes, Norwood, Brown.
How many teams with national championship aspirations have ever leaned so heavily on freshmen?
*On the rewatch, I bet we’ll find out that Murray played the best game of his young career so far.
*Who saw this coming from Rodney Anderson? Early in the year, it looked as though injuries had robbed him of the skills that made him such a solid prospect. Instead, he has turned into one of the most productive runners in the country right now.
*I get that Riley was playing close to the vest in the second half on offense, but running Mayfield so much struck me as odd. Not worth exposing him to so many hits.
*TCU’s defenders can fly, which is why I think OU didn’t do much to try to test them laterally. The jet sweep action that has become a staple of the O barely made an appearance.
Unfortunately for the Horned Frogs, this offense is so diverse with Mayfield at the helm that it has counterpunches for everything.