6 takeaways from the Oklahoma Sooners 16-13 win over West Virginia

Over the last three weeks, the Oklahoma Sooners defense has become the strength of this team. In their win against West Virginia, they held the Mountaineers to 13 points and now have three games in a row of holding their opponents to fewer than 16 points.

On the season they’re allowing just 16 points per game and against Power Five opponents just 14.5 points per game. If the offense is going to struggle like they have the last couple of weeks, then the defense will have to provide that level of play each and every week.

Unlike previous seasons during the Heisman era of Lincoln Riley’s tenure, the Sooners are winning games at the other end of the spectrum. Instead of winning close games with both teams scoring over 30 points per game, the Sooners are finding to win defensive battles.

They’re winning, just winning differently. And that feels strange.

Let’s take a look at five takeaways from the Sooners win over West Virginia.

Offensive Line is a Problem

The Oklahoma Sooners averaged just 2 yards per carry on Saturday night, and Spencer Rattler was under pressure quite a bit. That was a really good defensive front the Sooners were attempting to control, and it showed. They got whipped at the line of scrimmage most of the night.

West Virginia has a good defense, but the Sooners couldn’t get any semblance of a running game going until the final drive. And even at the end of that drive, they were getting manhandled.

The coaching staff is still mixing and matching, attempting to find their best five guys, and so far, there are few answers to the offensive line puzzle.

Rattler was under pressure on 11 of his 41 dropbacks on Saturday night. Because of the pressure, the Sooners’ starting quarterback felt like he had to bail from the pocket a bit earlier than he probably needed to at times.

When he was under pressure, he was 3 of 6 for 14 yards, sacked four times, and averaged just 2.3 yards per attempt.

Riley did a good job at times at dialing up plays to help get the ball out of Spencer Rattler’s hands quickly, but this is a team built to push the ball downfield. If they’re unable to do that because of the coverage they’re facing or because the offensive line can’t hold up, it’s going to be a long season.

Can Defense Win the Sooners a Championship?

It’s been years since the Oklahoma Sooners had a defense that has been as good as this team has. And it’s a good thing because they need every bit of the strong defensive effort that Alex Grinch’s unit puts on display on Saturdays.

The offense just isn’t humming along like it typically does, which means the Sooners defense has to play near-perfect football every single week. Last week, they held the Nebraska Cornhuskers to 16 points and now West Virginia to 13.

It wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but they came up with the plays they needed to win the game.

The Sooners’ defense struggled to pressure Jarret Doege consistently and only came up with one sack. West Virginia was getting the ball out of Doege’s hands quickly.

They were excellent against a really good running team, allowing just 2.3 yards per carry on the evening. Leddie Brown, who averaged 8.5 yards per carry last week against Virginia Tech, including an 80-yard touchdown run, was held to just 3.7 yards per carry vs. the Sooners.

Though there were stretches where Doege looked good throwing the ball, he finished the night with just 160 yards passing and 5.5 yards per attempt.

The defense looks good to start the 2021 season. Will they be able to keep teams from scoring 20 points or more as the offenses get more challenging in the coming weeks of the Big 12 schedule?

The Sooners will need them to if the offense continues to have stretches of play like they have the last couple of weeks.

Brian Asamoah? More like Brian Awsomeoah, am I right?

In a strong defensive performance on Saturday night, Brian Asamoah was awesome. He led the Sooners in tackles and stops per Pro Football Focus. PFF gives a stop for a play that results in a win for the defense.

In a game where the Oklahoma Sooners struggled to pressure West Virginia quarterback Jarret Doege, they needed Asamoah to be great up the middle for the defense.

West Virginia did everything they could to quickly get the ball out of Doege’s hands, which put more stress on the second and third levels of Oklahoma’s defense, and Asamoah was up to the challenge. He didn’t miss a tackle, and the Sooners’ defense only had four missed tackles on the evening.

As one of the leaders of the Oklahoma defense, Brian Asamoah will have to keep being great every week as teams look to avoid the Sooners’ strong defensive front.

Thank Goodness for Gabe Brkic

Though he hasn’t been perfect this season, one could argue that Gabe Brkic could be in line for the most valuable player from the first four games of the season. He’s eight of 10 on the season, but just one of those misses came inside of 50 yards. His lone attempt last week against Nebraska.

This week, he was a weapon, hitting all three of his field goal attempts, including the game-winner as the final seconds ticked off the clock. And for the first week this season didn’t have an attempt greater than 50 yards.

On a night when the West Virginia defensive front was frustrating Spencer Rattler and the run game, the Sooners needed every bit of Brkic’s leg to come out with the win. There was little margin for error on special teams and Gabe Brkic came through.

It was the Worst of Times it was the Best of Times

Or something like that.

Spencer Rattler had a solid game, but the Sooners couldn’t get much going downfield. Drives would stall, or there’d be an interception, and the Sooners would struggle to get back into scoring position.

It was a night filled with boos for the Sooners starting quarterback and calls to replace him with his backup.

Through it all, Spencer Rattler rallied the offense to go on a 14-play 80-yard drive to set Gabe Brkic up for his 30-yard game-winning field goal.

The offense as a whole needs to be better, and Spencer Rattler, in particular, can’t miss on as many throws as he did tonight. The interception was due to putting too much air under it, and he missed deep throws on back-to-back pass attempts late in the game.

In a sport driven by quarterback play, the Oklahoma Sooners need their quarterback to hit those throws when he gets the chance.

That was a "Gutsy" Win

Lincoln Riley called it a “ballsy win.” And again, for the second straight week, a win is a win.

Instead of winning games 50-46 as they did in previous years, they’re now winning close games of the other variety. The defense is the strength of this team as the offense struggles along the offensive line, and as a result, the passing and running games are struggling to find consistency.

They’re finding a way to win despite the offense not living up to the preseason and historical expectations. Spencer Rattler wasn’t good for a lot of the game, but on the final drive, he was perfect. Rattler went 6 of 6 for 57 yards on a drive that started at the Sooners eight-yard line. The running game wasn’t good for much of the game, but on the final drive was getting the edge and making plays.

The Sooners have to be better as the season rolls along. But they escaped Saturday night with a win, and while it wasn’t pretty, they showed some heart in finishing strong against the Mountaineers.

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