The Mental Errors That Buried Oklahoma Have Loomed All Season

Oklahoma’s problems aren’t new.

The No. 12-ranked Sooners have played flawed football through their first 10 games, the Baylor Bears were just the only opponent good enough to make them pay.

The problems which ground Oklahoma’s undefeated season to a halt in Waco, poor offensive line pay, tackling issues, untimely penalties, dropped passes and assignment busts, are all inexcusable for a team playing in their 10th contest of the season.

And now the question is, do the Sooners have enough time to right the ship? Or are they simply just a flawed football team with a backloaded schedule.

The answer to that question will be the difference between an Oklahoma team finding a way to rebound, capturing their seventh straight Big 12 title, or a team that will fall on their face again as they face statistically a pair of better defenses than Baylor over the next two weeks.

Bill Bedenbaugh’s offensive line has been head scratching. Not only have they been physically underwhelming, but they continue to have baffling assignment busts.

“I don’t know if there was anything mentally with our guys,” Lincoln Riley said of his offensive line after the loss on Saturday. “We gave up some push, got beat physically a couple times, but again just weren’t able to piece it together offensively. To play good offense, it takes all 11.”

It does take 11 guys to play at a high level, and the Sooners haven’t done that offensively all year long.

The offensive line has understandably struggled to replace Creed Humphrey, who is currently regarded as one of the best centers in football in just his rookie season in the NFL.

Nobody expected Bedenbaugh’s unit to contend for a Joe Moore Award this season, but they were expected to be able to get on the same page and work together to execute the same call, even if the defensive line wins the play.

It’s hard to imagine a switch will suddenly flip and the light bulb will turn on for the offensive line simply because the Sooners lost. And a personnel change may be too little too late, as the line would have to reform chemistry playing the Iowa State and Oklahoma State defensive fronts, a tall task for anyone.

On the other side of the football, OU’s inability to finish off plays and tackle turned back the clock to the coaching staff of old for some Sooner fans.

And Alex Grinch’s defense set the tone on the very first drive.

Facing fourth-and-2 form the Oklahoma 45-yard line, the Baylor Bears opted to keep their offense on the field and ride their bell cow running back Abram Smith.

To the defensive line’s credit, they got plenty of push and looked to have stopped Smith in his tracks behind the line of scrimmage. Except nobody ever actually made the tackle.

Smith was able to spin out of the grips of the OU defenders, reverse field and outrun the “Speed D” for a 5-yard gain and a first down.

“It’s too late in November to talk about tackling,” Grinch said after the game. And he’s right.

The Oklahoma defense underperformed in October, and while they were missing a load of starters, there was optimism that the OU defense could live up to their preseason billing in November if they got healthy.

Coming off the bye week, Grinch got his wish. DaShaun White was unavailable, but Brian Asamoah played by far his best game of the season and picked up the slack, giving the Sooners a defense as close to fully operational as they’d seen since Week 1.

It didn’t matter much, as the Sooners were gashed time and time again by Baylor quarterback Gerry Bohanon, allowing 296 total yards on the ground to the Baylor Bears.

But even more concerning than OU’s inability to stop the run was how willing the Sooners were to to help out the Baylor offense with completely avoidable penalties.

On Baylor’s first touchdown drive, defensive back Key Lawrence was called for a facemask on the sideline after he had already been beaten for a 16-yard gain by Drew Estrada. Three plays later, Tyquan Thornton made the young defender look silly off a quick double move in the end zone which gave him all the separation in the world needed to haul in the touchdown pass.

Lawrence is just a sophomore, though. An ill-timed penalty here or there is, while avoidable, to be expected from the younger, more inexperience members of the defense in a big game.

Unfortunately, the penalties weren’t confined to the newcomers.

On the first drive of the second half, all-world kicker Gabe Brkic launched the kick out of bounds, handing the ball back to the Bears with great field position at the 35-yard line.

Three plays later, Perrion Winfrey was tagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after the play, moving the ball into the red zone. The Sooners held Baylor to a field goal, but both were inexcusable mental lapses from two of the more experienced players on the team.

On the first defensive drive of the fourth quarter where OU was still down just 10-7, Smith popped a back-breaking 75-yard rush where defensive lineman Isaiah Thomas speculated that Nik Bonitto didn’t make it to the right spot to prevent the run.

“Nik was supposed to be in that gap but got cut off,” Thomas said. “I don't think he got the call.”

A communication error. In Game 10.

On the next play, senior Justin Broiles was called for a horse collar tackle on the sideline when he just had to push running back Trestan Ebner out of bounds to make the play.

There was never a question the Bears would punch the ball into the end zone and extend the lead to 17-7.

Conventional wisdom would say all of the penalties and miscommunications are totally avoidable.

But the Sooners have been unable to avoid them for 10 games, and they’re running out of time to prove otherwise against two of the best teams they’ve played all season.