In its first five games this season, Oklahoma allowed 69 total points.In the 10 quarters since -- as of halftime of today's game against Kansas State -- the Sooners have coughed up 104 points. A troubling trend, to be sure.
There's a weird dynamic in Norman right now. The offense is blowing up again today, with a ridiculous 55 points at halftime against Kansas State. The defense has chipped in by forcing four Wildcats turnovers.
Of course, Oklahoma has also given up 28 points -- despite the four K-State miscues -- and watched Josh Freeman throw for 328 yards.
As we've seen the last few weeks, this seems to be the M.O. for Oklahoma this season. Sure, the defense isn't putting up stellar numbers, but as long as the offense keeps going like this, it's no big deal, right? The answer would probably be yes, if we hadn't already seen what Texas did to Oklahoma.
There are two more teams on the OU schedule that might be able to either: A) match Oklahoma point-for-point, or B) slow Oklahoma's offense down enough to pull a Texas-style upset.
I'm talking about Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. The Red Raiders are currently kicking the bejeesus out of Kansas -- on the road -- and might punch into the 70s. Oklahoma State plays at Texas later, but went into Missouri earlier this year, slowed Chase Daniel and then counter-punched with a potent offense of their own.
It'd be easy to shrug your shoulders a little bit and just say "Well, the Big 12 offenses are great this year."
True. For whatever reason, the Big 12 has eschewed defense across the board in favor of scoring in the 40s and 50s every week. Oklahoma's offense has shown plenty capable of reaching those offensive heights too, which is why the Sooners will probably be 7-1 after this game's over.
Still, those two games lurking out there must have OU fans feeling a little queasy.
Kansas State has not found success on the ground yet, but one of the problems for OU the past two weeks was that the Sooners could not take away the pass or the run. Both Texas and Kansas had running backs top the century mark. Interestingly enough, though, lack of pressure up front hasn't been killer. Oklahoma had nine combined sacks in the Texas and Kansas games.
Sam Bradford and the Sooner offense is showing yet again that it's as explosive as any in the country when it's on, and, combined with a few turnovers by the opposition, they're darn near unstoppable. But when the defense can't force those turnovers (SEE: Texas) and the offense gets stalled a little bit, the Sooners are in trouble. It's only really happened in the one loss so far, but with Texas Tech and Oklahoma State looming, it could happen again if the Sooners' defense doesn't stiffen up.
