I think our guys know what we need to do, but it’s time for us to start, you know, closing the gaps and playing a little bit better here and more consistently. We had a good visit in there right after the game. Riley added, “We have to finish all the time, but where we need to finish well to win games.
Our personality is we can finish with the best of them, but it’s frustrating for us of how much we put ourselves I think in position, especially not playing our best early in games, where we have to finish,” Riley said. “For this team, we’ve kind of figured out our personality a little bit. I thought they were very efficient offensively, did a few things that obviously gave us trouble, and had a good plan.”ĭespite being down personnel on both sides of the football, it’s what Riley said next about this Oklahoma football team that really resonated on exactly who and what OU currently is. Again, I don’t care who you’re playing, if you don’t seize momentum early in a road football game, you’re going to be in for a dogfight and we were. “We played better on all three sides in the second half. “So, we had to bow up obviously the second half and we did that,” Riley continued. Just really poor football in the first half all the way around,” Riley said. Not excited about how we played in the first half. “Obviously, proud of the win and our fight in the second half. Oklahoma head football coach Lincoln Riley was pleased with how his team responded after halftime but disappointed the 35-23 win over Kansas represented another game where OU didn’t put it together for four quarters. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday for practice and just work and just strive for that,” Brooks said. We try to fight for our standard to play hard for four quarters and we didn’t do that today, so we’ve just got to go back to the grind. “I mean, honestly, we just played down to our opponent.
According to Pro Football Focus, Sooner wide receivers were targeted just ten times in the game.Īsked about Oklahoma’s slow start against Kansas, Kennedy Brooks was transparent with his thoughts immediately after the game against the Jayhawks. OU wide receivers caught eight passes total. Junior receiver Drake Stoops had three grabs for 30 yards and sophomore Marvin Mims and freshman Jalil Farooq each had one grab for a combined 19 receiving yards. A week after his three-touchdown performance against TCU, Haselwood notched just the three receptions for 38 yards. Junior running back Eric Gray actually finished as Oklahoma’s leading receiver with three receptions for 42 yards.
That was Williams’ lowest passing mark since taking over the quarterbacking duties. Williams did toss a couple of touchdown passes after halftime, a five-yarder to redshirt sophomore wide receiver Jadon Haselwood and an eight-yarder to redshirt senior H-back Jeremiah Hall. Oklahoma looked like it missed both Williams and Woods as the Sooners’ passing game never fully got on track.
After all, this was KU who ranks 123rd nationally in total defense and 127th in scoring defense. The Jayhawks chewed up the first-half clock and ran 39 offensive plays compared to Oklahoma’s 17.Īt first glance, freshman wide receiver Mario Williams and senior wideout Michael Woods missing the Kansas game due to injury wouldn’t have seemed a big concern.
OU running back Kennedy Brooks rushed it just six times for 28 yards before recess.Īs a team, Oklahoma was outgained by Kansas in the first half 195 to 78. Williams completed just 6-of-9 passes for 71 yards and he was intercepted by Kansas’ Ricky Thomas Jr. Then Oklahoma turned it over on downs at the Kansas 33-yard-line after nine plays on the third and final offensive series.īasically, it was a mess. Caleb Williams was intercepted on the third snap of the second possession. Oklahoma’s first-half possessions against Kansas went like this: five plays and a punt on the first series.