While the war of words rages on among fans as to who should be in position to represent the South in Kansas City I think we need to take a breath and evaluate how the Sooners did on the field Saturday night. Something that is well over due!
Position Grades
Quarterbacks
| Player |
Completions |
Attempts |
Yards |
TDs |
INTs |
| Sam Bradford |
14 |
19 |
304 |
4 |
0 |
| Graham Harrell |
33 |
55 |
361 |
3 |
1 |
You tell me who the Heisman leader should be? Bradford completed nearly 74% of his passes to Harrell’s 60%. More impressive was his 16 yards per attempt to Harrell’s 6.6 yards per attempt. The fact that Bradford only attempted 19 passes just amazes me!
Grade: A+
Running Backs
| Player |
Attempts |
Yards |
Avg. |
TDs |
| Chris Brown |
21 |
108 |
5.1 |
3 |
| DeMarco Murray |
18 |
125 |
6.9 |
2 |
Oklahoma dominated this game on offense because the running backs ran so well. Let’s not forget Madu’s 46 yards on 10 carries. The running game forced Tech to play their linebackers closer to the line of scrimmage which made the passing game lethal.
Grade: A+
Receivers/Ends
Sam Bradford threw 4 touchdown passes and completed passes to 9 different players but only three players had more than one reception. Those players were Quentin Cheney, DeMarco Murray and Jermaine Gresham. Gresham was Bradford’s main target with 5 receptions for 95 yards and a score. He should have had another score had it not been for a drop. Its that drop that’ll keep the grade for this unit from being an A+.
Grade: A
Offensive Line
Oklahoma did give up 2 sacks but other than that it was a dominating performance. The Sooners averaged 5.4 yards per rush and 8 yards per play against a Texas Tech defense that was getting a lot of love before the game started.
Grade: A
Secondary
Against possibly the best receiving corps in the conference Oklahoma’s secondary broke up 5 passes and only allowed Tech receivers to reach the end zone twice before garbage time. They delivered huge hits all night and clearly had the upper hand.
Grade: B
Linebackers
Travis Lewis had a pick that was almost returned for a score and Keenan Clayton nearly returned another one. The starting three had a combined 25 tackles and were instrumental in holding the Red Raiders to an average of just 2 yards per rush.
Grade: A+
Defensive Line
Oklahoma’s defensive line completely dominated the Red Raiders up front.
Before the game Tech quarterback Graham Harrell had only been sacked 5 times. Oklahoma’s defensive line brought him down 4 times.
Grade: A+
Special Teams
One of the amazing things about Oklahoma’s defensive performance was that the special teams put the Red Raiders in good field position several times. Kickoffs just aren’t what they need to be yet for the Sooners. Oklahoma also missed an extra point but they did make their only field goal attempt of the night.
Grade: C
Final Thoughts
It was a near perfect night in Norman on Saturday. Oklahoma just made too many little mistakes to not be pointed out. I’m still bothered by Gresham’s dropped pass but more than anything what concerns me the most is the penalties. OU committed 11 penalties for 96 yards. They killed one of their own drives with penalties and kept a couple of Tech’s scoring drives alive with penalties. I’d really like to see that fixed!
