Oklahoma, a College Football Playoff semifinalist previous year, started the season ranked No. 3 before a 33-23 loss to Houston in its opener. Meyer has spent the last two days watching clips of the Oklahoma quarterback in action and he was every bit as good as advertised. And the Buckeyes finished last season with wins over Michigan and Notre Dame in their most recent big-game wins after a crushing loss to Michigan State in their next-to-last regular-season game. The Ohio State defense has yet to allow a touchdown.
Advertisement
Ohio State will travel to Norman to take on Oklahoma this Saturday in one of the best games of Week-Three.
The bad? Oklahoma got gouged in the first half of the 33-23 loss to the Cougars. Sophomore safety Malik Hooker will pose a problem for the Sooners, as he’s emerging as a ball hawk for the Buckeyes, leading the FBS with three interceptions this season. Houston hurt Oklahoma through the air, passing for 321 yards and rushing for just 89. If they do, you can expect the Sooners to regain a lot of the ground they lost in sputtering to a season-opening loss in Houston.
Still, the foundation is the same.
“They can always be louder”, Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, OU junior linebacker, said. “You know what’s coming”. Barrett is a dual threat quarterback, much like Houston’s Greg Ward Jr. He threw 40 passes and was sacked just twice.
J.T. Barrett (16) throws a pass against Bowling Green.
“We’re going to have to play better”, Stoops said earlier this week in his regularly scheduled press conference. The other side of that is they got to see how you want to play it. “Then definitely ask about game-day adjustments as far as what they were able to see and what they were able to execute”.
Oklahoma has a strong run game, Joe Mixon and Samaje Perine have both found the end zone this season and are averaging nearly seven yards per carry combined. He eventually passed for 3,700 yards and 36 touchdowns and led the Sooners to the Playoff. The Sooners evened their record at 1-1 with a 59-17 dismantling of Louisiana-Monroe as a 46 point favorite. The Sooners led 42-0 at halftime, and controlled the game defensively, aside from a few breakdowns.
Of the Sooners’ defensive front, Elflein said: “They’re big, they’re good with their hands, they play hard”.
“I’ve known Bob Stoops for 25 or 30 years”.
“I lived the majority of my childhood in Kansas and when you live in Big 12 country, Oklahoma is the school”, Edward said.
Advertisement
“Just the caliber of player he is, he has a lot of character, I know he was the leader previous year as a younger guy and he knows how to take control of his offense so it’s going to be a challenge”, Parker said. Fortunately, they do at least have a couple things going for them as the weekend approaches. “You have to try to keep them off balance and not let them zero in on everything you’re doing”.
