By Hunt Palmer
The SEC’s quest to find a season-ending opponent for LSU has now shifted to Oklahoma. The Sooners have scuffled through their inaugural season in the league, but they scored a signature win Saturday night. Norman was rocking, and Oklahoma took down the Tide to clinch a spot in a bowl and perhaps save Brent Venables’s job.
This season has been marred by pathetic offense and not enough defense. Over a three-week span in October, Texas, South Caolina and Ole Miss outscored this bunch 95-26.
There has been a little bit of quarterback shuffling and a lot of injury to the wide receiver corps. Perhaps they figured some things out in the win over Alabama. Perhaps it was lightning in a bottle. We’ll find out Saturday night in Death Valley. Here’s a look at Oklahoma by the numbers.
(For perspective 1st is always the best, even if the number is lowest. 16th is always worst)
Oklahoma Offense
Scoring Offense: 15th, 25 points per game
Total Offense: 16th, 326.6 yard per game
Rushing Offense: 10th, 153 yards per game
Rushing Attempts: 4th, 40 attempts per game
Yards per Carry: 16th, 3.8 yards per carry
Runs for 10+ yards: 9th, 56
Passing Offense: 16th, 172 yards per game
Passing Attempts: 10th, 27.9 attempts per game
Completion Percentage: 10th, 62.5%
Interceptions: 8th, 9
Passes of 20+ yards: 16th, 16
Sacks Allowed: 16th, 42
Tackles for Loss Allowed: 15th, 84
Third Down Conversions: 15th, 35.6%
Red Zone Touchdowns Percentage: 11th, 70%
Plays: 9th, 68.3 plays per game
Yards per play: 16th, 4.78 yards per play
Time of Possession: 12th, 28:53 per game
This is the part where you ask Mary Todd Lincoln about the rest of the play. It’s just been awful offensively for the Sooners who fired their offensive coordinator Seth Littrell after seven games.
Oklahoma is the worst team in the conference in terms of total offense, yards per play, yards per rush, passing offense, explosive pass plays, and sacks allowed. That’s impressively bad.
While Dillon Gabriel is cruising toward the No. 1 seed in the college football playoff, Oklahoma is trying to figure quarterback out. Jackson Arnold ran the ball 25 times on Saturday and threw it 11. Oklahoma beat Alabama while throwing for 68 yards.
Tight end Bower Sharp leads the way in the receiving game. He’s only got 320 yards and two touchdowns receiving on the season.
LSU can expect a heavy dose of the running game on Saturday.
Oklahoma Defense
Scoring Defense: 8th, 20.2 points per game
Total Defense: 5th, 311.3 yards per game
Yards per Play Allowed: 5th, 4.75 yards per play
Rushing Defense: 5th, 105.5 yards per game
Yards Per Carry Allowed: 3rd, 2.9 yards per carry
Passing Defense: 8th, 205 yards per game
Opponents Completion Percentage: 8th, 60%
Opponents Third Down Conversions: 10th, 36.3%
Sacks: 3rd, 3 per game
Tackles for Loss: 2nd, 8.1 per game
Opponent Plays of 20+: 9th, 43
Opponent Runs for 10+: 2nd, 30
Opponent Passes of 20+: 13th, 37
Opponent Red Zone Touchdowns Percentage: 2nd, 45.2%
Turnovers Forced: 3rd, 20
Penalties Per Game: 3rd, 5.5 per game
The defense is Venables’s baby. He’s considered one of the best defensive minds in college football. This version in Norman has been good, not great.
The strength is the ability to create negative plays. They make plays in the backfield with regularity and turn the ball over. R Mason Thomas is fifth in the SEC with eight sacks on the season.
The weakness has been giving up big plays. That happens to an aggressive unit.
We know that LSU has had some red zone issues. Oklahoma has been pretty good there defensively.
If the Oklahoma defense that played Alabama shows up in Baton Rouge, the Sooners can win this game. They held the Tide to 70 rushing yards on 30 carries and intercepted Jalen Milroe three times. The issue is that seven days earlier Missouri backup Drew Pyne threw three touchdown passes and Tiger rushers rolled up 152 yards on the ground.
For every solid defensive effort like the performance against Tennessee, there’s a dud like the game against South Carolina.
