Tramel's ScissorTales: OU rises atop Big 12 power rankings even after rough defensive outing at K-State
Berry TramelOU’s 37-31 victory at Kansas State was more of the same of this crazy 2021 season, except the roles were reversed. The Sooners returned to yesteryear, carried by offense, burdened by defense.
The Monday ScissorTales include the weekly Big 12 rankings and a salute to St. Louis Cardinals radio legend Mike Shannon. But we start with OU winning at Kansas State. Here’s what I saw.
► Third-down defense struggles: OU’s defense again struggled to get off the field. Kansas State had only seven possessions, not counting a kneeldown with one second left in the first half. In those seven possessions, KSU scored three touchdowns and kicked a field goal.
That’s 50 percent defensive efficiency. That’s losing defense.
Kansas State ran double-digit plays on four of its seven possessions, plus an eight-snap possession. That means only twice did KSU run fewer than eight plays. And one of those was a 75-yard touchdown drive, fueled by Skylar Thompson’s 54-yard completion to Keenan Garber, setting up a touchdown that cut into OU’s 27-10 lead.
When teams control the ball like that, they keep Spencer Rattler’s offense off the field. In previous games, that kept the Sooner offense from finding a rhythm. Saturday, that kept the prolific Rattlers from piling up points. Either way, not good.
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“I think the lack of depth is playing itself out,” said OU defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. “There’s been times where we’ve been awfully excited about the depth, and we can circle guys that made plays for us in weeks prior. So we’ll keep it very specific to this game.
“I thought the impact of our front was minimal at best. Again, that’s on me, right? What am I doing wrong to put the defensive front in a position that they can’t have more production and have more impact on the game? So, it’s on us as coaches. The calls haven’t changed since days past where we have more production. Maybe they need to.”
The Wildcats converted eight of 15 third downs, which is not good. But KSU on third down was even better than that. Four times after failed third downs, the Wildcats converted fourth downs.
On the opening drive, Thompson threw for six yards on third-and-11. That gave KSU the opening to go for it on fourth down, from the OU 40-yard line. A fourth-down Thompson completion kept the drive alive.
On KSU’s second drive, Thompson’s four-yard completion on third-and-goal from the OU 6-yard line meant fourth down was in play. Thompson threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Phillip Brooks.
On KSU’s third drive, Thompson threw for four yards on third-and-8, reaching the OU 46-yard line. Then Thompson threw for eight yards to Brooks on fourth-and-4.
The Sooner defense is not getting off the field.
“I didn’t think there was any way we could get less possessions, and then we had three the first half,” Lincoln Riley said, referring to OU having only eight possessions against West Virginia and nine against Nebraska.
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► Deep balls not available: Another Saturday, another lack of deep balls by Rattler. It’s becoming quite apparent that defenses are not letting OU throw deep.
Rattler threw deep just twice. One was intercepted and the other was an obvious miscommunication with freshman Mario Williams.
But that’s OK. If defenses are going to play safeties deep and use a soft zone, just throw short and medium.
Rattler completed 12 of 13 medium-range passes for 178 yards, with Marvin Mims turning one of those into a 40-yard gain. Rattler was 10 of 10 short throws, for 65 yards.
So when not throwing deep, Rattler was 22 of 23 for 243 yards.
“I feel like he was really locked in and I thought he stayed patient,” Riley said. “The way the first half played out, it would have been easy to say, ‘Oh shoot, here we go again. We’re only getting this many plays, we’re only getting this many drives.’ He just kind of stayed and played and executed plays as long as it went. He was good.”
We all love the deep throws, but seven-yard screens and 11-yard curls win football games.
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► Red-zone offense much better: OU penetrated the Kansas State 20-yard line on six possessions. The Sooners scored four touchdowns and kicked two field goals. Which is good.
But it gets even better, considering one of those field goals came with two seconds left in the second quarter, without so much as a real play run from the red zone. Rattler hit Jadon Haselwood for 18-yard gain to the KSU 10-yard line, then Rattler spiked the ball to stop the clock.
The running game certainly helped. OU gained 121 yards on 25 called running plays, and tailbacks Kennedy Brooks (15 carries, 91 yards) and Eric Gray (4-22) combined to average 5.9 yards per carry.
So the Sooner offense was much better near the goal line. The only other non-touchdown came after the inexplicable 12-yard loss when short-yardage quarterback Caleb Williams missed a shotgun snap on second-and-goal.
Speaking of which, maybe Saturday shows we can put the kibosh on “We Want Caleb! We Want Caleb.”
One quarterback completed 22 of 25. The other wasn’t paying attention on a snap at the goal line.
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► Gabe Brkic, All-American: I never get too much into the politics of all-American selections. I find it quite unlikely that anyone picking any of those teams really knows who are the two best cornerbacks or the two best offensive tackles.
But I think we safely can say that Brkic is the easy leader for nation’s best kicker.
Brkic kicked three more field goals, giving him 11 in 13 attempts this season. Brkic leads the NCAA in field goals this season and also leads in field goals of at least 50 yards, with four in five attempts. The only other kickers with more than two of at least 50-yards are Illinois’ James McCourt (three of six) and Louisiana State’s Cade York (three of three).
“Gabe Brkic again so clutch for us,” Riley said. “I thought he was fantastic.”
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Sooners move up to No. 1 in Big 12 rankings
Ten Power 5 Conference football teams remaining undefeated. Two of them are the Bedlam rivals.
So the Big 12 has its share. Which is better than the Atlantic Coast Conference (only Wake Forest is unbeaten) and much better than the Pac-12 (no unbeatens).
Of course, the Big 12 has a little bit more bragging rights, for while the Sooners are headed to the Southeastern Conference soon enough, two future Big 12 members (Cincinnati and Brigham Young) are among the six other unbeatens in major-college football.
The other unbeatens: Michigan State, Iowa, Penn State and Michigan in the Big Ten; Georgia, Alabama and Kentucky in the SEC; Southern Methodist in the American; Coastal Carolina in the Sun Belt; Wyoming in the Mountain West; and Texas-San Antonio in Conference USA.
Let’s get to the Big 12 rankings:
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1. Oklahoma (5-0, 2-0 Big 12)
I flipped OU and OSU this week. Why? The Sooners got the road win that was missing off its résumé, at K-State. And OSU’s win at Boise State, while still solid, took a hit when the Broncos lost to Nevada.
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2. Oklahoma State (5-0, 2-0 Big 12)
The Cowboys keep playing close games and keep winning. All five victories by 11 points or less. The last time OSU opened the season with five games each determined by 11 points or less, it was 1954 and Oklahoma A&M started 2-2-1, with games against Wyoming (14-6 win), Texas A&M in Dallas (14-6 win), Texas Tech (13-13 tie), Wichita State (22-13 loss) and Houston (14-7 loss). Those Aggies scheduled crazy. That Houston game was the first of the season in Stillwater.
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3. Texas (4-1, 2-0 Big 12)
OU will provide much-needed relief from UT’s Southwest Conference-centric schedule. The ‘Horns have beaten Rice, Texas Tech and Texas Christian, and UT lost to Arkansas.
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4. Kansas State (3-2, 0-2 Big 12)
Give the Wildcats credit. They’ve played quite the legitimate schedule. Four good opponents – OU, OSU, Stanford and Nevada. The latter two had good-to-great wins Saturday, Nevada over Boise State and Stanford over Oregon.
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5. Texas Tech (4-1, 1-1 Big 12)
The Red Raiders won at West Virginia, a week after the Mountaineers took OU to the wire in Norman. I don’t expect Tech to stay this high, but Tech has two decent wins (WVU and Houston). That’s more than the teams below this list.
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6. Baylor (4-1, 2-1 Big 12)
The Bears are much better than we thought. Not great on offense. But really good on defense.
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7. West Virginia (3-2, 0-2 Big 12)
Oh man. Losing at home to Texas Tech imperils the Mountaineer season, which was on the upswing after the valiant performance in Norman.
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8. Texas Christian (2-2, 0-1 Big 12)
TCU always plays Texas tough and did again Saturday, losing 32-27. But the schedule is tough, and the Horned Frog defense is missing in action.
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9. Iowa State (3-2, 1-1 Big 12)
Sorry. I love the Cyclones. But until they beat an opponent better than Nevada-Las Vegas, they’re staying down here.
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10. Kansas (1-4, 0-2 Big 12)
The Jayhawks did not put up a fight at Iowa State.
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Good-bye, Mike Shannon
A little more of my childhood died Sunday. Mike Shannon retired after 50 years in the St. Louis Cardinals broadcast booth.
I don’t listen to much baseball anymore. Maybe five innings a year.
But it was somehow comforting to know that Shannon, the radio link to Harry Caray and Jack Buck, still called ballgames at Busch Stadium.
“It’s over,” Shannon said after the game was called off in the seventh inning, due to wet grounds. “Let’s go have a party.”
If the Cardinals win their wild-card game Wednesday in Los Angeles, Shannon will call the St. Louis playoff home games. But the 82-year-old doesn’t do road games anymore, so Sunday could be his final broadcast, and he was feted Sunday before the game in front of a sellout crowd of 46,525.
Shannon was overwhelmed with emotion and walked away from the podium without speaking.
“It was too emotional,” Shannon said told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I wanted to thank the fans and the players and it was a real tribute that they were out there. I’m not like that, really … too emotional.”
Shannon, born and raised in St. Louis, was the third baseman on St. Louis’ great 1967-68 teams, when I discovered baseball. Shannon played football at Missouri under Frank Broyles in the late 1950s but left Mizzou to sign a baseball contract with the Cardinals.
He became a St. Louis icon. Shannon retired from the Cardinals in 1970, went to work for the organization in 1971 and joined the radio crew in 1972. Shannon was Buck’s broadcast partner for 30 years; when Buck retired in 2002, Shannon became the lead radio voice.
Shannon spent 63 seasons with the Cardinals organization. He was the voice so familiar on so many summer nights, Cardinal games drifting through the Midwest and into the South and the Southwest.
Time marches on, but when I would hear Shannon’s gravelly voice, I would think back to Caray and Buck calling games in the ‘60s, when my dad would listen to the exploits of Orlando Cepeda and Julian Javier, and think back to the 1980s, when I would listen to Buck and Shannon call Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee.
And now Shannon is gone, taking with him a few more of my childhood memories.
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Mailbag: Fan scouting report on Texas
It’s OU-Texas week, so lots of interesting talk about the Longhorns, including this dispatch from a UT fan.
Holt: “Huge win in Fort Worth. Same old Texas team except Bijan Robinson is carrying them. Too many carries (35) for this to continue, but considering the situation, we needed Superman to put the cape on. That last drive where Bijan ran for two first downs right through the teeth of the TCU defense to run out the clock was unbelievable.
“Looking at what is going on, I wonder if it is better to have a talented QB or a talented running back. In the case of Texas, I am sold on taking the star running back because they are more difficult to mess up. Just hand them the ball, block and manage their workload. Too many Longhorn coaches have turned promising quarterbacks into basket cases.
“The Texas defense was out of gas and TCU was going to drive down the field again. They had just taken the ball on a 99-yard drive. The best Texas defensive player was Bijan Robinson. Gary Patterson was angrily pulling up his pants on the sidelines as Bijan carried Horned Frog defenders down the field. All I can say is Texas fans are enjoying Bijan and not looking forward to the team after he leaves.
“Oh, and the decreased competitiveness of the Big 12 has helped the Longhorns a bunch. These were not the usual Texas Tech Raiders and certainly not the normal TCU teams.”
Tramel: Lots of interesting points. Robinson indeed is an excellent tailback and will be a load for the Sooners. But I’d still rather have a great quarterback rather than a great tailback. Maybe Steve Sarkisian won’t screw up Texas quarterbacks going forward. Not that Tom Herman did, either.
As for the Big 12, Tech has not been all that competitive in recent years. TCU, yes. Tech, no.
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Classic Flick Pick: “Casablanca”
Seems a little silly to suggest “Casablanca” as a classic movie selection. Sort of like telling people to check out the Beatles. Yeah, no kidding.
The 1942 classic has been called the perfect movie. Incredible cast (Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Claude Rains and Paul Henreid). Fully-developed characters (the good guys aren’t all good, and the bad guys, well, the bad guys are bad, but the good guys aren’t all good). Riveting plot. Glorious setting. An ending for the ages. And some of the best writing in Hollywood history.
Enough about stuff you know about. I’ll just add this. The “La Marseillaise” scene is the best scene in movie history. The Nazi officers start signing “Die Wacht am Rhein,” the German anthem, almost as a taunt for the customers at Rick’s. But Victor Laszlo, played by Henreid, is a resistance fighter even in nightclubs. He directs the band to play “La Marseillaise,” the glorious French anthem, and the crowd drowns out the Nazis.
One old story is that many of the extras in the film were European refugees from World War II and sang “La Marseillaise” with tears in their eyes.
You’ll have tears in your eyes at the scene.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.