OU's missing pieces hold back offense

NORMAN — Following Oklahoma's Red-White spring game Saturday, quarterback Sam Bradford was the only offensive player requested by the media for postgame interviews.

Instead, everyone wanted to talk to the defensive players, who collectively and emphatically had just put the exclamation point on their spring supremacy, intercepting six passes and running three back for touchdowns.

The offense, meanwhile, managed to reach the end zone just once until the game's final four minutes.

In fact, in two scrimmages consisting of 173 plays leading up to the Red-White game, the offense had scored just twice.

Cause for concern?

No way.

This offense had reasons for stumbling in the spring.

And reasons why it shouldn't in the fall.

At some point during the summer, OU will benefit greatly from the return of its best offensive player: running back DeMarco Murray, who brings the home run swing to an offense otherwise comprised of single and double hitters.

OU also was without four other key contributors this spring in wide receivers Ryan Broyles and Adron Tennell, running back Chris Brown and guard Duke Robinson.

Insert Murray, Brown and Robinson into Saturday's lineup, and the impact of 30-mile-per-hour gusts lessens considerably.

No need to pass; just hand-off the ball on down the field.

But personnel losses were only half the issue.

The other hurdle was learning a new scheme — the no-huddle offense, which slowed the Sooner attack at times, even though the objective is to speed it up.

Missed assignments, wrong alignments and careless mistakes kept the Sooner offense from exploding, or at least finding a rhythm.

The learning curve for perfecting the no-huddle is high, though the final four minutes of the Red-White game showed what it's capable of producing — quick scoring strikes.

The Sooners scored two touchdowns in the final four minutes, providing a foundation on which to build this summer.

"To me, we haven't done it enough that we understand the sense of urgency of getting lined up,” offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said. "And you still have to execute. You still have to block and take care of the ball. We had a bunch of blunders with some errant throws and tipped balls.”

In time, once Bradford and the other