Oklahoma-West Virginia: Three Keys to the Game

Throw the Soccer

West Virginia’s protection has simply three interceptions this season. Solely three groups this season have fewer than WVU. Quarterbacks from Pittsburgh, Kansas, Texas, Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU and Iowa State mixed for 16 landing passes with just one interception towards the Mountaineers this 12 months.

That ought to embolden Dillon Gabriel, who threw three picks towards Baylor his final outing and has thrown 4 in his final three video games.

The WVU protection ranks 118th within the nation defending the go, permitting 276 yards per recreation, and is 119th in go effectivity protection and one hundred and twentieth in scoring.

And that ought to embolden Jeff Lebby to name numerous go performs.

There’s definitely nothing fallacious with the Sooner run recreation. Eric Grey has been a imaginative and prescient of elusiveness and energy. OU leads the Huge 12 and ranks twelfth nationally at 220 speeding yards per recreation. And grinding out first downs and winding the clock and maintaining possession is totally a sound technique of offense for this OU crew.

However the WVU secondary is low-hanging fruit. Gabriel and Lebby ought to collect up all they will.

Stack the Field

Perhaps it’s too late for the Oklahoma protection. Perhaps modifications — structurally or personnel-wise — simply received’t assist. Perhaps, similar to in 2018, the Sooners are what they’re.

If true, that’s most likely excellent news for West Virginia.

The Mountaineers are coming off a dreadful loss final week at Iowa State — which has an excellent protection, truly — however that’s not the place they’ll be drawing from when the Sooners come to Morgantown on Saturday.

Reasonably, WVU will attempt to recapture the offensive magic that pushed them to a 43-40 win over Baylor — the identical Baylor crew that simply pushed OU round in Norman — again on Oct. 13.

Tony Mathis rushed for 163 yards and a landing on 22 carries, Kaden Prather had 109 yards and a landing on eight catches, and JT Daniels threw for 283 yards and a landing to assist the Mountaineers to 500 yards complete offense and 43 factors — and a formidable win, their first in convention play.

The OU protection has been prone to these sorts of outbursts all season. If the Sooners can get a few stops — a area purpose as a substitute of a landing, a punt as a substitute of a area purpose — then perhaps Oklahoma can come house with a win.

Perhaps OU’s protection ought to stack the field and emphasize stopping the run. In its final three video games since that massive win over the defending Huge 12 champs, WVU has averaged 101 speeding yards per recreation and three.4 yards per carry.

That is perhaps an excessive amount of to ask, nonetheless, from an Oklahoma protection that has given up 275, 361, 296, 165 and 281 speeding yards and 6.2 yards per carry in 5 of its final six video games.

Neglect the Previous

OU has received 30 of its final 35 video games on the street and 24 of its final 27 in November.

For this crew — Group 128, Brent Venables calls it — such streaks now might be positioned onto the pedestal of historical past, like 47 straight or 13-0.

What this Oklahoma crew is aware of is that they misplaced their final two street video games final 12 months at Baylor and at Oklahoma State, and that they’ve now misplaced three of their final 4 in what was once referred to as “Championship November.”

And as for OU’s 9-0 report towards WVU in Huge 12 play? Simply as meaningless. Wyoming switch C.J. Coldon stated this week the one issues he knew about West Virginia got here from what programmers had loaded right into a online game.

“I haven’t heard an excessive amount of apart from it’s in sort of the center of nowhere,” Coldon stated. ”After I take into consideration West Virginia, I take into consideration numerous bushes, numerous woods and like, the raccoon hat. I take into consideration that, however I’ve been one time and it was touring by way of, simply going to Florida to, I feel, AAU nationals. I used to play basketball after I was little in order that’s the one time I’ve been in West Virginia.”

These Sooners are actually 5-4. They’ve been humbled — repeatedly. They want yet another win over the subsequent three Saturdays to even qualify for even essentially the most mundane bowl recreation. In the event that they get there, Venables will put to good use the 15 additional practices as he tries to proceed creating the roster and staving off the switch portal.

The Sooners would possibly must peak this week — an all-time excessive with their consideration to element, and definitely a season-best fanatical effort. 

Something much less and the one speak of bowl video games shall be from OU’s superb previous.