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NORMAN — In the fourth quarter of OU’s win over Auburn, the Sooners found a bit of an offensive spark.
OU had 119 of its 291 yards of offense in the final frame, showing off the ability to stretch the field that was largely missing to that point.
The Sooners will need to continue to show offensive progress — both from freshman quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. and the offense as a whole — if they are to pull off an upset Saturday over top-ranked Texas (2:30 p.m., ABC).
With a bye week ahead of the annual showdown against the Longhorns, the Sooners are hoping the offense will be much more consistently productive than it has been to this point.
“It can only help,” Sooners coach Brent Venables said of the time off affecting the offense finding its footing under Hawkins. “There’s a compound interest on the additional repetitions, mentally, physically, walk-throughs, team, team separates, scout work, the meeting rooms.
“Those 20 hours go by really fast, so an off week gives you a little bit more time, maybe, for the coaches to do a really good job of some presentations that can make things easy for the players to digest.”
Through five games, the Sooners are averaging just 297.8 yards per game — worse than all but three Power Four teams and nearly 25 yards per game fewer than the next-lowest SEC team.
OU is 13th in the SEC in scoring offense, last in rushing offense (128.6 yards per game) and last in passing offense (169.2).
Against a Texas defense that’s allowing just 228.2 yards per game — third nationally behind just Ohio State and Tennessee — OU will need to figure some things out.
“When you’re not (successful) it seems like you’ve got issues everywhere, and sometimes that’s the truth,” Venables said. “You’re always looking at things that — what is the … 10,000-foot lens from…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/why-ou-football-hopes-qb-110325495.html
Author : The Oklahoman
Publish date : 2024-10-09 11:03:25
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