The Sooners jumped out to an early lead of 21-0 in the first 26 minutes of the game and then quit playing because they think they are “that good” and if Utah State didn’t know it they apparently had not been watching ESPN.    Then in a span of the next 8 minutes or so, Utah State scored 17 points just before and after the half.  The rest was a little too close for comfort.  Here are my observations.

Offense – D

Offensive Line

OU’s experienced offensive line was “dominated” for three quarters of the ball game by Utah State and their scheme.  The worst part about it is that they clearly lack leadership.  When they cam off of the field after yet another three and out, there was no one calling anyone out or pumping them up.  And for most of the game, when the O line was sitting on the bench there was no coaching, just silence.   In my opinion the O line just showed a lack of interest and leadership on Saturday night. 

Play calling

Our package of five or so plays exudes the arrogance that the rest of the team displayed.  We thought that we could dominate Utah State just by showing up and that all we would need was some vanilla offense with Demarco left, Demarco right and a couple pass plays.  Unfortunately 80,000+ people knew exactly what play was coming up and so did the Aggies.  They loaded the box on first and second down and kept the Sooners behind the chains for most of the second half.  This gets us to third downs. 

Third Down Efficiency

The Sooners third down efficiency was horrible.  We went 5-17  (29%) on third down conversions.  I chalk some of this up to the factors above, but the Aggies just did a better job of keeping the Sooners behind the chains and unable to convert.  On third downs they typically sent three or four and dropped the rest into coverage.  Their strategy was simple.  Make the quarterback beat them. 

Quarterbacking

Landry Jones is the poor man’s Nate Hybl.  He’s going to win the job in practice and try not to lose it in the game.  He won’t win the game for you, but he won’t lose it either.  Instead of looking like the battle tested 2^nd year QB, Landry Jones spent most of the day looking like he couldn’t get rid of the ball fast enough (which the O line did not help with). Most of his passes were bullets but unfortunately they were sometimes from 7 yards away and just seemed to lack any touch whatsoever.  The frantic appearance of the QB and his play only bolstered the confidence of the Aggies. 

Defense C+

Defensive Line

The Sooner front had fits with Aggie QB Diondre Borel and RB Michael Smith.  While they sometimes got to Borel, his ability to evade tacklers allowed him enough time for receivers to get open.  I’m not really sure whether it was the stunts or twists but the D line was not playing very good assignment football and there were several occasions where the ends got sucked in and lost contain while trying to make the big hit.  The defensive line did manage to get some pressure on Borel, but it was not controlled and contained pressure showing a lack of discipline and understanding their assignments.

Secondary

Without a disciplined defensive front, Borel shredded the Sooner secondary for 340 yards.  The Sooner secondary made him look like a blue chip recruit from Artesia, New Mexico.  The secondary also did not play disciplined assignment football when it came to covering the pass.  One bright spot in my opinion was their run support.  This is a young group in the secondary and they have a ways to go but Coach Martinez only has 6 days to teach them assignment football or Christian Ponder will teach them the hard way. 

Special Teams  - B-

My vote for MVP goes to Tress Way.  His big leg bailed the Sooner O out and gave the defense some breathing room on several occasions.  The jury is still out on having Broyles back returning punts.  And Ohara’s 32 yard knuckleball through the uprights almost made me long for the days of Jimmy Stevens.  I’ve seen some kickers who can launch the kickoff into the end zone so the return team can’t run it back.  We could use one of those. 

Coaching - D

I’ve already mentioned the arrogant play calling so I won’t revisit that.  The only offensive position coach who was actually coaching between drives was Josh Heupel.  The O line, running backs and receivers just sat on the bench by themselves looking bewildered and checked out.  They could have been in Political Science 113 for all of the enthusiasm they were showing and the coaches weren’t doing much to adjust or get them pumped up. 

Fans – C

The fans put in their typical opening day performance with the one exception of they didn’t all leave at the end of the third quarter.  More people stayed for this one than stayed for the TCU loss a few years ago.  Unfortunately the layfan is still a knucklehead.  They are starting their own QB controversy with all of the talk about Allen and Bell needing to get a shot.  In the last couple minutes of the game and the fans booed whenever the Sooners took a knee instead of running it up.  The knee formation is the best play in college football. 

Summary

Out of the gate this team is just plain undisciplined.  While the 7 penalties are much better than last year’s opener against BYU and barely more than the 5 penalties on Corey Brandon alone in Game 1 of 2009, the penalties aren’t the only tale of the tape.  Lack of containment on the D line, blown assignments and “give ups” show you that this team has a long way to go to live up to the preseason hype. 

The other thing this team seems to lack out of the gate is a killer instinct or the ability to finish.  After a 21 point lead and almost to halftime, they took the foot off of the gas and coasted over on the shoulder.  The O line was clearly mailing it in for most of the second half and I really question their ability to put together a sustained drive when the game is on the line. 

I’ve seen this team before and I know how it ends.  They will be really good at playing right below the level of their opponents.  They will have some single digit losses and declare moral victory.  If they get better quick, they will win 10 games, might back into the Big 12 championship and if not this is a 7 win team at the Cotton Bowl in January.