The Oklahoma football defense isn’t the only problem facing Lincoln Riley’s Sooners that suddenly find themselves with a losing record.
When Oklahoma lost to Kansas State last week, it certainly seemed reasonable to blame the defense. After all, they gave up 24 points in the final 17 minutes of the game.
Saturday’s 37-30 loss to Iowa State proved the Sooners have much bigger problems to address than simply shoring up the defense. For the first time since 1999, Oklahoma football has suffered consecutive losses in the regular season. And for the first time since 1960, Oklahoma lost at Iowa State.
The issue isn’t only on the defense, that is still in need of massive renovation and tackling drills, it’s an offense that isn’t built to accommodate freshman quarterback Spencer Rattler who played okay but had another game-clinching interception in a loss in as many weeks.
Oklahoma has more problems on their hands than a porous defense
The Sooners have been fortunate over the past few years. Since Lincoln Riley took over as head coach he has had a veteran quarterback running his offense every year. He went from Baker Mayfield to Kyler Murray to Jalen Hurts. The quarterback level has dramatically changed.
It’s not that Rattler is bad. He’s just young and needs far more support around him. It’s also fair to say too much hype and unfair expectations were placed on the redshirt freshman who had practically zero on-field collegiate experience.
A run game averaging less than 3.7 yards per carry isn’t going to cut it. Such a mediocre rushing attack only invites teams to go after the inexperienced quarterback. Is it any wonder Rattler has been, well, rattled at times?
Running backs Seth McGowan and T.J. Pledger have shown some promise but the Sooners offensive line that has been a wall over the last few years has shown more cracks this year, leaving the ground game vulnerable and Rattler prone to too many sacks and pressures.
If you ask a freshman to carry your offense on his back, you’re going to end up with performances like Oklahoma has produced thus far. Better defenses will cause even more problems.
Maybe the plan is to ride out Rattler’s growing pains in hopes of a brighter future. If that’s the case, then expectations need to be adjusted heavily for the Sooners in 2020. They’re not sniffing the playoff at this rate. Perhaps it was our bad for thinking they would.
Oklahoma was always going to have to win with their offense making up for their defensive deficiencies but when both sides of the ball are struggling, and you give up a game-turning kickoff return to set up a game-tying score, it’s going to be a lost season.
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