One last look back at Oklahoma and then we flip to Texas this afternoon. Again, apologies for the delay. - Owen
Offense - F
Our 309 yards don't necessarily look like an "F" performance at first glance, but when you consider that we ran 86 plays to get them (just 3.6 yards per play) it looks a lot less impressive. Giving up two quick special teams touchdowns allowed the offense to be on the field a majority of the time (over 40 minutes time of possession), but it just didn't matter.
While Michael Cummings didn't have an impressive game by any means, it did seem like we moved the ball better with him in there. Our first two drives (with Cummings at the helm) went for 28 and 35 yards before stalling. Crist came in and handed it off two Pierson a few times and we picked up just 16 before punting, which brings us to when the game started falling apart. After recovering a fumble at the OU 11 yard line, Crist cost Tre Parmalee his first career touchdown, throwing the ball two feet behind him when he was wide open in the flat. It was the easiest throw a quarterback can make. Parmalee caught the ball, but the effort caused him to fall, and what should have been a 10-7 game became 17-0 in a hurry, because two plays later Crist was carrying the ball in his hand out away from his body while scrambling, and fumbled.
Overall, the quarterbacks went just 13-27 for 124 yards, with Cummings boasting the lower completion rate and two interceptions. Like I had mentioned in last week's report card, we're going to have problems at quarterback no matter who we put back there. The pass protection was subpar, but Cummings still looks a little too wiling to take off. Unfortunately, the run blocking wasn't much better. James Sims had a typical workhorse performance (28 rushes for 102 yards and a TD), but still couldn't muster more than 3.6 ypc. Tony Pierson did return to action, and though he looked to be in some pain at times, managed to run for 67 yards (though we didn't get him involved in the passing game at all). The receivers weren't even a factor, combining for just 8 catches and 47 yards.
Defense - F
A glance at the box score doesn't necessarily indicate an "F" when considering we held a potent offense to under 400 yards and 14 of OU's points fall on special teams, not the defense. Therein lies the problem, however, because if we hadn't give up the special teams plays, OU's offense was going to shred us anyway. Despite using their second team offense the entire fourth quarter, the Sooners still averaged nearly 8 yards per play for the night. After their best performance of the season last week, the secondary looked like their old selves Saturday, as OU receivers routinely found themselves either unaccounted for, or having beat their man easily. Landry Jones picked us apart for a 19-28 performance, with 291 yards and three touchdowns. Oklahoma's rushing attack averaged 6.7 yards per carry.
A big difference between this and some of our stronger defensive performances this year was on the defensive line. They just weren't able to make plays Saturday, combining for a total of just 5 tackles (just 1.5 for loss). No one really stood out Saturday, except perhaps Bradley McDougald (8 tackles). None of the three units played well, making it hard to give Kansas much credit for Oklahoma State's struggles against us last week.
Special Teams - F
Do I really need to include this category? It seems like it's most reliable "F" on the report card every week. Before I point out the obvious, I'll note that the punt coverage unit was able to force and recover a fumble deep in OU territory, and that Ron Doherty actually had a solid game as the punter, averaging over 46 yards per kick and pinning the Sooners inside the 20 on three occasions.
We slo saw Nick Prolago's first career field goal attempt, and to no one's surprise, he missed a very makeable 30 yarder. We also managed to give up two special teams touchdowns, and a total of 220 return yards.
Maybe I'm focusing on the negative by giving an F despite the successes of the punting game, but I think if your special teams hands the opponent 14 points, that has to be an automatic F.
Overall - F
We failed to carry the momentum from our stronger performance last week with us down to Norman, and as a result this looked quite a bit like the K-State game. After the near-comeback against OSU, there was a lot of talk among Jayhawk fans about the teaming looking competitive, and how that was the goal heading into this season. Overall, I think we have looked more competitive this year, but these beatdowns we've suffered at the hands of KSU and Oklahoma remind me way too much of the play we saw under Turner Gill where we looked like a middle-of-the-pack WAC team. In general, I still feel like the team has improved, but I also think that games like Saturday shouldn't happen. I didn't expect to keep it close in Norman. In fact, I expected a 30 to 35 point loss. But to be manhandled in all three phases of the game like this is frustrating, and Charlie Weis needs to keep games like this to a minimum if he doesn't want to lose a fanbase that is tired of being a lock for last place in the conference.