OU’s defense officially playoff-worthy
ARLINGTON, Texas – The whispers were getting louder. The narrative was already formed. When it comes to Oklahoma, it’s a high-powered offense led by Lincoln Riley and a bunch of ragtag defenders lucky to have an offense bail them out again and again.
Back-to-back years of painful moments didn’t make this true about 2019. Everybody turned the page. Wasn’t always easy, but the result was one more gritty effort in a 30-23 victory against Baylor in the Big 12 championship Saturday afternoon at AT&T Stadium.
When the stage was biggest and eyes of the nation watching Alex Grinch’s guys, the group delivered. Through three quarters, it was a dang near masterpiece. Baylor found answers in the fourth quarter before the Sooners put the game away in overtime.
Incomplete, incomplete, sack, incomplete – championship No. 5 in a row for the No. 6 Sooners, who might have punched their ticket to the college football playoff for the fourth time in five seasons.
“As much as anything, the guys up front – coverage guys obviously did a great job – but those guys up front were relentless,” Grinch said. “Absolutely relentless. You're just sitting there looking at a call sheet and saying, how do I not screw this up for them? And they obviously came through.”
OU (12-1) finished with six sacks and 15 tackles for loss for 58 yards. Through three quarters, OU only allowed a mere 111 yards and ended up with 265 yards on 56 plays, limiting Baylor to 4.7 yards per play.
After being rattled in the fourth quarter by third-string quarterback Jacob Zeno and seeing a 23-13 lead disappear, the Sooners regrouped and dominated the overtime. Baylor won the toss and elected to play defense first. Rhamondre Stevenson scored from 5 yards out, and then Grinch’s guys did the rest.
A third down sack by Jalen Redmond and Nik Bonitto forced a fourth-and-20. Redmond once again was able to get pressure to force an errant throw, and the celebration was on.
“I couldn’t be happier with our defense,” Riley said. “The way those guys have played with so much new – we knew it could be done here. And our guys believed it. Our coaches believed it, and we got a pretty good defense here.”
For the last two seasons, it was about quarterback Baker Mayfield and then quarterback Kyler Murray. A pair of Heisman Trophy winners, putting the offense and the defense on their back and willing the Sooners to the college football playoff.
That hasn’t been the case this season. Quarterback Jalen Hurts has definitely had his moments, but he’s made some big-time miscues. Two more came in the second quarter Saturday, leading to 10 points for the Bears and Baylor leading 13-10 at the break.
Where maybe the last couple of groups would have panicked or stumbled, the defense found their footing and kept steady.
A group ranked No. 101 in total defense last season entered the championship ranked No. 26. Cries of being called a ‘disaster defense’ were falling on deaf ears because it simply wasn’t true.
And definitely wasn’t true vs. the Bears the second time around.
“You just have to block out the outside noise and you have to focus on the mission,” safety Pat Fields said. “At the end of the day, it's all about the people that's in our locker room. That's who is going to war with each other. That's who is putting the blood, sweat and tears in.
“So we can only focus on the opinions of those and everybody else, they aren't even professionals in the field. Other than that, they shouldn't deserve an opinion because they've never been in the field with us.”
Grinch wanted elite results immediately. Eh, probably wasn’t too realistic. But that mindset he instilled? It worked, and the Sooners are absolutely a complete team for the first time in a while.
“You take your lumps along the way,” Grinch said. “I’ve said it before, I want elite results right away and I wasn’t able to produce those, but guys that battle. I can’t say enough about those guys’ resilience over the first 13 games and the situation we’ve been in. What’s the expectation? Somehow, someway fight your tail off and be better. And that never ends.”