Opening Sooner victory whatever you want it to be, at least for a week
Pick your poison.
Saturday evening atop Owen Field, that’s the story from Day 1 of the Sooner football season.
Oklahoma stopped 63-scholarship FCS upstart Illinois State 35-3 and the first Rorschach test is upon us.
Like, was it the night Ben Mateer proved just how potent the Sooner offense is bound to be, completing 30 of 37 passes, a new career-high (after twice completing 26), for 392 yards (also a new career-high), and three touchdowns (not a career-high but not bad), pushing OU to 495 yards of total offense, a figure reached just once all of last season, against that behemoth known as Maine
Or, was it the night, facing second-and-3 from the Redbird 46, Xavier Robinson could gain only 1 yard, then on third-and-2 could gain only one more yard and then, finally on fourth-and-1, gained 3 just to keep a drive going against an Illinois State team that not only doesn’t belong in the SEC, Big 10, ACC or Big 12, but also not in the American Conference, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West or Sun Belt.
In fact, of the three Sooner running backs to carry the ball Saturday not named Tory Blaylock, a true freshman out of Humble, Texas — Javontae Barnes, Robinson and Jaydn Ott — OU picked up a mere 23 yards on 16 carries which is horrendous and embarrassing.
Only Blaylock’s 44 yards on eight carries, Mateer’s 24 on seven and receiver Deion Burks’ single carry for 12 pushed the Sooners past the century mark on the ground.
Last year, I exited the season having little confidence in Barnes, yet real confidence in Robinson, who finally got to carry the ball against Maine and who, against Missouri and Alabama, back-to-back, combined to pick up 163 yard on 27 carries.
Now, exiting Saturday, I don’t know if I was right, wrong or, try as the Sooners might, four years into the Brent Venables era, they just don’t know how to put a line together that not only protects the quarterback, but can run-block, too … of course, that’s presuming this line really can pass block because it was just Illinois State and still Mateer faced a decent dose of pressure and was sacked once.
“Pretty solid … We didn’t have everyone available,” Venables said.
Pretty solid?
Really?
I digress.
Back to the good stuff.
It’s a bit of a judgment call, but the final numbers say OU suffered five drops to go with its 30 catches, and if that’s true it means Mateer was on target with 35 of 37 throws, which is fabulous.
They also tell us not only did Deion Burks catch seven passes for 88 yards and a score, which may have surprised no one, but that Keontez Lewis, a redshirt senior who caught 49 passes for 813 yards at Southern Illinois last season, also caught nine passes for 119 yards and two scores.
A further note on Lewis, he spent his first two seasons of college football at UCLA and Wisconsin, catching no passes as a Bruin and just 20 as a Badger, so nine against Illinois State may be no great barometer.
On the other hand, he made the grabs and scored the points against the only opponent OU faced on Saturday and they all count.
What it is, that part of it, at least, is exciting, because Jaren Kanak looked like a fabulous tight end, too, catching five balls for 90 yards, despite not playing the position … ever?
He was a linebacker his first three years as a Sooner and, according to his OU bio, a quarterback and wide receiver in high school.
The great Jerry Ramsey, sports radio host on The Franchise, tweeted out Lewis’ and Burks’ halftime totals and asked, perhaps sarcastically, who made up the last Sooner receiving duo to be as good.
On its face, a silly question because it’s only one game and the opponent was who the opponent was.
Nonetheless, my mind went to OU’s amazing 2008 triple threat when Sam Bradford completed a combined 182 passes for a combined 2,814 yards and a combined 33 touchdowns to Juaquin Iglesias, Jermaine Gresham and Manny Johnson (and almost 2,000 more yards and almost 20 more touchdowns to a bunch of other guys, too).
Of course, Burks, Lewis and Kanak deserve no comparison to Iglesias, Gresham and Johnson, and still Sooner fans had to love watching three guys run wild in an opponent’s secondary after hardly seeing one a year ago, when Jackson Arnold only twice cracked 200 yards through the air.
Oh, another cool thing, for the first time in forever, OU may claim a legit punt-returning threat in redshirt junior Isaiah Sategna, direct from Arkansas, who turned four returns into 63 yards, not including the one that went for more than that alone, but was called back on a hold.
Defense?
You tell me.
The Redbirds earned only a field goal, and only because Mateer threw one ball to the wrong team and three points is not very many, nor is 151 total yards from scrimmage.
Still, they hit a couple runs beyond 20 yards and didn’t appear to be mauled in the trenches. They were beaten, sure, but not really dominated.
OU finished with only two sacks and five tackles for loss, just one more than Illinois State on both counts.
“A little soft on the interior of our defense and some of the run game but we played light in the box,” Venables said. “Thought the guys really came out in the second half and responded.”
Perhaps he’s not sure what to think either.
It is what you want it to be.
I liked watching the ball move.
Yet, I have no idea if it can be duplicated against Michigan, which is next.
Enjoy the week, tell your tale.
You’re as bound to be right as anybody.