Sooners Down Redbirds in Season Opener

By Owen Pannell | KZA Sports

Oklahoma - 35 Illinois State- 3

The Sooners come out with a week 1 victory, but it honestly wasn’t great. Hopefully they learn from this and come into week 2 a much better team.

Key Takeaways

- Mateer is a great player, and he will be better

Mateer had a great day, outside of a few plays. He threw an interception, which was pretty disappointing against an FCS team, and missed some easy throws. But the talent is CLEARLY there, and he knows he needs to be better, and he will.

- Offense?

The offense was clearly very bland, as they don’t want to give up much info to the Wolverines next week. However, they were just straight disappointing if we’re being honest. They will surely be 100x better than last year, but they need to be better to win next week, and going forward.

- Defense is great

The Illinois State offense is solid, and the defense shut them down for the most part. The run defense could have been better, but the passing defense was outstanding. Next week it will definitely be tested on the ground.

- We’re good at RB

Only Blaylock really looked good, but Ott got 1 carry, Robinson looked alright, and Barnes will be better. Blaylock certainly looks like RB2 to me, and if Ott can’t stay healthy he’ll win that starting job.

- Receiver is stacked

We saw a ton of playmakers at receiver tonight, we’ll get to a couple of them later, but 3 players had 80+ receiving yards, and we’ve got even more coming.

- O-Line needs to be better

Against Illinois State it was alright, but the offensive line has to be better against better competition. If they can get healthier, I believe they’ll be fine next week.

Top players

- WR Keontez Lewis (9 catches 119 yards 2 TDs)

Lewis was a massive playmaker tonight, catching 2 TDs and bringing in over 100 yards. He’ll be a big part of this offense in 2025.

- QB John Mateer (30/37 436 total yards 4 total TDs 1 int)

Mateer was great, wish he didn’t commit the turnover but it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Not a bad night for a vanilla gameplan.

- TE Jaran Kanak (5 catches 90 yards 1 fumb)

Other than the fumble, Kanak had a great game in his first career game at TE. He’s gonna be a nice playmaker this year, and an upgrade over Bauer Sharp.

- WR Deion Burks (7 catches 88 yards 1 TD)

Burks was as advertised, having a good performance, and he should be a good reliable target for Mateer this season. Also that 1 handed catch was NASTY!

- RB Tory Blaylock (8 rushes 44 yards 1 TD)

Blaylock has earned RB2 for now, and he can potentially be RB1 by the end of the season. Dude is a STUD, but the O-Line needs to block better for him.

- LB Sammy Omosigho (8 tackles 1 sack)

The leading tackler, and he got to the QB. Good game for Omosigho, it’ll be interesting to see who plays more at MIKE this year, him or McKinzie.

- LB Owen Heinecke (4 tackles 1 TFL)

Heinecke’s impact goes beyond the box score tonight, he was all over the place. Plus, all of his tackles were solo, which is nice.

- CTH Kendal Daniels (3 tackles 0.5 TFL 1 PD)

Just as expected, Daniels was everywhere tonight. Making plays on and off the ball, I’m so excited for what he can do this year.

- PR Isaiah Setegna (4 returns 63 yards)

Setegna was electric on the returns, he had his longest one called back, but he can certainly make a difference in the field position battle. He was alright as a receiver, but nothing crazy.

Positives

- Offense is better

The offense is clearly better than last year. Yes, that is extremely easy to do, but it’s still a positive. 

- Defense is just as good, if not better

It’s hard to tell early, but this defense is at the very least as good as last years. Paired with a good offense, that could make a very good football team.

- Passing game is ELITE

392 yards from Mateer, that’s more than a 6th of the entire teams passing yards last season. This is going to be fun.

Negatives

- Offense wasn’t great

The offense made a lot of mistakes tonight. They showed flashes, but flashes won’t be good enough in most of these games. They need to clean up before next Saturday.

- O-Line was mid

The offensive line needs time to gel, but it wasn’t a great performance. Hopefully as they get healthier, they’ll get better.

- Running game was poor

The team only had 3.2 yards per carry, which is very bad against an FCS team. Without a running game, it’s hard to have success in this league.

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