One of the first things head coach Brent Venables stressed to the Sooners in their team meeting this week was the importance of staying disciplined.
Fresh off a week where deception got the best of the Sooners in their narrow 31-29 win over UCF, Venables hoped to see improvement in “eye crimes” against an equally-deceptive Kansas team.
Only it wasn’t the Jayhawks’ trick plays or frequent pre-snap movement that seemed to trouble the Sooners (7-1, 4-1 Big 12) most in their 38-33 loss to Kansas (6-2, 3-2) on Saturday. Rather, it was the Sooners who hampered their chances of winning through 100-plus penalty yards, frequent mental lapses and missed opportunities.
“We didn’t play with discipline,” Venables said postgame. “Same thing two weeks in a row in different ways, but it all counts the same. It's discipline, or lack thereof.”
Venables’ message of discipline appeared to not resonate with the Sooners, as self-inflicted wounds led to their worst half of football this season, a flashback to 2022 and a meltdown too great to overcome.
“Turnovers are undisciplined, penalties are undisciplined, letting guys loose in coverage is undisciplined, false starting is undisciplined,” redshirt senior wide receiver Drake Stoops said. “So it was very frustrating.”
OU’s second half meltdown began after its first drive of the second half stalled out, forcing a punt from the Kansas 48-yard line. The Sooners were called for delay of game prior to punting, seemingly an intentional penalty to give redshirt senior Luke Elzinga more room to pin the Jayhawks deep in their own territory.
After backing up five yards, the Sooners yet again failed to beat the play clock on the next attempt. The poor clock management forced them to burn their first timeout of the half at the 12:06 mark of the third quarter, which they could’ve used to give their defense a break prior to the Jayhawks’ fourth down conversion on their game-winning touchdown drive.
“To me, it all falls on the fourth down (conversion). I should’ve called timeout and let (our guys) get settled down and I didn’t. So I blew it,” Venables said. “I really felt (a timeout) could’ve helped those guys in that situation.”
After forcing Kansas to punt on the ensuing possession, OU only trotted 10 players onto the field for the KU punt. Kendel Dolby sprinted from the Sooners’ sideline to the other side of the field where his assignment was but failed to get there in time and received an earful from Venables when he returned to the sideline after the play.
It was the first miscue in a rough day for the junior defensive back. Kansas opened its next possession with quarterback Jason Bean throwing a pass over Dolby’s head to tight end Mason Fairchild for a 39-yard gain to the OU 17-yard line. He was then flagged for unnecessary roughness early in the fourth quarter after slamming KU receiver Luke Grimm to the ground after a short completion.
Dolby wasn’t the only Sooner guilty of a 15-yard penalty. Redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Savion Byrd, who saw limited playing time in OU’s carousel offensive line rotation, received the first of OU’s four second-half personal fouls when he blocked his defender well into the sideline and out of bounds. Byrd’s penalty turned what would’ve been a third-and-5 into a third-and-19, which the Sooners failed to convert.
“One of the big plays in the game was (when) we got the penalty, unnecessary roughness, on offense after a really good run and it was going to be short yardage for a first down and we ended up punting,” Venables said. “That's what the game does to you. You get punished when you don’t do the little things right. And we certainly didn’t.”
OU’s sideline also received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty immediately after Dolby’s unnecessary roughness. The pair of fouls advanced the Jayhawks from their own 46-yard line to the OU 24-yard line.
Later that drive, Bean scrambled on third-and-goal from the three and slid feet in front of the goalline before taking a hit from redshirt senior safety Reggie Pearson. After Bean was ruled short of the end zone, the play was reviewed and Pearson was ejected for targeting.
It marked the second week in a row the Sooners appeared to have held their opponent short of the goal line on third down only for a penalty to award them a fresh set of downs and touchdown on the next play.
“He lunged and hit him in the head. Those are bang-bang, it's a quarterback scramble on the three yard line. So it is what it is,” Venables said. “We let them down there. A coach can't talk that way to the officials and I didn't love the call on (Dolby). The guy is tackling him, he doesn’t know where he is, if he's in bounds or not, he definitely wasn’t up.
“Those are three critical penalties on a touchdown drive.”
For as much as OU shot itself in the foot, Kansas did the same. When the Sooners fumbled the ensuing kickoff, the Jayhawks couldn’t capitalize, ultimately losing four yards and missing a 42-yard field goal.
Bean later threw an interception on KU’s 24-yard line, which junior safety Billy Bowman returned to the KU 14-yard line, setting the Sooners up for a four-play touchdown drive to retake a 33-32 lead with 5:22 left. OU then had a chance to ice the game after Bean threw another interception on the next drive, allowing the Sooners to take over with 2:29 left.
OU lost yards on first and second down before falling short on third-and-12. Elzinga’s high arching punt landed on the one-yard line, but no Sooner located the ball, leading to a touchback, another failed opportunity and a sequence representative of the game’s theme — as many times as the Jayhawks tried to lose, the Sooners tried harder, and succeeded.
“We wanted to make sure they used all three (timeouts) but we were trying like heck to get a first down,” offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby said “So I felt like running the ball, having the ability to pin them (deep) without any timeouts and make them go the length (of the field) was the right thing to do.We got to execute better. We got a chance to win the game if we stay on the field, get one first down, but we don't do it.”
OU, facing yet another chance to remain unbeaten, allowed Bean a clean pocket and all the time in the world to find KU receiver Lawrence Arnold for a 37-yard completion on fourth-and-6 with under a minute remaining, ultimately leading to the game-winner.
Once again, lacking discipline was at the forefront of OU’s poor showing. The Sooners, having suffered a loss against the Jayhawks and a hit to their College Football Playoff hopes, will look to clean up their mistakes in their four remaining games.
“I think we learned things from that game and they didn’t show up in this game,” Stoops said. “... Now, it’s time to learn this lesson.”
