Sooners Have No Excuses

After a heart-breaking 30-13 loss to Notre Dame last Saturday in Norman before 86,031 rabid fans, the largest attended sporting event in state history, Oklahoma must pick up the pieces and rebound this week against a scrappy Iowa State Cyclone team looking for an upset in Ames.

However, before we turn the page, a thoughtful look back at the historic Notre Dame game and five things that contributed to the loss to the Fighting Irish:

1--Big Plays

According to John Shinn of The Norman Transcript, Oklahoma has been involved in 979 plays in the first 7 games this season.

Four of them account for the two losses.

"Bad Landry's" fumble on the 1 yard line that was returned for a touchdown and Blake Bell's fumble on the goal line resulted in the Kansas State loss.

The Sooners held Notre Dame to 291 total yards if not for two huge plays Saturday: the 62-yard first quarter run right up the middle for a touchdown and the big 50-yard bomb late in the fourth quarter that led to the go-ahead touchdown making it 20-13 with a little over 5 minutes to play.

Bad quarterback play killed us against Kansas State.

Bad defense killed us against Notre Dame.

Many sportswriters have blamed Tom Wort for the 62-yard run in the first quarter. However, watching the game live, it was Javon Harris who Bob Stoops zeroed-in on after the play. Whatever Harris was supposed to do on the play, he didn't do it according to Coach Stoops and Harris received an earful on the sidelines.

On the fourth quarter 50- yard bomb, Demontre Hurst was the corner beaten on the play. But a closer look reveals that Javon Harris had deep cover responsibility and somehow missed his read.

Sounds familiar?

Sooner fans will remember Harris' many busts in 2011 that caused Stoops to move him to strong safety this year.

Whatever the reasons, two big plays Saturday night were killers and four total on the year have resulted in the two Sooner losses this year.

2--Poor Offensive Game Plan

Before the game, the obvious weakness in the Notre Dame defense was the secondary.

After all, they had gone through injuries losing key starters and were using converted wide receivers in the defensive backfield.

So it was clear that the major part of Josh Heupels' offensive game plan to beat the Irish would be to attack the secondary deep. Correct?

Wrong.

Because as obvious as this solution was to everyone else, Heupel thought otherwise and only attacked the Irish with a deep ball three times the entire game. And, one of those deep throws was on the meaningless last drive of the game to Kenny Stills.

In fact, most all of the 52 passes OU called were of the dink-and-dunk variety over the middle.

Of course, Jalen Saunders had a record-breaking night by catching 8 first quarter passes and tied Ryan Broyles school record 15 passes total.

However, most were underneath the Notre Dame coverage and the longest reception of the night, the 35-yard completion to Saunders in the fourth quarter, was an underneath pass that he split right up the Irish secondary.

So what happened?

Obviously, Heupel felt that the imposing Notre Dame front seven could not be held long enough for Landry Jones to wait for the deep ball to develop. Otherwise, he would have called more deep throws.

However, Jones was only sacked two times and was comfortable most of the night.

And, to not try and attack the opposing teams obvious weakness is a sure sign of waving the white flag and was the most disappointing outcome of the Sooner offense Saturday night.

The result was that Notre Dame stayed in their base 4-man defense or 3-4 formation most of the night. They never went dime which caused Oklahoma to adjust their playcalling. They basically said here we are let's see what you can do!

Also, Heupel's calls are dysfunctional. I don't know how else to describe them. One minute he'll have the Irish defense on its' heels with a series of up-tempo passes and the next minute he'll send Brennan Clay crashing into the Notre Dame front seven for a 1-yard loss.

You would think by the seventh game that Heupel would have found a rhythym in the Sooner offense. However, he hasn't mastered the Kevin Wilson symphonic display of up-tempo play calling and he's killing the Sooners momentum on key drives.

And, the incessant stopping and looking over at the sideline delays and then Landry Jones scrambling up and down the line changing the play has become somewhat comical among Sooner fans. And disastrous to the Sooners. More on this later.

One person on the blogosphere Saturday night called Heupel's play calling reminiscent of the driver who hurredly speeds up and then suddenly brakes only to gun the gas once stopped only to brake again.

I agree.

3--Momentum Killer Calls

Bob Stoops said the Sooners were on the wrong side of a couple of judgment calls. He was right.

Struggling to tie the game right before halftime, Blake Bell's Belldozer finally scored with a minute remaining in the first half. However, a late flag from the opposite side of the field came in and negated the play.

How weird was this late call? ABC's Brent Musberger and Kirk Herbstreit thought that it was a unnecessary celebration penalty that would be tacked on to the ensuing kickoff.

Wrong.

The backside official called a holding penalty on Sooner lineman Bronson Irwin. Replays showed Irwin taking his Notre Dame defender to the ground well after Bell had crossed the goal line. Obviously the action had no impact on the outcome of the play.

Borderline call?

Of course if you consider that when two 300-pound behemoths get tangled up on a play anything can happen.

Sooner fans would have preferred a no-call but the Big East official had other ideas. OU settled for a field goal and instead of being tied at 10 with the momentum going into halftime, the Sooners trailed 10-6.

The second momentum killer call was the interception with just over 3 minutes remaining which resulted in a Notre Dame field goal that put the game into a two-score comeback for the Sooners.

Sooner wide receiver Jalen Saunders was hit from behind just as the ball hit his hands which caused the ball to deflect up and into a diving Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'os' hands.

Ruling on the field was a clean hit and pickup. Notre Dame ball. Ball game.

Sooner fans screamed for pass interference. The Big East official ruled otherwise despite protests from an obviously animated Sooner head coach Bob Stoops.

These plays didn't cost the Sooners the game. However, they certainly were momentum killers and had a huge impact on the outcome of the game.

4. Third Down Conversions

Any offensive playcaller will tell you that the key to winning close games is to be successful on third down conversions. The Sooners were an awful 4-14 Saturday night.

Not all were the result of bad calls. Two of them were set up by the result of self-inflicted mental lapses on plays preceding the third down (see below.)

However, any way you slice it, the Sooners were awful on third down on Saturday and you have to credit the Notre Dame defense for winning the line of scrimmage battle and imposing their will on the Oklahoma offense.

5. Poor Quarterback/Center Exchanges

Ala the Kansas State game, every Sooner fans worst nightmare was Landry Jones scrambling in his own end zone after a loose ball with Notre Dame defenders closing in.

Happened twice Saturday night.

First time occurred on the Sooners first drive of the game. After reeling of several sterling passes to Jalen Saunders the Sooners found themselves at their own 46-yard line with a first down.

The weirdness happened when incredibly the Sooners let the game clock dwindle down to 3 seconds with Landry Jones scrambling up and down the line apparently trying to change the play.

Junior center and Sooner captain Gabe Ikard incredulously snapped the ball to no one and after a mad scramble Sooner running back Brennan Clay recovered. The resulting 19-yard loss created an insurmountable 2nd and 29.

One has to wonder what Ikard was thinking but for a junior center and team captain to make such a crucial mistake is hard to swallow for Sooner fans.

The second mistake was almost as bad as the first. Trailing 23-13 late in the game, Ikard again sent a wayward snap right through the legs of an unassuming Landry Jones.

Just incredible.

Two of the most experienced offensive players, a fifth year senior quarterback and junior center, both captains, made two of the most critical mistakes in the game.

The resulting scramble was nothing short of miraculous. Probably the most athletic play of Landry Jones career.

The Sooner quarterback ran back toward his own endzone after the wayward snap with Notre Dame defenders hot in pursuit.

Not knowing whether Jones was going to fall on the ball or attempt to kick it out of the end zone for a saftey, he incredibly scooped up the ball and completed a sideline pass to Brennan Clay to avert disaster.

However, the play resulted in a 9-yard loss that led to an insurmountable 2nd and 19. OU would turn the ball over on downs which led to the final Notre Dame touchdown.

Again, these two plays didn't in themselves lose the game for the Sooners. However, they were critical in their timing and contributed to the overall demise of key momentum at critical times.

Summary

Saturday's game will go down in the memory banks of Sooner fans everywhere for all of the pre-game hype, excitement, national attention and "big game" atmosphere the Notre Dame game brought to Norman.

I have been going to Oklahoma football games in Norman since 1979. Admittedly, I missed the 2008 Texas Tech game but for my books no other game elicited the type of electricity that Saturday night's game created.

This was one of the few games that the on the field performance matched the pre-game hype for intensity. This was a heavyweight slugfest with two of the more tradition-rich and successful football programs standing toe-to-toe until the final minutes until someone blinked. Unfortunately, it was the Sooners who blinked first.

Too bad the outcome didn't turn out the way we wanted. But according to The Daily Oklahoman, Bob Stoops' Sooners are now 0-14 in games where they trailed in the fourth quarter since the Missouri game in 2007. A trend that is as dissettling as it is confusing.

No one will claim that this group is the best unit Bob Stoops has fielded. However, it's an awfully gifted team that except for four plays out of 979, could be undefeated and playing for a national championship.

Boomer!