WaSoonerNote2020-09A BEDLAM Recap

WaSoonerNote #09A for 2020, aka the "Little Brother ... put in his place" edition!

First off ? BEDLAM Recap Despite Baker Mayfield's bravado and being a touchdown favorite I was a little worried about this one. Okie State had everything to gain, more to lose, and looked like they might be getting healthy just in time to give us a run for our money. Then the first nine minutes of the game happened, and I thought it might be a 63-3 rout. Not quite, but good enough! Loved the opening drive: 6 plays, 75 yds in 2:23, finished off by a pretty 9-yard TD run by Spencer Rattler. "Smokin'", as Reece Davis put it, noting we had outscored opponents 110-10 in the first quarter at that point. Then our first play on D was a Ronnie Perkins sack of Spencer Sanders. After an OSU false start and an incompletion on 3rd and 14, we had the ball back and scored quickly again on a Rattler TD pass, this time in 6 plays, 74 yards, and 3:13. The Pokes were rattled! Then came the David Ugwoegbu tipped pass and INT. Now, as much as I loved the play and the athleticism to make it, I still think that the ball hit the ground hard enough to call it an incompletion. Chalk one up for the good guys.

Which leads me to my next observation: I think the Zebras musta been on LSD; they kept seeing 'visions'. They made a bunch of wimpy Pass Interference calls while missing more egregious calls. OSU got called for intentional grounding a couple of times, both which I thought were a bit questionable. I know, both QBs tossed the ball away, but both had a receiver somewhat in the area. Oh well, I'm sure the Big12 officiating office is or has reviewed the calls and I am also sure that most of you are tired of hearing me complain about refs. OK, two more comments and I'm done (well, for this week); OSU was penalized eight times for 41 yards, OU seven times but it cost us 87 yards and contributed at least six (maybe seven?) of OSU's 19 first downs. And finally, the unsportsmanlike on Brendan Radley-Hiles was warranted if a bit picky... and costly. The Pokes were about to settle for a field goal but went on to score a TD on the very next play. As it turned out, it did not contribute significantly to the final score, but we can't be giving away field position, first downs, or points, especially if we are in a close game. Remember, we lost two one-score games early on, and 3, 4, 7 points can make the difference between a "W" or an "L" on our record.

Stat of the Day ? after the Ugwoegbu interception ABC put up these offensive stats: OU had 139 yards (and 21 points) to OSU's 2 yards of total offense (-3 including penalty yardage!). OU had 192 in 1st quarter.

Coming into the game the attention was on the OU offense vs. the OSU defense. I think our "D" took exception to that, judging by how well they played throughout the game. The D racked up seven tackles for loss (TFLs) and four each sacks, QB hurries, and passes defended. Perkins in particular seemed to be a man on a mission, logging five total tackles, 3 TFLs, and 2 sacks including the `rag-doll' toss of Sanders that sent him to the sidelines until the fourth quarter. Sanders ended the night 10 of 19 for 97 yards (5.1 avg) no TDs and one INT. His QBR for the evening was a whopping 19.6 and he had an 85.0 PER. His backup Shane Illingworth did not fare much better, going only 5 of 21 for 71 yds (3.4 avg) and a TD. Illingworth notched a 32.4 QBR but only a 67.9 PER. The Red Zone defense was particularly good, holding OSU to two field goals early and only giving up the one TD after the unsportsmanlike penalty gave OSU the ball at the OU 15. I especially like the final drive, with OSU trying to get a garbage time score. After another phantom PI in the endzone, OSU was set up first and goal from the 2 with four downs to try and get some points and salvage some pride from the game. Poor Tre Brown, all 5' 9" of him trying to guard 6' 7", 275-pound tight end Jelani Woods. OSU went to Woods twice in the back corner of the endzone. The result: 2 throws, 2 PBUs by Brown. After a 3rd down sack, and one final incompletion, the D recorded one last stop.

Play of The Day ? I had to watch the 2nd play the 4th quarter a half-dozen times to pick out all the motion, action and reaction. Riley really dialed up that one! Rattler lined up behind the guard and the direct snap went to Stevenson behind center. Rhamondre leaned like he was going around the left end but instead hands it off to Spencer. Rattler runs around right end, fakes the toss to the wide receiver on the end around action, and seems to be turning up field. Meanwhile Jeremiah Hall has faked a chip lock on the linebacker and has slipped out downfield ahead of the play. A quick toss by Rattler, a nice piece of running by Hall, and just like that we're up by three touchdowns. The defender responsible for Hall broke off and went after Rattler, leaving a big hole at the 20. The best part was Spencer's reaction, throwing his hands up signaling "touchdown" as soon as Jeremiah caught the ball.

Play of The Day Runner up: with 11:40 left in the 4th quarter and the Sooners backed up to our own 1-yard line by an excellent Pokes' punt, Rhamondre Stevenson took the handoff on the belly play 30 yds for a 1st down and got us out of the shadow of our own goal line! Oh, and eight plays later we scored to make the final 41-13.

Some more quick observations: * The cowboys returned almost every single kick off, but rarely got past the 25 yd line, only twice getting into plus territory. I question why we were not getting touchbacks on our kickoffs. Was there a plan in place for that?

* Drives 4 and 5 disappointed me. When we got down to the red zone we stalled out. I think the play calling got a little too predictable/conservative, with a little too much reliance on RB's ability to break tackles. Even the Talking Heads commented on Riley's conservatism. Of course, both ended in points (field goals) which was still better than the next three drives which all ended in OU punts, the only three on the evening for Reeves Mundschau.

* As OU took the field for its 2nd drive of the 3rd quarter, Reece Davis pointed out that OU had gone three straight 3and-outs spanning the last two first half possessions and the first drive of the third quarter. Stevenson immediately gained 11 yds on 1st down. (We wound up missing a field goal by the width of the ball in a scoreless third quarter.)

Bonus Stat(s) of the Day ? From SoonersWire at USA Today: OU has scored at least 28 points in a school-record 60 consecutive games. The next longest streak nationally since at least 1980 is 31 by UCF (2017-19). The next longest active streak is 20 games by Alabama (includes today). That plus more at: OU football: The best stats from OU's 41-13 win over Oklahoma State ()

As always, links from both ESPN and SoonerSports..com recaps:

Next up ? unscheduled Bye Week WVU game canceled! So, next week in this space look forward to the Baylor Bears in Norman

TV/Watch Party Data No game, no watch party...

Rankings: Movers and Shakers The first College Football Playoff rankings came out on Tuesday and despite our dismal chances of making a fourthstraight trip to the playoffs it's still kinda fun to keep track of it. The Sooners debuted at #11 , leading the way for the Big12. Iowa State is next a #13, followed by tejas at #17. Despite dropping the Bedlam game to OU, the Cowboys made the cut at #23.

In the human polls, OU moved up to consensus #14, taking over the spot vacated by OSU who dropped to #21 in the AP and #22 in the Coaches Poll. Iowa State rose in both polls to #15. Tejas jumped up two spots in each, landing one spot ahead of the aggies from Stillwater at #20/#21 in the AP and Coaches polls, respectively. No other Big12 team recorded points in either human poll.

As for defending our Big12 Football title, the math is easy. Win, and we're in. Iowa State sits alone at the top of the standings with one loss. OU is tied for the second spot amongst three two-loss teams, and we have the head-tohead tiebreakers over both tejas and OSU. Full rankings:

With that it's time for: RANTs and RAVEs....

RAVE: to Spencer Rattler and Ronnie Perkins who claimed Big 12 awards for their accomplishments in Week 11. Rattler earned the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week and Newcomer of the Week awards, while Perkins was named Defensive Player of the Week.

RAVE: ...at the risk of repeating myself... to Spencer Rattler who, in addition to his Big12 honors, was named the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback of the Week. He is the #1 freshman QB (min three games) in FBS in passing touchdowns (22), passing offense (289.9 ypg) and total offense (304.3 ypg) and in the top 20 in for all FBS QBs. week.aspx

RAVE: Gotta give a big Sooner Shout-Out to Drake Stoops! He may have only caught 2 passes (though he had a couple that were a little too low for him to catch) but he was all over the field. He was constantly running backand-forth across the formation as the motion man and blocking downfield. I wouldn't be surprised that if Riley had put pedometers on every player out there, he would have logged the most miles of anybody.

RANT RE-RUNS: Bookie, Bookie, Bookie! Yes, I know I took a shot at him earlier, but he must clean up his act on the field. I know Coach Riley spoke up for him, but until he plays like a 5-Star recruit he's my favorite whipping boy! "BOOKIE!!"

BOOMER SOONER! Mike Facebook: "Official" (aka: OUAA sponsored) home page:

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