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Back to the ‘main thing’ for OU

It’s not fair to say Oklahoma didn’t care or didn’t prepare for Kansas State. As uneven as the performance was in the shocking 48-41 loss in Manhattan last weekend, there’s no doubt about it that was going to be a necessary step toward returning to the college football playoff.

But maybe that became the problem. There’s no question the Sooners have had a singular focus. A program that has been to the playoff the last two years, three out of the last four and still gunning for its first CFP victory.

Becoming one of those four teams is still something to celebrate, but for this 2019 version of the Sooners, it had essentially become expected as the team was off to its first 7-0 start in 15 years.

It’s almost as if once the Sooners started passing one test after another, there was a feeling that there wasn’t a test they couldn’t ace.

The Wildcats proved that to be incorrect as OU, faced with its first raucous road crowd of the season, wasn’t able to snap out of it in time to pull off the miraculous comeback.

So all the talk about nothing mattering until the national championship, time to put that talk to bed. It’s a one-game, one-week season the rest of the way.

“It’s not easy. Climbing this mountain is not easy. It’s treacherous,” quarterback Jalen Hurts said. “The higher you get, you get challenged. Everything is not smooth sailing. The result it what it is.”

OU isn’t out of the college football playoff hunt, not by a long shot. But the get-out-of-jail-free card has now been used, and it’s time for precision the rest of the way.

The Sooners, especially under Lincoln Riley, have been here before. They’ve read this script in the past. They know how this story can end.

An October 2017 loss at home to Iowa State didn’t derail the dream. An upset loss in the Red River Showdown in 2018 didn’t break the program.

“I think it’s all in the approach of the team,” Riley said. “Games like that, they either rip you apart or bring you closer together. A lot of times there’s no middle ground. It’s one of those deals where everyone — coaches, players, everyone involved — has got to look in the mirror and ask, ‘What do I need to do better for this team for it to play at its elite level?’

“Then everybody’s got to take action on that and consistently take action. It’s not just one bye week or the next game. It’s gotta be consistent here through the end. You’ve got to believe in yourself first or listen to the outside, who’s gonna tell you how sorry you are. You’ve got to believe in yourself and your capabilities, which I believe our team does.”

Just because it’s happened before, though, doesn’t guarantee it can and will happen again. The month of November definitely sets OU up well for a nice resume-boosting profile but that can’t be the focus.

One practice, one game, one week at a time. Focus on that, and you’ll get the fifth Big 12 championship and just might end up back in the playoff for the fourth time. Or as Hurts would say, ‘keeping the main thing the main thing.’

“This is a new team. This is a new year,” captain Creed Humphrey said. “You can't really look back in the past and say this is what's going to happen, but it's something that we've got to preach across that this isn't the end of the season.

“It sucks losing, of course. Nobody likes losing, but there's a bunch of opportunities ahead of us. There's a ton of games ahead of us, so just got to come back a lot better.”

In all phases of the game, but especially defensively. First-year defensive coordinator Alex Grinch looked like a genius after the first seven games. But the warts of the part came back in a hurry against KSU. The missed tackles, the not getting off the field on third down, lack of takeaways, we’ve seen this before.

But it was just one game. And if it can stay just that one game, and the Sooners have the week-to-week focus, all doesn’t have to be lost from one lousy afternoon in the Little Apple

“We worry about going out there and playing up to our standard the next opportunity we get to play up to our standard in our house vs. Iowa State,” captain Kenneth Murray said. “And we're going to continue to do that for the rest of the year and let the chips fall where they may.”

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