There's no doubt that the Sooners didn't have their best night ever on the football field last Saturday. With rare exception, if you called out the position I could tell you about a bad play or two. That said, Oklahoma's 24-19 loss is the direct result of three plays that went south for the offense. In all three instances the culprit was the quarterback and the result catastrophic.
The Setting
At the 12:45 mark of the second quarter the Sooners have a 3-0 lead and are facing a thirteen from their own thirteen.
In obvious passing situation, the Sooners line up in a four receiver set with trips (three receivers) at the bottom of the screen. Kansas State responds with a 3-3 front but look at how far outside the bottom linebacker is. In doing this, KSU basically had four defenders for Oklahoma's three wide receivers at the bottom and then Justin Brown at the top of the field with corner coverage and a safety over the top of him. The top linebacker is coming on a blitz and will end up making the play that changes the game.
Oklahoma sends all four receivers deep and mid-range which means a deeper drop for Landry Jones. The offensive line does a really good job at setting up a pocket for the quarterback but Jones is about to make his first mistake on this play. What he should do is step up into the pocket to buy some time but instead he's going to try and move to his right.
Jones sees linebacker Jarell Childs but also knows that he has running back Dominique Whaley in the backfield to account for him. What he doesn't account for is linebacker Justin Tuggle who has been sealed off on the backside by right tackle Daryl Williams. I think this is the reason Jones tries to move to his right. He assumes Whaley is going to get Childs and has no idea that he's heading right into a sack.
Tuggle gets the sack and knocks the ball loose in the process. Because Jones has moved so far to the right there is no one there but Childs to pick up the ball for an easy score.
You can't say that Whaley didn't touch a sole on the play. He did reach out to see what kind of material Childs' jersey is made of but you can't remotely begin to describe what he did as blocking. However, this play is all on Jones for a lack of pocket awareness. The play should have never rolled to the right. A young and inexperienced quarterback tries to roll near his own end zone to make something happen but a seasoned veteran steps up into the pocket and either makes a pass or eats the ball.
The result of the play was a 7-3 lead for Kansas State. That's not a score that the Sooners can't overcome...unless they continue to shoot themselves in the foot.
Stay tuned for part II