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With Oklahoma and Lincoln Riley any criticism toward the offense is just nitpicking at this point.

FIX THE DEFENSE

31 points given up to Houston and is anyone else not seeing more of the same with Oklahoma? The nation’s most productive offense that will still get held back by a defense that can’t respond when the likes of another Georgia or Alabama slow the offense enough. 

The defense may not have to be Clemson/Bama/Georgia-good, just better, as long as the offense can play at a high level.  Had OU had even a mediocre defense--instead of a bad one--in 2017, the Sooners would have beaten Georgia in the Rose Bowl and gone on to play Bama in the NCG.

The tackling was definitely better.  If that's our only improvement, then we're better than last year.

We got a red-zone takeaway that was called back.  I didn't see the replay, so I can't comment on the call.

The catch out of bounds that got ruled a Houston completion was IMO a bad call that wasn't clearly bad enough for the replay official to overturn.

The PF on Fields on the play after he was called for DPI was, IMO, ticky-tack.  The Houston receiver initiated it.

Had any one of those calls gone our way, we would have held them to 24 points and be feeling a bit better about the defensive performance.

In a way, I'm glad those calls didn't go our way, as the 31 points allowed (in a win) gives Alex Grinch more ammunition with which to motivate the troops to do better next time, and the time after that, and so on.


I think the defense will be a work in progress.  I think it will be much better than last year (a low bar to clear) by the second half of the season.

Cats:

Without even reading the article I agree.  The defenses of the past two years were horrifically bad.  Many sooner fans believe that even a below-average defense the last two years would have allowed the team to have won a national championship.

No way of telling, of course, but the 2OT loss to Georgia in the Rose Bowl seems to support that notion.

I wish Lincoln Riley would have fired Mike Stoops before he did, like after the 2017 season.  We'd now be in our second year of recovery rather than first.

We'll see how good Houston's offense turns out to be this year.  They were #7 in total offense last year.  D'Eriq King is a very good QB.

My last point mitigating/making excuses for our defense tonight is that we had two turnovers.  Both of them set up Houston scores, for 10 points total.

Post-game, Hurts said that the offense needs to clean up its sloppy play.  My thought on the sloppy play is that four of the five O-linemen were making their first starts, and the other one, C Creed Humphrey, is a sophomore with 12 starts last year.  One of the TOs took place in a scrum when the O-line couldn't generate a push.

The South Dakota game next week won't tell us much, and it looks like the trip out to UCLA in two weeks probably won't either.  I'm not sure how good Texas Tech's offense will be this year, what with a new coach.  I doubt that Kansas will be an offensive juggernaut.  We may have to wait until the Texas game to really gauge the defense's progress.

Teams with huge offenses rarely have good defenses. 
That being said, yes, statistically, OU's defense was horrific last year, especially for a team with such a good record and NC aspirations.  That defense (or lackthereof) made me scoff at anyone who picked the Sooners to win the playoff.  And there were a couple of you.

Yup. Impossible to win championships with that sort of ineptitude on defense.

Reminds me of the Chiefs last year or the year the Pats had the #1 offense but the 31st ranked defense and lost their 2nd Super Bowl to the Giants.  

I think a truly elite defense is probably better than having an elite offense in most cases.

What stats would a "good defense" put up playing in the Big 12?  Take UGA as a pretty decent defense, when they played OU they gave up a lot of points (one on a scoop and score TD).  Some of this defense stuff is because your opponents also focus on offense.

Perhaps Texas this year is an example of a pretty decent defense?

It would be interesting to see a stat of how a defense held the opposition UNDER or OVER their averages on offense, taking out pastries.

I agree.  A dominant offense plus a serviceable offense is more reliable than the opposite.  OU's NCs of the '70s and '80s were built around dominant defenses.

I agree that a dominant PLUS serviceable offense is more reliable than an recessive and nonserviceable offense.....