First look at Oklahoma

by John Berkowitz on Sep 7, 2008 10:37 PM PDT

Third ranked Oklahoma warmed up for Washington against Cincinnati on Saturday and was able to score at will the entire game. The Oklahoma offense is a real juggernaught.

Ryan Broyles set an Oklahoma freshman record with 141 receiving yards, Jermaine Gresham, caught two of Sam Bradford's five touchdown passes and the fourth-ranked Sooners extended the nation's longest home winning streak to 20 games with a 52-26 victory against Cincinnati on Saturday.

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Bradford overcame only the second multiple-interception game of his career to throw for a career-best 395 yards and five touchdowns.

Washington is going to have its hands full with the Sooners next weekend. This will be the third straight high powered offense the Huskies have faced and it might just be the best they will face all season.

I really don't see any weaknesses on offense for Oklahoma. They have one of the top QB's in the country flanked by extremely talented skill players going up against one of the worst performing defenses in the Pac Ten. I can see the Sooners hanging 45-55 points on Washington.

Defensively the Sooners are better than BYU but not as good as Oregon. Expect Stoops to do what everyone does. He will stack the line and try to take Locker out of the game. Washington needs to be able to throw deep in this one to loosen the Sooners up. The perceived weakness of the Sooner defense is in the back seven.

The key for Washington in this one is for Locker to get the ball into the hands of his talented young receivers. Goodwin, Polk, and Kearse are all capable of burning the Sooners deep. He had his chances this week against BYU and failed to connect. Next week he is going to have to make those plays to help keep the Huskies within striking distance.

Breaking down the Sooners

The Sooners averaged 6.4 yards per play on offense in 2007, the most for the team since 1987. QB Sam Bradford finished the regular season with the nation's No. 1 rated pass efficiency as just a freshman. Bradford threw for 3,121 yards and 36 touchdowns with just eight interceptions.

The Oklahoma offensive line is led by future NFL players like Duke Robinson and Phil Loadholt. In fact, all five senior starters are back this season to create an offensive line that is most likely the best in the country.

The Sooners also welcome back wide receivers Juaquin Iglesias and Manuel Johnson. Iglesias led the team last season with 68 catches for 907 yards and five touchdowns. RS Ryan Broyles has been lighting it up early in 2008. Junior Jermaine Gresham steps into the starting spot at tight end.

The TB tandem of DeMarco Murray and Chris Brown combined for 1,375 yards and 22 touchdowns last season. Murray is just a sophomore, but he possesses great speed and elusiveness.

The defense only returns six starters, but three of them are along the defensive line. With defensive tackles like senior DeMarcus Granger and sophomore Gerald McCoy its going to be tough getting any kind of push against these guys. Junior defensive end Austin English is a beast on the outside and his 9.5 sacks was the best on the team a year ago.

The team only returns one linebacker in senior Ryan Reynolds, but it looks like he is ready for the spotlight. Redshirt freshman Austin Box will start on the weak side with junior Keenan Clayton taking over the strong side.

The secondary is probably the weakest on this side of the ball, but they do have some pretty good talent coming back in senior strong safety Nic Harris and fellow senior Lendy Holmes at free safety. It looks as though junior Brian Jackson and sophomore Dominique Franks will team up at the two corner spots to start the season.

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Washington needs to be able to throw deep in this one to loosen the Sooners up. The perceived weakness of the Sooner defense is in the back seven.

Perceived is the operative word in that sentance. Oklahoma isn’t particularly weak at any area. While I do think that the athletic Husky receivers can out hustle the Sooner secondary and make some openings, I just don’t see Jake having enough time to step up and settle down enough to complete the long pass. There are alot of Freshman who are going to have to come up big this week in order for us to have a shot…and I frankly don’t see it happening. Kevario is a blossoming star and I expect him to and Jake to find a great rapport after last week. Hopefully Juan Garcia can light a fire under the O line. I would list that as priority #1 going into this game. If they can buy Jake some time to complete some deep balls and open things up for even a mediocre run game, we might have a chance to pull of the upset of the year.

by B Money on Sep 7, 2008 11:11 PM PDT reply actions

Operative words

Perceived is truly the operative word.

Obviously most of us have circled this game all pre season as a spanking. The Sooner offense will score all day, the only question is if Washington can slow them down a bit and keep pace.

by John Berkowitz on Sep 8, 2008 6:30 AM PDT reply actions

Spot on John...

I don’t expect a win, but l have to disagree with you on a comment you left on an earlier post. This game is a perfect spot for a “moral victory.” I think that if they can keep it competetive that they might be able to swing enough confidence to win 5 or 6 games. And while that might not save Ty’s job, it could give this club enough cohesive confidence to carry over into a big season next year.

by B Money on Sep 8, 2008 7:42 AM PDT up reply actions

Perceived

as in our Oline was preceived as the strongest unit on this years team, not so far and if the sieve continues it doesn’t matter what the preception is regarding UO’s back seven.

BTW, John, it will be interesting to see Coach Baird’s prediction this week,,,will he pick a loss? I doubt it

by T9ODawg on Sep 8, 2008 7:42 AM PDT reply actions

Jack – Baird has never picked a loss, but this is as good a week as any to do it.

B Money – You make a very good point. The season isn’t over if we lose to Oklahoma. The most important stretch comes after the bye week. A respectable showing will help the team from a mental standpoint.

by John Berkowitz on Sep 8, 2008 8:43 AM PDT reply actions

The Tree and AZ games

will tell us if we are competitive with the lower tier of the Pac-10.

We need to win against the Tree’s in HS, period. If we don’t, we might beat the coogs for our only win. IMHO

by T9ODawg on Sep 8, 2008 9:03 AM PDT reply actions

Four in a row?

I think we can beat Stanford, Arizona, Oregon State, Notre Dame, and WSU. If they lose one of those games it is lights out for TY. I still think UCLA is a toss up because the Bruins don’t have a history of finishing strong. California has blown me away the past two weeks,

by John Berkowitz on Sep 8, 2008 10:28 AM PDT reply actions

One thing to remember

On paper there doesn’t appear to be any way to win but remember, we play some of the best teams, not named Oregon, very tough. We’ve taken USC to the wire 2 years in a row and we played Ohio State very close last year. A bad break in the Ohio State game on that fumble that was ruled incomplete and the touchdown on the very last play made the score in that one a little misleading. I’m sure no one is crazy enough to think we’re going to pull this off but I think we can make it very exciting and if you gave us ten games against them I think we would win one of them.

Also, everyone has been bringing up the yardage numbers for the BYU game but they’re missing a key stat which is equally as important. 2 turnovers for BYU to 0 for Washington.

by JoeinFW on Sep 8, 2008 12:14 PM PDT reply actions