OU Football 2012 - Sooners Offense A Model Of Efficiency Against Jayhawks

It won't go down in the record books and if you were to simply look at the box score, you might not even be sure which team came out ahead on the scoreboard. In what proved to be a misleading collection of offensive statistics, what with a punt and kickoff return for a touchdown (first time in school history both happened in the same game), the Oklahoma offense turned in an efficient performance.

Bob Stoops made the point in his postgame interviews, when you have multiple special teams returns those are essentially lost offensive possessions. Now, obviously it's as a result of a positive occurrence but still a lost possession none the less. Couple that with the 50+ point lead the Sooners maintained throughout most of the game, you can start to explain some of the final statistics. Kansas actually had two more first downs, managed a 50% conversion rate on third downs, and finished with less than 100 fewer total yards than the Sooners.

If there is one complaint, and let's face it this wouldn't be my recap if I couldn't find at least one thing to complain about, it was Josh Heupel's play calling. Oklahoma only rushed the ball 14 times (minus Blake Bell & Landry Jones attempts) then entire game, with a seven touchdown lead?!? To be fair the averaged over five yards per, even with a negative sixteen yarder in their from Jones. But why throw it so much against a team that was so clearly overmatched? Maybe they used it as a scrimmage type opportunity to prepare for Notre Dame next week, whose secondary is actually on about the same level as Kansas? I can't tell you. Stoops said following the game that they threw it because they could, so I guess there's that.

Brennan Clay finished as the Sooners leading rusher putting up 47 yards on just four carries, but 41 of those came on one run. Damien Williams finished with 44 yards on just eight carries, but it felt more like one or two carries. He just never got a real chance to get into the flow of the game and yet it seemed as if it was just a matter of time before he broke a long one. Also, the fact that Dom Whaley did not play a single down in this game was highly curious.

As for all those passes thrown in this game, Jones did a good job of spreading the ball around. Six Sooners finished with at least two receptions, lead by Kenny Stills with six for 90 yards and a touchdown. Sterling Shepard and Trey Millard also count touchdown passes in the game. There were some minor issues with respect to dropped passes, but obviously nothing significant enough to make an impact in the end result. Again, not to complain, but if there was any negative here it would have to be the failed opportunity to get some guys into the game more than they did. Jalen Saunders started the game and had two receptions, but I wouldn't really say he was involved in the offense. Trey Metoyer had all of one catch for four yards and wasn't really targeted much on Saturday night. I remember Durron Neal being in on a handful of snaps, but did not record a catch in the game.

Admittedly, that's all nitpicking as the only things that matter coming out of this game were (1) no injuries and (2) an Oklahoma team that did not come out and play down to their competition. Efficient was good enough on this particular day, so now it's on to Notre Dame which is shaping up to be one of the all-time great games on Owen Field.