D
Derek Young
Guest
OFFENSE
I’ll start with the bright spot and that was Justin Silmon and how he ran the ball and even the effectiveness of Skylar Thompson on the ground in his scrambles. Silmon is an Oklahoma native playing in his final game in his home state so him getting a touchdown was nice to see.
However, nothing else was. I was actually surprised that the starters stayed in the game for the whole contest. I’m not sure that it was doing a lot of good for them to remain in the game. They were down by more than 40 points after a soul-crushing fourth quarter. Especially when you chose to punt from Oklahoma’s side of the field on 4th and short in the fourth quarter anyways while trailing 51-14.
What was even more bizarre was Snyder’s decision to punt on 4th and 1 and 4th and 2 near midfield in the third quarter when trailing 41-7 and 48-7. Sure, the game is out of hand. But you’re conceding in the third quarter of a conference game while still expecting your players to exert total effort. The Sooners marched down the field and scored anyways so playing a game of field position while trailing by 40 points seems like a futile exercise.
Skylar Thompson did have one nice drive in the first half where he connected on a few great throws and delivered some nice balls and got away on some scrambles. It resulted in a rushing touchdown by him. That was probably the only good that came from today, though, outside of Silmon’s moment.
Alex Barnes may have had 431 yards combined against Oklahoma State and Baylor but he was made a non-factor against the Sooners in Norman.
DEFENSE
It was bad and nothing really worked other than holding the Sooners to three points on three different occasions. Oklahoma only punted once.
I honestly don’t know what to say. They didn’t really stop anything and the problems weren’t concentrated at all. Oklahoma toyed with them and scored at will for the most part.
I think one issue in the first half is that Kyler Murray was able to throw from the cleanest pockets in the world. I understand being worried to rush him because of how dangerous his legs are but it allowed him to do whatever he wanted and he was up to the task as a thrower. Murray threw for 289 yards in the first half and finished with 352 before leaving the game even before the third quarter had ended.
But when Ceedee Lamb, Kennedy Brooks, Trey Sermon, Grant Calcaterra or Kyler Murray had the ball, the Wildcats had little answers. They even struggled to defend fourth and fith-string running backs T.J. Pledger and Marcelias Sutton. Big plays hurt the Wildcats. They gave up three touchdown plays of more than 50 yards.
To further exacerbate things, the frustration boiled over and we saw some penalties because of it from Eli Walker and probably should have seen Da’Quan Patton pick up one as well.
The best way to explain the defensive effort and performance was that they were giving up over 12 yards per play when Murray exited the game. It was eventually dwindled down to 10.7 yards per play once the Sooners took the starters out.
SPECIAL TEAMS
There wasn’t a lot to unpack here. They weren’t very good either but not as bad as the offense or defense.
Devin Anctil was the punter today and he was a mixed bag. He had two poor punts, with one shanked in the second half. He also had some terrific punts. He’s lacked consistency since returning from suspension.
Isaiah Zuber had the biggest mistake, coughing up the ball on a kick return with very little contact involved, if any. Luckily, they only scored three off the turnover.
Oklahoma connected on both of their field goal attempts of 32, 27 and 22 yards.
PERSONNEL
There were a few notes worth mentioning.
Joe Davies saw more defensive tackle snaps today than we’ve seen in a while. He entered the game for Jordan Mittie in the first drive, even. Kevion McGee did get the start at cornerback with Duke Shelley out with an injury. Kendall Adams did not start at safety but did play. The starting safeties were Eli Walker and Denzel Goolsby. And Justin Hughes was the starter at linebacker, along with Da’Quan Patton. He seems to have etched his name into that role permanently.
Kyle Ball and Reggie Walker remain the starters at defensive end but Wyatt Hubert was inserted as early as the second drive of the game.
Malik Knowles was the fourth receiver used today after Reuter, Schoen and Zuber. He played nearly the entire second half as well. Josh Rivas saw some meaningful snaps in the second half.
Dalvin Warmack was the other returner on the field with Shelley out. Lance Robinson used his second game of eligibility up to cover one punt today and he played some defensive back in the final drive of the game.
True freshmen that traveled were John Holcombe, Phillip Brooks, Lance Robinson and Malik Knowles.
CONCLUSION
This was an embarrassing game for the Wildcats. They were thoroughly dominated in all three phases of the game. I guess their offense may have been better than their defense but not by much.
To put it in the best terms, Kansas State was out-gained in yardage by 457 yards.
And to think, this was not the first time this has happened this season. It was the worst of them but they were thoroughly dominated by West Virginia and Mississippi State as well and really were for the first half against Texas, too.
The worrying part of it is, it sure seemed like some of the players blinked and lost interest for the first time this season and let their frustrations pour out onto the field. And that has to make you weary of what that means for the rest of the year.
I’ll start with the bright spot and that was Justin Silmon and how he ran the ball and even the effectiveness of Skylar Thompson on the ground in his scrambles. Silmon is an Oklahoma native playing in his final game in his home state so him getting a touchdown was nice to see.
However, nothing else was. I was actually surprised that the starters stayed in the game for the whole contest. I’m not sure that it was doing a lot of good for them to remain in the game. They were down by more than 40 points after a soul-crushing fourth quarter. Especially when you chose to punt from Oklahoma’s side of the field on 4th and short in the fourth quarter anyways while trailing 51-14.
What was even more bizarre was Snyder’s decision to punt on 4th and 1 and 4th and 2 near midfield in the third quarter when trailing 41-7 and 48-7. Sure, the game is out of hand. But you’re conceding in the third quarter of a conference game while still expecting your players to exert total effort. The Sooners marched down the field and scored anyways so playing a game of field position while trailing by 40 points seems like a futile exercise.
Skylar Thompson did have one nice drive in the first half where he connected on a few great throws and delivered some nice balls and got away on some scrambles. It resulted in a rushing touchdown by him. That was probably the only good that came from today, though, outside of Silmon’s moment.
Alex Barnes may have had 431 yards combined against Oklahoma State and Baylor but he was made a non-factor against the Sooners in Norman.
DEFENSE
It was bad and nothing really worked other than holding the Sooners to three points on three different occasions. Oklahoma only punted once.
I honestly don’t know what to say. They didn’t really stop anything and the problems weren’t concentrated at all. Oklahoma toyed with them and scored at will for the most part.
I think one issue in the first half is that Kyler Murray was able to throw from the cleanest pockets in the world. I understand being worried to rush him because of how dangerous his legs are but it allowed him to do whatever he wanted and he was up to the task as a thrower. Murray threw for 289 yards in the first half and finished with 352 before leaving the game even before the third quarter had ended.
But when Ceedee Lamb, Kennedy Brooks, Trey Sermon, Grant Calcaterra or Kyler Murray had the ball, the Wildcats had little answers. They even struggled to defend fourth and fith-string running backs T.J. Pledger and Marcelias Sutton. Big plays hurt the Wildcats. They gave up three touchdown plays of more than 50 yards.
To further exacerbate things, the frustration boiled over and we saw some penalties because of it from Eli Walker and probably should have seen Da’Quan Patton pick up one as well.
The best way to explain the defensive effort and performance was that they were giving up over 12 yards per play when Murray exited the game. It was eventually dwindled down to 10.7 yards per play once the Sooners took the starters out.
SPECIAL TEAMS
There wasn’t a lot to unpack here. They weren’t very good either but not as bad as the offense or defense.
Devin Anctil was the punter today and he was a mixed bag. He had two poor punts, with one shanked in the second half. He also had some terrific punts. He’s lacked consistency since returning from suspension.
Isaiah Zuber had the biggest mistake, coughing up the ball on a kick return with very little contact involved, if any. Luckily, they only scored three off the turnover.
Oklahoma connected on both of their field goal attempts of 32, 27 and 22 yards.
PERSONNEL
There were a few notes worth mentioning.
Joe Davies saw more defensive tackle snaps today than we’ve seen in a while. He entered the game for Jordan Mittie in the first drive, even. Kevion McGee did get the start at cornerback with Duke Shelley out with an injury. Kendall Adams did not start at safety but did play. The starting safeties were Eli Walker and Denzel Goolsby. And Justin Hughes was the starter at linebacker, along with Da’Quan Patton. He seems to have etched his name into that role permanently.
Kyle Ball and Reggie Walker remain the starters at defensive end but Wyatt Hubert was inserted as early as the second drive of the game.
Malik Knowles was the fourth receiver used today after Reuter, Schoen and Zuber. He played nearly the entire second half as well. Josh Rivas saw some meaningful snaps in the second half.
Dalvin Warmack was the other returner on the field with Shelley out. Lance Robinson used his second game of eligibility up to cover one punt today and he played some defensive back in the final drive of the game.
True freshmen that traveled were John Holcombe, Phillip Brooks, Lance Robinson and Malik Knowles.
CONCLUSION
This was an embarrassing game for the Wildcats. They were thoroughly dominated in all three phases of the game. I guess their offense may have been better than their defense but not by much.
To put it in the best terms, Kansas State was out-gained in yardage by 457 yards.
And to think, this was not the first time this has happened this season. It was the worst of them but they were thoroughly dominated by West Virginia and Mississippi State as well and really were for the first half against Texas, too.
The worrying part of it is, it sure seemed like some of the players blinked and lost interest for the first time this season and let their frustrations pour out onto the field. And that has to make you weary of what that means for the rest of the year.
