Postgame Thoughts: Oklahoma 34, Tulane 19
A handful of youthful indiscretions by the Oklahoma Sooners helped turn a comfortable halftime lead into a roller coaster of a second half Saturday against a well-coached Tulane team. OU still showed progress in a 34-19 win over the Green Wave.
A litany of off-the-cuff observations from a first watch…
*Before we get too far into critiquing the performance, a note about the coaching of this squad. A smattering of penalties accumulated by OU in the last two weeks:
A personal foul after a third-down stop on defense that turned a punt into a first down for the opponent in the second half of a one-possession game;
A personal foul on a player for removing his helmet in the final minute of a one-possession game, giving the opponent an extra 30 seconds to mount a final drive;
A delay-of-game infraction that negated a field goal and led to a punt instead;
Two calls for illegal formation on the same offensive lineman in the same quarter for lining up in the backfield;
A kickoff out of bounds in the fourth quarter after taking a two-possession lead.
You can’t blame Brent Venables for all the injuries that have plagued his team since the start of preseason practices. You can, however, lay blame at his feet for his players’ sloppiness through the first three games of the year. He no longer gets a pass in his third season for his players flubbing details that can mean so much on the margins.
*The legs of OU quarterback Jackson Arnold made a massive difference in the outcome of this game. He picked up multiple conversions on third downs on scrambles and called draws, including a 24-yard sprint to the end zone in the fourth quarter that sealed the win for the Sooners. Excluding sacks and a clock-killing loss of nine yards to end the game, he rushed for 123 yards and two scores on 10 attempts.
Tulane opened up the possibility for Arnold to do damage on the ground by opting against honoring the QB keep on zone reads early in the game. That enabled Arnold to rip off some big gains in the first half.
The downside of Arnold’s contributions on the ground is that OU is subjecting its QB to hits before conference games even start. When a team makes the QB run part of its offense, you can’t really escape that reality. Nevertheless, it seems preferable to ration that punishment on your signal caller – the Sooners still have nine games left to go.
*The offensive line seemed to play better overall when redshirt freshman Heath Ozaeta subbed in at left guard and Jacob Sexton moved to left tackle. The “overall” part of that sentence is doing some heavy lifting, however. The Tulane coaching staff realized in the second half that the Green Wave defense could exploit Ozaeta’s inexperience and began targeting the left side of the OL with blitz packages.
The strategy produced one drive-killing sack in the third quarter. Ozaeta appeared to miss a similar blitz pick-up on the following drive, touching off a disastrous sequence that ended with Arnold tossing a pick-six to veteran Tulane linebacker Tyler Grubbs.
You can’t get too worked up over an inexperienced player making those kinds of mistakes in his first significant action. OL coach Bill Bedenbaugh needs to ensure they serve as teaching moments for Ozaeta if the redshirt freshman is to remain in the rotation going forward. More opposing defenses will be gunning for him in the coming weeks.
*Arnold’s aforementioned gaffe occurred on a first down in the fourth quarter with the Sooners nursing an 11-point lead. Note that it is impossible for a young QB to throw an ill-advised INT on a running play. Yet, OU offensive coordinator Seth Littrell presumably called a straight dropback in this scenario because: a) the Sooners were routinely getting about two yards when they ran on first down; and b) an illegal formation penalty on right tackle Michael Tarquin on the prior play put the offense behind the sticks.
In other words, the absence of a competent running game is having a compounding effect on the rest of the offense.
*That compounding effect includes hampering OU’s ability to throw the ball downfield. The vertical passing game isn’t clicking in part because the offense too often ends up in obvious passing situations. Add in concerns about Arnold having time to throw, and it makes taking deep shots perilous.
*Deion Burks’ involvement in the offense in this game had to be closer to what he and many others envisioned when he transferred to Norman. The screen pass to him in the fourth quarter that popped for 20 yards was especially sexy.
*If the defense gave a C-level effort against Houston, it should have allayed some concerns versus the Green Wave. Tulane boasts a good crop of talent at the skill positions and a dynamic threat at QB in Darian “Genius” Mensah. The D made Tulane work for all of the measly 279 yards it gained and 12 points it put on the scoreboard.
In particular, the pass rush gave Mensah the blues. He routinely found himself under pressure from OU’s edges and incoming blitzers, resulting in some scattershot throws. Defensive end R Mason Thomas finally looked like a legitimate disruptor up front. Sophomore PJ Adebawore also generated pressure off the edge in the 17 snaps he saw.
*With Kendel Dolby on the shelf, Sammy Omosigho turned in a sharp performance at Cheetah. He gives Venables and defensive coordinator Zac Alley a useful option to deploy against opponents that prefer to use bigger personnel.
*Make no mistake: Tulane is one of the strongest teams from the Group of Five this year, and the Green Wave replaced one great coach in Willie Fritz with another in Jon Sumrall. The inability to dominate this particular opponent speaks to the ceiling of the 2024 Sooners. More importantly, though, it is encouraging to see a team working with so many inexperienced players on offense take steps forward from last week.