Not easily, Sooners get where they need to be
Not easily, Sooners get where they need to be
And part of getting there was one play that could pay big dividends down the line
They did it.
Not without giving up more than 500 yards of Horned Frog offense and not without taking a loss off the table only to put it back on only to rip it back off again.
Had it happened three weeks ago, it’s an entirely different story and we’re in an entirely different place, maybe wondering if Oklahoma will ever play sound defense again.
So, sure, hardly perfect.
Still, they did it.
The Sooners started and they finished.
In between it may not have been so great, but the final score was OU 69, TCU 45, it counts and it pushes their win total to 10 without aid of a conference title or bowl game and coming off a 6-7 season, it means the job got done.
It’s kind of a magic number.
During his postgame press conference, Brent Venables made it clear.
He explained the victory marked the 19th time since 2000 Sooner football’s garnered at least 10 wins, tying Ohio State over the same span.
Venables didn’t, but he might also have mentioned Friday marked OU’s 42nd-10 win season all-time, putting it behind Alabama and nobody else.
“That’s the standard and expectation here,” he said, clearly pleased with having done it.
Billy Bowman, who keeps bringing interceptions back for touchdowns made it clear, too.
“That’s very big,” he said. “That’s very big for our head coach.”
It is because it is.
Though little and large failures, from poor play calls, to pre-snap penalties, to OU’s inability to progress week to week, produced a pair of narrow losses, back-to-back at Kansas and Oklahoma State, the regular season has still concluded where it had to get.
A magic number reached.
Real, meaningful progress.
An eventual jumping into the SEC carrying earned momentum and confidence.
Good show.
Mission accomplished.
But there was also the play.
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