This is Lincoln after the meltdown home loss to Kansas State in the second half last September. The good thing for OU is that they didn’t lose this game to Tulane and the fact Georgia, Ohio State, and Clemson all look to be flawed as well.
Georgia didn’t score an offensive touchdown in their win over Clemson. Clemson allowed their QB to be sacked seven times. Ohio State’s defense was gashed by Minnesota.
What I’m saying is I didn’t see a team on Saturday that I think deserves to be ranked No. 2 in the country.
The thing which would concern me the most about OU is the fact they couldn’t run the football in the second half against a Tulane team which plays in the same AAC conference as Tulsa.
OU without Rhamondre Stevenson rushed the ball 35 times for a 116 yards. To me…that’s the glaring hole for OU right now. They don’t have a physical NFL level back who can move the chains in the second half of a close game.
Rhamondre scored six touchdowns for the Patriots this exhibition season and was so good New England traded Sony Michel.
Texas has a big time running back in Robinson. So Lincoln Riley is going to have to come up with something in the running game. I thought Kennedy Brooks was okay, but someone else will have to step up.
Lincoln might even have to consider using Caleb Williams along with Kennedy Brooks in certain situations where the Sooners need to move the chains and stay on the field milking the clock. Not like the Blake Bell package, but more like Jalen Hurts when the Sooners want to run the football with some physicality.
After the first week of the season to me the Big 12 looks pretty good with 1 OU, 2 Texas, 3 Iowa State, 4 TCU, 5 K State, 6 Mullet King. Iowa State was very sluggish in their close win over Northern Iowa and will be an underdog against the Iowa Hawkeyes this coming Saturday. I thought K State’s win over Stanford was a nice win for them. OU has to play in Manhattan later on so we need to keep track of their season as this moves along.
For O State—I think their road game in a couple of weeks in Boise will tell us if they have a team which can contend for a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game or just be a team like they’ve been in the past three seasons which ends up playing in a fourth or fifth tier level bowl game.
Kansas even won this past week with a win over South Dakota…so good for them.
OU needs to work on the run game and their tackling this week.
Because The Eyes of Texas might be relevant this college football season.