The Football Brainiacs

Image via Associated Press

Maybe I’m speaking out of turn, but I can’t help but feel just how different that win Saturday night left me, and I presume many an OU fan, feeling.

And I saw feeling because I think it was almost, dare I say, a somewhat unfamiliar one for OU fans. It had really been, what, the better part of two years and the all too referenced Sugar Bowl since the Sooners had a win like Saturday night?

Now obviously it means nothing if you don’t take care of business over these next two weeks, but for one night (at least) all felt right again in the world for Sooner Nation.

OFFENSE

* I am definitely not too proud to admit I’m often times quick to throw OU coaches under the bus. So I would be remiss not to start this by praising the brilliant game plan both Lincoln Riley & Mike Stoops (and really the entire coaching staff) designed for this game.

At the end of the day it always comes down to the players executing said game plan — and boy did they ever do that — but these coaches are paid to have them prepared and put their players in a position to win come Saturday, and this OU staff did exactly that.

* Again not to take a single thing away from the game Riley called, but how can you not credit Baker Mayfield for being the freaking play maker he so clearly is?

Any number of those plays he made you simply cannot draw up. Every single positive thing you have read or will read in the coming weeks is well deserved. The guy has simply transformed this offense and, with his charisma, arguably this entire team.

Yeah, there was the interception. And, yeah, there are times when you’re screaming for him to just throw the ball away and live to fight another day. But those are so easily swept to the side when the guy just continues to find a way to make good things happen.

* Is there really even anything left to be said about Samaje Perine? The guy is an absolute tank, able to grind out those tough yards breaking tackle after tackle, and then you see him rip off a 55-yarder seemingly sucking the will out of the last remaining Baylor defender all the while.

* Maybe even more to that last point since he’s been here for four years and not just two, how about Sterling freaking Shepard? I don’t even want to think about how screwed OU looks to be at WR next year after he leaves, I just want to appreciate him in the crimson and cream while I still can.

How he continues to get open despite teams knowing he is the primary option on almost every play is beyond me. If you can forgive the double negative, quite simply there isn’t a play the guy can’t make.

* All praise aside, there was a couple things I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed in. And I say that FULLY aware that even bothering to mention them is nit-picking for the sake of nit-picking. So know I do so with literally zero intention of being ‘that guy’ after a HUGE win Saturday night. I’m just rattling off observations both positive and otherwise.

First, I was surprised how little a role Joe Mixon played in this game. I feel like I read all week how involved Riley was going to get him and how the idea was to get him the ball in space. And yet we never really saw any of that. Clearly didn’t wind up mattering and as I said above, with the win even I can’t bother getting all that worked up about it. But again, it was just one of those things I took away from the game.

Second, couple big drops for a guy in Mark Andrews so many of us have been pleading you get the ball to more. I get that he’s just a redshirt freshman and he’ll almost surely make those catches every other time, but still those are typically plays you just have to make in games like the one Saturday night.

DEFENSE

* Again, just one hell of a job on Mike Stoops’ part and really this entire defensive coaching staff. The transformation they have made as a unit in the span of less than a year has been incredibly impressive.

* And nowhere was that transformation more evident than the job they did on Corey Coleman. Yeah, they were rolling coverage to whatever side of the field he lined up on, but so what. The guy is one of, if not the best WRs in the country. If you’re not going to double team that guy, who in the f are you going to double team?!?

A lot of the credit I’ve seen being given to Jordan Thomas and having not yet had the chance to go back and watch the replay I’ll assume deservedly so. But I also feel fair in saying that type of performance almost has to be a considered an entire team effort.

Regardless, OU made him a complete non-factor in the game and Baylor essentially pissed down their leg as a result.

* I have to agree with many a comment I’ve read from Baylor fans this fine Sunday morning with regards to their play-calling on Saturday night. Mind you, I had NO issue with them continuing to run between the tackles on early downs as OU was stuffing them at the line and/or driving them back for a loss. But I do think their fans have a legitimate gripe.

* And I have to point out the job OU’s defensive continues to do disrupting the pocket. I thought they made Jarrett Stidham look like the true freshman he is, which is EXACTLY what I (and, to be fair, many others) said they absolutely had to do coming into this game.

Now to Stidham’s credit he made several impressive throws, but on many occasion when OU took away his initial read it looked to my untrained eye like he panicked a bit.

* Said it here before and am quite certain we’ll do it again, but Charles Walker is a frickin’ beast. I don’t care enough one way or the other to really get into the Matt Dimon ejection. Personally, I think you could make a case either way and at the time I thought it was a pretty weak call. Honestly, a part of me still does. But at the same time I get why it was made and understand the point of view from those on the other side of things.

And heat of the moment I completely understand his ‘heel turn’ — as so many described it on social media — as he was escorted to the locker room, but won’t be the least bit surprised if the PC police latch onto it and it being that’s now how players should represent OU blah, blah, blah.

* Not exactly breaking any news here in proclaiming Ahmad Thomas has taken his fair share of heat during his time on the field in Norman, so I couldn’t help but feel good for the guy with that game-clinching INT. Heck of a nice diving play on the ball as well.

SPECIAL TEAMS

* The missed PAT was, in my opinion, just one of those fluky things and while it didn’t ultimately factor in the outcome, it was obviously a good thing to see Austin Seibert hit that one field goal, which at the time was a pretty big kick, following said PAT miss. Kid also had a number of solid punts on the night, one in particular that, with the help of some quality coverage, really flipped the field.

* OU punt returns – Won the game, don’t care.

* Alex Ross KO returns – Won the game, don’t care.