CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, November 30, 2006 6:00 pm
Maybe if Oklahoma was less embarrassed about the play of its defense, the Sooners would have barked more about game officials costing them a victory at Oregon in their third game of the season.
While officiating errors were later acknowledged, the officials weren’t the only guilty party.
After that 34-33 setback, OU’s defense, expected to be the team’s strength, ranked 97th nationally, allowing an average of 396.3 yards. It was 94th in run defense (165.7 yards), 82nd in passing efficiency and 75th in points allowed (23.7).
“It wasn’t like something that a team was overpowering us. It was a guy here or there out of our gap,” senior weakside linebacker Rufus Alexander said.
But it was enough for head coach Bob Stoops, who coordinated stellar defenses at Florida and Kansas State, to call for change. And so the next game, starting cornerback Reggie Smith went back to strong safety (a spot he started 10 games at in 2005), replacing Keenan Clayton, and Marcus Walker moved up to Smith’s corner position. OU’s other starting corner, Lendy Holmes, had just replaced D.J. Wolfe in the lineup against Oregon.
“They were huge changes,” said Alexander, who also offered that the Sooners “probably didn’t have as much (defensive) talent as what we usually have. The guys that they put in those places came in and performed in a great way.
“The defensive line started to play a lot better. As a linebacking corps, we got better. As a team, we started to pick up on everything.”
Indeed, Oklahoma’s last nine opponents faced rougher sledding trying to go downhill on the Sooners, who enter Saturday’s Big 12 Championship Game against Nebraska in Kansas City, Mo., with a seven-game winning streak that’s been fueled by outstanding defense.
Remember where the OU defense stood after the Oregon game? Now, it’s 14th in total defense (273.1 yards per game), 25th in passing efficiency defense, 19th against the run (99.0 yards) and 18th in points allowed (16.0).
In its only other loss, Oklahoma allowed Texas just 232 yards. Five turnovers proved to be the Sooners’ undoing in that 28-10 loss, but Stoops came away from the experience feeling like the defense would give his club a chance to stabilize.
“It’s been a week-to-week improvement, (but) there’s a lot of parts of that Texas game that are good for us,” Stoops said. “No one wants to acknowledge that when the score is what it is, but … we saw we’re not far off here, if we’ll keep improving.”
Strongside linebacker Demarrio Pleasant credits a “focus on the fundamentals instead of just going out and trying to shut everybody down,” as the key to the improvement.
Alexander kept at it enough to be selected Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. One of just two defensive players to start every game for the Sooners this season (middle linebacker Zach Latimer is the other), the 6-foot-1, 230-pounder from Baton Rouge, La., has 95 tackles to lead the team for the second straight year.
He also has a team-best 10½ stops behind the line of scrimmage, has forced three fumbles, recovered another and made an interception.
“Rufus kind of symbolized what our defense did throughout the year in regards to improving every week,” OU defensive coordinator Brent Venables told reporters in Oklahoma on Tuesday. “There was a number of other playmakers that stepped up and probably took away some other opportunities for him to make some big plays. He was the most consistent guy we had the whole year, and really was playing his best when we needed him the most. That’s the mark of a great player.”
Alexander figures to have a lot of opportunities to make plays against Nebraska, as the Huskers rank 18th nationally with a 183.3-yard rushing average.
Six of Oklahoma’s last nine opponents, though, failed to get 90 yards on the ground.
“They’re more of a zone power team, and they pass it a little bit more,” Alexander said of the Huskers. “Zac Taylor, he’s making a ton of plays throwing the ball.”
Taylor was chosen as the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, and Alexander sees him in a different light than when the Sooners won in Lincoln 31-24 last year.
“He moves guys everywhere. Like every snap, he’s moving guys. He knows what he’s looking at in defenses,” said Alexander, who had 11 tackles and three of OU’s nine sacks of Taylor last year. “That’s a mature quarterback having another year under his belt. That’s a credit to him, a credit to their coaching staff. They’ve brought him along in a great way.
“They don’t put him in a situation where he can’t make a play, and he doesn’t do dumb things with the ball. He makes the sure pass. If anything’s not there, he’ll tuck it and run, and they’ll establish the running game and get play-action off of that. He does a great job of managing the game.”
For all that praise, Oklahoma quarterback Paul Thompson has complete confidence the Sooners’ defense will manage their responsibilities just fine Saturday night.
“They’ve done a great job. They’ve held us in close games when maybe we weren’t being as productive as we could’ve been,” Thompson said. “The defense has just came through in a bunch of big ways. They’ve really put us in some good positions to put some points on the board.”