Despite low scoring, hardly anything not to like from Sooners at Cincinnati

Oklahoma wins exactly the type of game it lost over and over again last season

Oklahoma linebacker Danny Stutsman, left, tackles Cincinnati quarterback Emory Jones, right, during the second half of the Sooners’ 20-6 victory Saturday afternoon at Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Aaron Doster)

Here’s the deal.

You’re allowed to lament the lack of a running game in the first half and parts of the second.

You’re allowed to lament the plain fact it was competitive at all, because only a year ago Cincinnati remained in the American Athletic Conference and only last week fell to Miami (Ohio) in overtime.

You’re allowed, yes, but it’s the wrong choice following Oklahoma’s 20-6 Saturday afternoon victory. How you ought to feel should be based upon what happened, not what didn’t.

The Sooners found themselves in a competitive contest, against a program playing its first ever Power Five conference game in front of its own fans on its own field and in that charged environment it was OU, not Cincinnati, that responded when it had to, that made the winning plays when they had to be made.

None other than Brent Venables himself opined following OU’s week two victory over SMU that his squad had likely just won a game it loses a year ago and maybe so.

This game, though, was exactly that kind of game. 

It was the same game OU lost a year ago at Baylor, West Virginia and Texas Tech, all skirmishes just a couple plays, a couple responses would have made all the difference.

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