Start dreaming now, it's time
Taking down Wolverines 24-13, Sooners put a big season on the table
Here’s the deal.
The Sooners can take it one game at a time.
They can get ready for Temple, then Auburn, then Kent State, then Texas.
But the fans?
Sooner Nation?
No need.
They can think ahead.
“The night belongs to Oklahoma,” said ESPN’s Chris Fowler before signing off from Owen Field.
And because it did, a 24-13 victory over 15th-ranked Michigan — THAT NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN THAT CLOSE IN THE FIRST PLACE — those who cheer this team may now project.
They may see the world through crimson-colored glasses, begin scouting the Longhorns and Gamecocks and Rebels and Vols and the Crimson Tide, too, which, if you can believe it, are not just five games on the conference schedule, but five straight.
They may do it because the old conventional wisdom is just that, old. It changed Saturday night in Norman and not even because OU was all that good, but because it proved how good it can be.
“We didn’t play our best game …” Mateer told the great Holly Rowe on the field after it ended. “We’ve got a lot of things to clean up.”
So they do.
As the fourth quarter began, I made a quick list off the top of my head in a corner of my steno-pad.
Muffed punt.
Muffed kick.
Bad INT.
Missed FG.
Bust to open 2nd half.
Kanak drop in end zone.
Put it together and it’s 31 points Michigan could have scored or OU failed to score, all thanks to singular Sooner gaffes (and that’s giving grace on Jaydn Ott’s kickoff drop because he recovered it himself and all it cost was field position).
Those plays hurt, just not that much because OU was fabulous otherwise.
Mateer’s interception came first, a wild overthrow of Will Huggins picked off by TJ Metcalf, yet all it did was kill the drive, Michigan quickly punting.
The bust was safety Peyton Bowen’s when on the first snap of the second half he allowed himself to be lured inside rather than protecting the perimeter to his right, a misstep leading to Justice Hayes’ 75-yard cutback gallop down the left side, pulling the Wolverines within 14-7.
Isaiah Sategna muffed the punt and lost it, setting Michigan up at the OU 31, but the Wolverines went nowhere and settled on a field goal, bringing the score to 21-10.
Tate Sandell missed wide left from 42 yards on the Sooners’ first possession of the second half, failing to make it a two-touchdown game.
And Kanak’s drop in the end zone, a grab made harder by his slowing at the end of his rout, didn’t matter too much because OU turned it into several more snaps, running a bunch of clock, before Sandell converted from 21 yards, forging the final score with 1:44 remaining, too late for Michigan to mount a charge, which it didn’t.
Because the Sooners played great defense, because Mateer was good through the air and fantastic on the ground, because Kanak made other big plays, including a huge catch that led to OU’s first touchdown and a huge block that led to Mateer’s second on the ground (a score also made possible by Sategna’s 35-yard grab down the right sideline two snaps earlier) … the snafus simply didn’t matter.
Coming off the field at the half, Brent Venables answered a question about his defense.
“Our guys are flying around,” he said, “knocking paint off helmets.”
That never stopped.
Michigan scored only one touchdown, failed to reach 300 yards of offense while OU eclipsed 400, and the Sooners entirely bothered Wolverine freshman quarterback Bryson Underwood, who may be headed for greatness, but wasn’t good Saturday, completing 9 of 24 tosses for 142 yards.
OU’s weakness remains its running game, with running backs Jovantae Barnes, Tory Blaylock and Ott combining on 57 yards over 19 carries, exactly 3 per carry.
Then again, it was 2.8 against Illinois State and this was Michigan, so whatever it was it was vastly improved.
Also, the drive leading to Sandell’s put-away field goal spanned 16 plays, 78 yards and 8:27 off the clock and only five of the snaps were throws. Yes, four of the 11 carries were Mateer’s, but it still counts as the offensive line coming through.
“That’s football,” the quarterback told Rowe. “That’s how you win.”
Mateer completed 21 of 34 passes for 270 yards and a touchdown and ran 19 times for 74 yards and two touchdowns.
It’s too many totes for a quarterback who must stay healthy, but a big season’s got to start somewhere and that’s what’s suddenly on the table for the Sooners.
The presumption they lose in Dallas the second Saturday in October?
Gone.
The idea they can’t make hay in the SEC the second half of the season?
Also gone.
The idea Brent Venables isn’t up to the job?
Well, let’s see how the season plays out, but it looks good so far and this team appears to have the stuff.
An 11-point game?
The score said so but it didn’t feel like it.
It felt like OU’s really, really good.
Don’t wait.
Start dreaming now.
Putting away the Rorschach cards? Got enough hard data?