Oklahoma 49 – Baylor 17: Final Thoughts

Yes, I know! All we want to talk about this week is Texas but let’s go ahead and close the door on Baylor first. Oklahoma’s 49-17 win in Waco on Saturday was significant because the Sooners lost on the road at Colorado last year the week before the OU/Texas game. Granted this Baylor squad wasn’t up to par with Colorado last year but the focus the team showed on the road was significantly different.

It was only Oklahoma’s second road trip of the year but if the trips to Seattle and Waco are any indication of how this team is going to perform on the road this year then we should go ahead and put all of our travel concerns to rest. It doesn’t matter who the opponent is, if OU can get a 28 point lead on them then they have no chance of winning.

I will say this though; Robert Griffin is very good and will lead the bears to greater things in the future. I’m not predicting a Big 12 Championship for them or anything but it appears that if Art Briles can get Griffin a supporting cast then he can bring Baylor up from the basement.

Report Card

 

Offense

 

Quarterbacks – I think we are getting very spoiled to how good Sam Bradford truly is. Against Baylor he completed 74% of his passes for 372 yards, 2 touchdowns and an interception. It’s the pick that will keep Bradford from a perfect score but we really can’t scoff that much at all about his performance.

Grade: A-

 

Running Backs – DeMarco Murray, Mossis Madu and Chris Brown combined for a total of 198 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns. When you add Matt Clap’s 7 yards, Ryan Broyles 8 and Sam Bradford’s 4 we have a combined 217 rushing yards. Most would say that isn’t a bad days work but none of Oklahoma’s main backs broke the necessary four yards per carry barrier.

Grade: B-

 

Receivers/Ends – Whenever your quarterback has a big day so will the receivers. Jermaine Gresham was remarkably absent with just 2 catches for 22 yards but Manny Johnson and Juaquin Iglesias more than made up for it. Johnson caught 5 passes for 92 yards and a score while Iglesias had 6 receptions for 133 yards and a touchdown.

Grade: B+  

 

Offensive Line – Oklahoma’s offensive line paved the way for almost 600 yards of offense and didn’t give up a sack.

Grade: A+

 

Defense

 

Defensive Line – Robert Griffin did run for over 100 yards against the Sooners but that was just about all the offense for Baylor. As a group they didn’t register a lot of tackles (Adrian Taylor led the way for the group with 3 tackles) but they did plug the middle forcing plays outside for the linebackers to clean up.

Grade: A-

 

Linebackers – Keenan Clayton was the Co-Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week but he wasn’t the only Oklahoma linebacker with a big game. Both Clayton and Ryan Reynolds registered 14 tackles each including a combined 4 tackles for loss with a sack and forced fumble by Clayton. Travis Lewis added another 8 tackles for the linebackers.

Grade: A+  

 

Secondary – The most telling stat of the day was 75 net passing yards for Baylor. The Bears attempted 26 passes which results in an average of just 2.9 yards per attempt. The defensive backs did an excellent job of maintaining their coverage while Griffin scrambled which didn’t result in the open receivers he was used to.

Grade: A+

Now we can focus 100% on Texas!