Day After: Tigers Tamed by Sooners

By Owen Pannell | KZA Sports

WHAT A GAME!

It was not certainly pretty by the Sooners, but great teams win even when they play terrible. The bye week couldn’t come at a better time, there’s a lot we need to fix before Red River in 3 weeks. A program record in sacks is amazing, but honestly that’s one of the only pros we can take from this win.

Key Takeaways

- We do not have a run game

An absolutely atrocious 32 rushing yards, and 29 of those were by Mateer. This is very discouraging after what we saw last week vs Temple. We are not going to win games without a run game, so during this bye week and vs Kent State we BETTER figure it out. Clearly Jaydn Ott isn’t going to be a factor, so we can give up hope on that. We need someone to step up.

- The defense is allergic to turnovers

We still can’t force a turnover, we had multiple dropped interceptions which is unacceptable. Against Texas we are going to need to force a couple, their defense is far better than Auburn’s, and we could barely score on them.

- Secondary is in trouble

Courtland Guillory was absolutely awful in this game. Allowing multiple big plays and committing multiple penalties. Gentry Williams was better, but still not great. We desperately need Eli Bowen back, and I think he should be ready for Kent State.

- The Sooners have potential to go all the way

As weird as it sounds, this game gives me confidence that we can go all the way if the right things get fixed. Give us a run game and better secondary play and we will be golden. Auburn is a good team, and winning this game while playing this bad is a good confidence boost.

- Defensive line is historic

After setting a school record with 10 sacks, it’s safe to say this defensive line is historic. We need to capitalize on it and make a postseason run. If we can get the secondary figured out, this will certainly be a top 3 defense at worst.

Best Players

- WR Isaiah Sategna

Sategna made crucial plays all game long, he ended with 9 catches for 127 yards and a TD. He was a KEY part to this much needed victory.

- DE R Mason Thomas

This man only played a half, but he sure made a heck of an impact during that half. He had 2 huge sacks, including the game sealing safety on his former QB.

- DT David Stone

I am extremely impressed with Stone. He was elite in run defense, and had a massive sack on the final drive for Auburn.

- DT Jayden Jackson

Jayden frickin' Jackson. This man was INSANE. 2.5 sacks and 5 total tackles, the Jackson-Stone duo is insane now and it’ll be even more insane next year.

- DT Gracen Halton

A MASSIVE sack to all but seal the game, Halton was very good today. Everyone on the defensive line was great, so I’m going to just keep naming them.

- P Grayson Miller

That 69 yard punt was just nutty. This dude has a LEG, I honestly don’t know if the Sooners get this win without him.

Positives

- Got the dub

Getting a win is always good, especially when you don’t really deserve to. Props to Auburn, they were much more difficult of an opponent than I thought they would be.

- No picks from Mateer

He did have a fumble, but no interceptions for the first time this season is good.

- 10 sacks!!!

A program record, 10 sacks is crazy. The defense overall wasn’t great, but this makes up for it.

Negatives

- Offense was trash

Outside of a couple drives, the offense was just plain bad, especially the run game. We’ve seen them play well in every other game, so I’m not too worried. However, it definitely needs to be taken up a notch on October 11th.

- Forced ZERO turnovers

It’s been 4 games and we’ve still forced no turnovers. There are multiple that should have happened in this game, and it’s very disappointing we didn’t.

- Secondary might be cooked

We desperately need Eli Bowen back. Guillory has been great, but after this performance we just can’t count on him as our #1 corner.

You can find Owen Pannell on X here.

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