Sooner Defense Figures Out Getting Into The Opponent Backfield Is A Good Thing - Colorado Review

by ccmachine on Oct 31, 2010 2:15 AM CDT in Oklahoma Sooners Football

Wow! What a difference a week made for Oklahoma's defense. After getting abused by the quick passing attack of the Missouri Tigers last week the Sooners seemed to live in the Colorado backfield Saturday night. The penetration into the Buffs backfield resulted in much more than just the one sack that shows up in the box score. Colorado had just 91 total offensive yards in the first half and 278 total for the game. But there's much more...

The Sooners had Colorado quarterback Cody Hawkins running for his life. In addition to the sack Oklahoma recorded 5 other quarterback pressures which resulted in hurried throws and incomplete passes. Hawkins only completed 38.6% of his passes and spent a considerable amount of time picking himself up off the turf.

Oklahoma had a total of five players record a tackle in the Colorado backfield and interrupted the Buffs on offense all night long. In every defensive category the Sooners came out on top. Colorado only managed 12 first downs, were 6-19 on third down and 0-1 on fourth down. It all began up front for the Sooners though as they even held the Buffaloes to 50 yards under their season average in rushing. Things went so well for OU's defense in the Colorado backfield that we were even treated to a blocked punt.

Defensive Unit Grades

Defensive Line, A+ - It may not have resulted in sacks but the defensive ends had a strong pass rush was there on Saturday night which consistently disrupted the Colorado offense.

Linebackers, A+ - Of the five quarterback pressures recorded by the Sooner defense, four of them were by Tom Wort. Travis Lewis also finished second on the team in tackles.

Defensive Backs, B - Jonathan Nelson did lead the team in tackles with 9 while Jamell Fleming and Demontre Hurst made stops in the backfield. However, there were still a handful of blown coverages and the Sooners were fortunate that Colorado really could capitalize consistently on it.

All in all it was the much needed dominate performance the Sooners were looking for to replace some confidence lost before heading to College Station next week. Now the biggest question looming is when will this team learn to play at this level on the road?

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It was a good game by the Sooner's

lasted forever. The last 12 minutes for the 3rd qtr seemed to last forever.

There is still room for improvement but I am not going to complain about anything toher than the length of the game and the late start.

by scarab on Oct 31, 2010 9:57 AM CDT reply actions

Sooners looked good on D

against the Buffs….but they are a team with out much talent on the O-line, a back up QB that has little over all talent, and is rapidly quitting on their coach that everyone acknowledges will be fired at some point.

Not sure the Sooners can get a read off the D on this one. They did what they should have. Can they repeat it?

Colorado Rockies correspondent at My Team Rivals (www.mtrmedia.com/rockies) and my own site Rockies Reporter (www.rockiesreporter.wordpress.com)

by Redhawk on Oct 31, 2010 12:51 PM CDT reply actions

Call me Negative Nancy

But it’s hard to get too excited about this game. Maybe I was watching with a negative outlook, but I didn’t think they really got consistent pressure on Hawkins like CC apparently did. Don’t get me wrong, they were clearly better this week than they were against Mizzou. But they didn’t really have to be all that good against CU to accomplish that.

Just some general observations I saw/read:

Apparently in the pregame, Tavaris Jeffries is now working at DT. Jeffries started the year and played last year on the offensive line, but got into some off-field issues early this year and hasn’t played since. So now apparently he’s switched positions.

Another unheard of Sooner who has also apparently switched positions is Lane Johnson. Johnson is a JUCO kid who is gigantic (6’6" 265), played QB in JUCO and up until Saturday was a TE at OU. Well know he’s playing at the DE spot and actually got some snaps at DE in mop up duty.

Pryce Macon also appeared to play most DT last night instead of his normal DE position.

Freshman DE Geneo Grissom, out after surgery on his foot, was fully dressed out and went through all the pregame warmups. He’s still very likely to redshirt, but it’s good to know he’s apparently fully recovered and back at practice.

"I don't like Texas. I don't like the city of Austin. And I don't like the color orange. It reminds me of puke." The Boz

by Jordan Esco on Oct 31, 2010 1:26 PM CDT reply actions