The Football Brainiacs

Image via USA Today

So that pretty much sucked. All credit to Clemson, though, as they were clearly the better team.

I’m not going to bore you with complaints about my viewing experience despite being in a locale that some may go so far as to consider “paradise.” I’ll simply say it was not an enjoyable one, which certainly was not helped by what I witnessed on the screen in that second half.

And I can all but guarantee you putting something like this together in the immediate aftermath of what can only be considered an incredibly disappointing loss is a mistake. But I’ll be traveling most of Friday, haven’t really had any time to write all week, so I just kind of need to get this out of me. And I have nothing but time to do so right now, so here we go.

* I just want to get the whole ref thing out of the way right off the top. The refs didn’t cost OU this game, nor did they have any kind of impact on the outcome.

Were there some ridiculously terrible calls AND non-calls? No question. But that happens in any given game and as was already said, it didn’t factor in the end result.

* I also think it’s important to have some perspective as to the season as a whole. Yes, tonight sucked. No getting around that. It’s impossible not to be disappointed even though from the perspective of this particular OU fan, the Sooners were basically playing with house money tonight.

There was no way I foresaw this team making the CFB playoff way back in August, and I have a strong suspicion I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

Again, that in no way changes being pissed off about losing 37-17. I’m just saying a little perspective maybe takes the tiniest bit of sting out of it.

* Again this is shortly after the game, in the emotion of things, and without the benefit of a replay. But with that caveat, I can’t really say I was all that impressed with either Lincoln Riley or Mike Stoops in this one.

I definitely thought Riley had his moments — I absolutely LOVED putting Dede Westbrook in the backfield, getting Mark Andrews involved, etc. — but it seemed like he got away from the run game early much too quickly.

As for M.Stoops, Clemson’s offense couldn’t have been much more one dimensional — granted, it was one hell of a dimension but still just one nonetheless — and yet the Tigers essentially ran the ball at will from start to finish. I had sincerely hoped there would be some type of adjustment made by M.Stoops in the second half, but that opening Clemson drive quickly put any notion of that to rest.

* You can’t take away from being up at the half, especially after what we all thought was a momentum seizing INT to boot, but in hindsight it kind of feels a little bit like fool’s gold.

The OU defense had bent so many times and, to their credit, held Clemson to field goals if not outright stops. But you still had that sense it might be just a matter of time before the dam broke from all that bending.

Then the second half happened.

* I thought former OU standout Dusty Dvoracek summed things up pretty nicely.

Football has changed a lot with tempo, spread, etc… One thing that will never change is the team that dominates the LOS usually wins!

— DustyDvoracek (@DustyDvoracek) January 1, 2016

Truer words will not be spoken in 2015.

Simply put Oklahoma was flat-out dominated on both sides of the line of scrimmage for the majority of the night. Whether it was Baker Mayfield scrambling for his life — even after Clemson lost one of the top pass-rushers in the country early on in the game — and/or Deshaun Watson & Wayne Gallman gashing OU on the ground.

Honestly, to me the OU defense just looked tired. I don’t really know how else to put it. And it wasn’t just in the second half, when it became abundantly clear they were gassed, but even early on in the first half at times.

* I was also repeatedly struck by how Clemson finished almost every single run hard, fighting for that extra yard or two and almost always getting them.

Granted, OU defenders getting pushed backwards isn’t something new. And it’s not like I was under the impression Clemson was some kind of finesse team. But still, I was surprised/impressed at just how tough they were running the ball.

And I’m certainly no expert, but I thought OU’s linebacker play (save one Striker, Eric), or at least tackling, was borderline atrocious.

* The loss of Charles Walker was most definitely felt in a big way. I thought Charles Tapper had a heck of a game, but not having Walker rotating in with Matt Dimon on that opposite side certainly hurt.

* Little bit of a glimpse of the future with the games from Jarvis Baxter, Wesbrook & Andrews, but good lord does OU have a lot to replace next year with the loss of Sterling Shepard. Something we’ve known for a long time, of course, but reinforced yet again Thursday night.

* Samaje Perine is a freaking warrior. But much like the Shepard thing, we all knew that already.

* Jeffrey Mead finding a reliable pair of hands over the break was certainly a welcome development.

* I’ve already seen several people say the failure to convert on that quick screen pass to Michiah Quick may have been the difference in the game. It wasn’t.

Yes, he would have been well served to get upfield and get the first down, rather than hesitate, dancing around only to get stopped short. But the game was not lost on that one play and to suggest otherwise is frankly pretty dumb.

* I could be wrong, but I thought it was a pretty rough night for Jordan Thomas.

* Kind of can’t believe I’ve got this far and never really mentioned Baker Mayfield. I thought he played good, not great. You got some of the good and bad that comes with his style of play. His ability/tendency to extend plays has been a bit of a double-edged sword all year and on a couple different occasions Thursday night it hurt him, whether it was taking a sack or throwing the ball to the other team.

* It’s obviously the last game of the season, thus it’s also the last time I can bitch about OU’s mind-numbingly stupid approach to special teams. There is literally nothing anyone can say at this point to explain and/or justify their approach. If you’ve defend it in the past or attempt to do so now, you’re wrong. You have no point, no argument, you’re just wrong.

You’ve ran “punt safe” literally the entire season, never going for the block or actually setting up for a return, and yet somehow you still get beat on the fake punt. How does that happen?

* I know Bob has said all year it’s the blocking in front of Alex Ross on kick returns, and I definitely think there is some degree of truth to that. But I’m also beyond convinced that there’s just something different about Ross back there this year compared to last, and it’s obviously not a good different.

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I don’t know. I’m sure I am forgetting something. But I’m also sure myself or one of the other guys will get to it in the coming days and/or weeks as we reflect on this 2015 season.

Hope you all have a happy and safe New Year’s. I’ll see ya on the flip side.