Surprises and Underachievers: The best and worst of Oklahoma against West Virginia
All Oklahomafans, hail Landry Jones. The gunslinger’s performance won Oklahoma the game. For as quick as the media and Sooner Nation were to jump on Jones for his poor play against Kansas State (although some of that blame should fall on Blake Bell) — is as quick as they all should be to praise him for his stellar turnout in Morgantown.
Jones threw six touchdowns, 554 yards and 10 completions to wide receiver Kenny Stills.
But Jones’ arm and his connection to Stills isn’t the only surprises that came out of West Virginia.
Surprises
Aaron Colvin’s coverage. No. 14 was everywhere on Saturday. He tipped a pass that was intercepted. He had an interception of his own. He had eight tackles and when he wasn’t making the tackle he was on the force out or the coverage. It had seemed that Colvin Island was maybe a two-week mirage but the junior cornerback is proving that his island is there to be unclaimed.
The fight of the offensive line. Maybe it was watching Lane Johnson literally crawl across Owen Field or seeing Adam Shead go down again in another game — but it just makes one feel like shouting, ‘We get it. You’re tough. Just be injured.’ Nope. Not James Patton’s line. These guys are getting bruised, battered and sprained pretty badly — yet there they are on the very next play or drive contributing. Heck, Adam Shead was leaping across the sidelines Saturday in jubilation. It was only after he began to run out to center field that he slowed and began to limp a bit. It’s like the saying Bronson Irwin told me a couple weeks ago: Lineman don’t wear sleeves. Yeah. Well, here’s a new one: lineman never show that they’re injured. They may be on the field, unable to get up, but their reaction to the trainers is that they’re perfectly fine. It was just a 300-pound defensive guy that flopped on their ankle.
Bob Stoops’ redzone faith in Landry Jones. AKA Bob Stoops pulled the Belldozer and allowed his fifth-year senior a chance to actually throw from the redzone and Jones converted both times.
Underachievers
One-catch Metoyer. Honestly, is this a one-trick pony play? Game after game he gets thrown in there for a play, makes the catch, we tweet that Trey Metoyer got a catch and then we never see him again. No throws, limited play. I think the solution is that we’re just no longer going to tweet about it. Maybe there’s a jinx? Anyone else got a better explanation?
Defensive penalties. Bob Stoops said a few weeks ago in Ames that it didn’t bother him when Oklahoma’s defense drew five penalties — three majors — against Iowa State. That was the team playing tough. Then on Saturday against West Virginia, the Sooners defense drew two personal foul penalties and one sideline interference penalty. Some of that’s playing tough but some of that is just plain sloppiness.
Follow
