The catches, yards and touchdowns hadn’t been there for Oklahoma wide receiver Jadon Haselwood, but the effort never strayed.

On just about any big run this season, you can count on Haselwood doing all he can to block the perimeter and be physical at the point of attack.

But it sure would be nice to catch some, too. Haselwood got that chance Saturday and took advantage of it with three touchdowns in OU’s 52-31 victory against visiting TCU on Saturday night.

“It was very exciting. I haven't had a game like this since I was in high school so I'm very happy,” Haselwood said. “I know you can tell a lot right now. I feel like even just as an offense man we played more complete than like the whole season. I feel like we're getting better every week.”

A startling stat from Saturday is that it was Haselwood’s first touchdown in his career against an FBS opponent. There are a lot of qualifiers when you think about his first two seasons, but that was still pretty astounding to think about.

He entered the game with three career touchdowns, so he doubled that up with a six-catch, 56-yard outing to go with those three scores.

“It was amazing, man,” running back Kennedy Brooks said. “Just him blocking all last week for me and now seeing him catch three touchdowns, I'm so stoked for him. He deserves it. He's been balling in practices. He worked his tail off all week. I'm so happy for him.”

Haselwood missed the majority of the 2020 season with a torn ACL. Nobody wanted to use the term bust for the former No. 1-ranked receiver for the 2019 class, but the 2021 season needed to be his time to emerge.

A two-touchdown outing vs. Western Carolina was a good start, but Haselwood hadn’t found the end zone in the previous four games until TCU.

“I mean pretty much just try to build on it every week,” Haselwood said. “That's the goal anyway, to get better every week. Just come out next week and work harder than I did last week and become a better player, a better target for whoever is at quarterback.”

Defense springs a leak

The offense is back on track after back-to-back games of scoring at least 50 points, but the defense had another uneven outing for the third game in a row.

Despite TCU quarterback Max Duggan playing with an injured foot, the Frogs still managed to put up 529 yards of total offense and average nearly eight yards per snap.

Duggan took advantage of a secondary depleted by injury, and a defensive line that was unable to register a sack for the game.

“We can't make excuses for ourselves,” captain Pat Fields said. “That's why I take it from that approach. Because if you give into that, you can allow it to be an excuse and then you can allow yourself to let the standard of performance dip because you can say, 'Oh, I had an injury at this position, I had this at this position,' and then the standard of play begins to drop because of that.

“I'd be naive to say it's not (injuries) taking its toll, but at the same time, we have to continue to hold ourselves to the same standard.”

Even OU’s best play on defense, a forced fumble by Latrell McCutchin and recovery by DaShaun White was wiped away as White fumbled the ball through the end zone trying to dive for a touchdown, resulting in a touchback.

OU was without Woodi Washington, Delarrin Turner-Yell and Jeremiah Criddell in the secondary and lost D.J. Graham early in the game because of a concussion.

Brooks carries the load

OU didn’t have a 100-yard rusher in the first five games, but Kennedy Brooks has now rushed for at least 150 yards in the last two weeks.

Brooks had 20 carries for 153 yards and a touchdown. Getting the start and the threat of Brooks or Caleb Williams being able to run definitely made for a rough night for TCU’s defense.

“More locked into the details. We just get a rhythm going on,” Brooks said. “Everybody is more locked in. We are just trying to get better every single day. I'm just getting more chances and taking the opportunities that I get. I'm just doing what I can for the team.”

Brooks shining moment might have been the final drive where he rushed for 66 yards on eight straight carries before Eric Gray came in for the 2-yard touchdown, his first rushing score with the Sooners.

Rattler not a distraction

Caleb Williams was the guy and showed why he can be the guy Saturday, so where does that leave Spencer Rattler?

Head coach Lincoln Riley has made it clear he has full confidence in Rattler, and his teammates definitely noticed him still being engaged throughout.

“He's great. He's locked in,” Brooks said. “He's doing whatever he can for the team. We all follow him. Like you said, he's still a captain. And we're still behind him. He's doing a great job.”

The situation never presented itself for Rattler to come into the game, but Riley was pretty adamant he wouldn’t have been afraid to make that call.

“I was absolutely ready to,” Riley said. “Did I expect to? I don't know. I mean games … you just never know how games are gonna unfold but with the way he practiced this week, if the right moment, which could have been 100 different things, came up that to put him in was going to happen then I was completely confident. He had a fantastic week.”

Injury bug worsens

OU got defensive tackle Isaiah Coe back, but it was a rough evening for the Sooners. To go with Graham being out, OU lost wide receiver Mario Williams and right tackle Tyrese Robinson in the first half. Neither played in the second half.

“We're fighting through it,” Riley said. “I don't think anybody out long term. Handful of these guys, I think, will be back here in the next couple weeks. Some sooner than others. But I think we've got a chance to get a bunch of these guys back here pretty quick, which will be good. Obviously, we've moved some guys to different positions, trying some different lineups. Secondary battled.”

With Williams out, Jalil Farooq earned some reps, and Erik Swenson did a tremendous job at right tackle to open holes for Brooks in the second half.

No Jalen Redmond. No Theo Wease. No Cody Jackson. And the injuries in the secondary. Seven games down and two to go before that bye week.