Oklahoma defensive coordinator Alex Grinch loves to talk about examining things based on one-week evaluations.

For the better part of the season, that hasn’t meant really good news for the Sooners. Everybody said it would be different, well, it was.

Not perfect, but major steps in the right direction as OU’s defense came to play in a 52-21 rout of visiting Texas Tech on Saturday afternoon.

The message was clear that the defensive leaders didn’t need to talk about being better. For it to really resonate, they had to play better.

Nobody epitomized that more than Isaiah Thomas.

The captain played a huge hand in two of the three takeaways for the Sooners, and when someone like that comes up big, everybody else sort of follows that lead.

“He’s one of the guys we look to make an impact play,” Grinch said. “He’s one of those guys you think like Ronnie Perkins that it doesn’t matter what the call is. It has nothing to do with it. You just have this feeling that they’re gonna break through and make a big play for you.”

Thomas deflected a pass that was intercepted and then forced and recovered a fumble later in the game.

Another key part to Saturday was a move in the secondary. Key Lawrence had a banner outing at safety the previous week and rumors throughout the week said he was going to be at cornerback.

Sure enough, he was. He started, and he put together a quality outing with seven tackles and two pass breakups, including one on the initial play from scrimmage to set the tone.

“I think it went pretty good. Just understanding ... I preach on this a lot. It's understanding that we have to know every position,” Lawrence said. “Anything can happen at any point in time. Coach Grinch wants us to understand that we have to adapt to any situation, whether it's next man up.

“This week, I felt like it was a big deal for me to take advantage of my opportunity and capitalize and keep building on the previous days and just keep building on practices.”

Getting some pieces back like Delarrin Turner-Yell and Jalen Redmond and seeing guys attack the ball, it led to some of Grinch’s favorites in takeaways.

OU had zero interceptions in the month of October until Pat Fields and Justin Broiles earned one apiece vs. Tech.

It was the first in the career for Broiles and the second for Fields.

“It was huge,” Fields said. “And I think with turnovers, they're kind of like momentum based, you know what I mean? Once you get one turnover, it kind of like starts the rolling ball effect, I guess you could say. And then everybody kind of just starts making plays. The ball seems to start coming out a little bit more. But I think it's just a testament to how hard we've been working over the past couple of weeks.”

Seven tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, five pass breakups. That’s the type of disruption Grinch has been looking for. And a perfect way to enter the bye week.

Rattler lets it loose

With 7:41 left in the fourth quarter, it finally happened. Quarterback Spencer Rattler was back in a game for the first time since the second quarter of OU’s win vs. Texas on Oct. 9.

There wasn’t a huge crowd left with OU winning 45-14. But the ones that were greeted Rattler with nice cheers, and Rattler delivered.

He went 5-of-5 passing for 67 yards, including a beautiful 42-yard touchdown to Brian Darby, the first of Darby’s career.

“I’ve been saying this all along and I think maybe people on the outside believe me, don’t believe me, whatever,” head coach Lincoln Riley said. “But do you think the team would’ve reacted that way if all the stuff that people have been reporting on the outside was true? There you go. That narrative needs to end.”

Nobody truly knows what the last month has been like for Rattler, being replaced by Caleb Williams. But his teammates were definitely happy to see him have that type of moment.

“What he's been going through, it's tough. I wouldn't know. I don't think a lot of people in this world would know,” wide receiver Marvin Mims said. “That dude just took it like a professional. He's took it like a champ. He's still there all the time. He's still a team captain. He's still doing regular things that you do even if he isn't the starting quarterback.

“To be able to see him go out there, throw a bomb for a touchdown and Brian Darby with a great catch, it was huge. The fans cheered him on. I loved every moment of it.”

Welcome back

Something Riley really preached earlier this week was his belief that his team would get some guys back that would energize the rest of the group.

He wasn’t wrong. Notable players like Turner-Yell, Redmond, Mario Williams and D.J. Graham were back in the lineup, and you could tell.

Williams had five catches for 100 yards and a touchdown, the first time he’s cracked 100 yards receiving in a game.

Turner-Yell and Graham each had five tackles, while Redmond had two.

“I think it was a big thing for us defensively because he's (DTY) a captain for us,” defensive back Key Lawrence said. “He brings a lot of juice, a lot of energy. He plays with a lot of edge that we need on the defense, so I think it was a tremendous thing for us and it was amazing to have him out there.”

Running back Marcus Major also had his first action of the season with 29 yards on five carries and one reception for 12 yards.

They’re not all there. Guys like receivers Theo Wease, Cody Jackson and Mike Woods were still not in action and cornerback Woodi Washington is out, but the Sooners are getting healthy at the right time with the bye week officially here.