Report Card from the Sooners dominant win over West Virginia
The Oklahoma Sooners broke their two-game losing skid with a statement win over the West Virginia Mountaineers. The win kept Oklahoma in the thick of the Big 12 title race. Just keep winning.
After an opening drive touchdown by West Virginia, the Sooners took complete control of the game, outscoring the Mountaineers 31-14 in the first half.
It was an incredible bounce-back performance for the Oklahoma Sooners, who needed a win to get back on track.
Here’s a look at how the Oklahoma Sooners graded out in their 59-20 win over West Virginia.
Quarterback: A++
Anytime you account for nearly 500 yards of offense and eight total touchdowns, you’ve had a great game. Dillon Gabriel started off a little inaccurate but rebounded to put together an incredible performance in the win.
18 of Gabriel’s 23 completions went for a first down or a touchdown, showing off fantastic accuracy down the field. On throws 10-20 yards down the field, Gabriel was 10 of 16 for 187 yards and three touchdowns.
In his big performance, Gabriel set a record for touchdowns in a game at eight and passed former Hawaii QB Colt Brennan for 10th all-time in career passing yards.
Running Backs: A
It’s the Gavin Sawchuk show, ladies and gentlemen. Earning the second start of his career, Sawchuk had his second consecutive 100-yard game and the third of his career.
He was patient, decisive, and explosive in the running game. Sawchuk had three runs of 15 yards or more and averaged a whopping 4.07 yards after contact per attempt. He finished the day with 135 yards on 22 carries.
With a big lead in the second half, running the ball got a little bit tougher, but Sawchuk had a great day.
Tawee Walker had just one carry on the day for -2 yards. Daylan Smothers carried the ball twice for six yards in the win.
Wide Receiver: A+
In our takeaways from the game, we mentioned that Drake Stoops is the Oklahoma Sooners No. 1 wide receiver. He had a career-high 164 receiving yards and three touchdowns, absolutely abusing the West Virginia secondary. Stoops has seen his yardage increase each of the last five weeks.
Nic Anderson rebounded from an underwhelming performance against Oklahoma State to catch four passes for 119 yards. He was dynamic after the catch and a big play machine.
Jalil Farooq had four touches for 59 total yards, showing off his ability in the run game to help the Sooners keep West Virginia off balance.
It was great to see the Sooners get Jayden Gibson involved in the offense again. He’s a really good player who simply makes plays when given the opportunity. He caught two passes for 38 yards, including a 32-yard touchdown.
Tight Ends: B+
Austin Stogner is back!
This was easily Austin Stogner’s best game of the season. The Sooners got him involved in the offense early, and there’s a chance his day could have looked even better if Gabriel were a little more accurate on a couple of throws.
On the evening, Stogner had four catches for 69 yards and a touchdown, and it helped make Oklahoma’s offense even more dangerous.
Keep making Stogner a priority in the passing game and thrive.
Offensive Line: A-
The offensive line was without starting right tackle Tyler Guyton in the game and there were some growing pains with Jacob Sexton at right tackle.
Gabriel was under pressure on 13 of his 39 dropbacks and was sacked two times. But generally, they created enough of a pocket to provide Gabriel space to move around and avoid pressure.
The offensive line was really good in the running game, helping the Sooners run for 221 yards and three touchdowns at 5.3 yards per carry.
McKade Mettauer was ejected coming to the defense of Drake Stoops who took a hard shot in the end zone on a touchdown reception. It was a hit that was reviewed for targeting but looked clean on replay. Mettauer took exception to the defender stepping over Stoops as he lay on the ground.
Defensive Line: B+
The Oklahoma Sooners defense had Garrett Greene under pressure on 11 of his 28 dropbacks, per Pro Football Focus. That’s nearly 40% of his dropbacks.
Though they didn’t come away with a sack, they kept him off balance and didn’t allow Greene room to run. Because of his ability to run, the Sooners had to rush with discipline and not lose containment. They did a great job in that respect, holding him to just 24 yards on 10 carries.
West Virginia came into the game the No. 7 rush offense, and the Oklahoma Sooners held them under their season average. Some of that was due to the game script as the Sooners created a huge lead before halftime but still, the Sooners defensive line came through in a big way on Saturday night.
Linebackers: B+
Like the defensive line, the Sooners linebackers had a really good day. Getting Danny Stutsman back was huge for the defense. They were a big reason why Greene wasn’t able to get loose, and they did a good job of limiting big runs by C.J. Donaldson and Jaheim White.
Stutsman led the way with eight total tackles. Kip Lewis had seven, and Jaren Kanak had five. Kobie McKinzie got more playing time and nearly had an interception on fourth down.
Lewis led the way with six “stops” per Pro Football Focus. He’s been on a tear of late, earning more and more snaps for the Sooners defense.
Oklahoma’s linebacker corps stepped up in a big way on Saturday night.
Defensive Back: B+
Garrett Greene isn’t the most prolific passer but was still able to beat Oklahoma’s secondary for several big plays. Kani Walker got the start for Gentry Williams and was targeted seven times, allowing just three receptions. Walker had two pass breakups in the win. Woodi Washington was targeted six times and allowed two catches.
Kendal Dolby played a good game in the cheetah role, earning three QB hits and a PBU.
Billy Bowman and Robert Spears-Jennings each had seven total tackles and Reggie Pearson and Jacobe Johnson came away with interceptions.
Special Teams: B
Zach Schmit was 1 of 1 on field goal attempts and hit each of his extra-point opportunities. If there was an area where he could have been better, it was on kickoffs, as West Virginia had a number of opportunities to make plays in the return game.
Luke Elzinga averaged just 38 yards on three punts, but West Virginia wasn’t able to do much with them.
In the return game, Gavin Freeman struggled to handle punt return duties. He muffed two kicks, with West Virginia able to recover one of them.
Jalil Farooq had a return that could have hit for a big play, but a shoestring tackle kept him from getting loose.
Special teams haven’t contributed a whole lot since the nonconference portion of the schedule. It’s an area that needs a lot of improvement for the Sooners.
Coaching Staff: A+
In the midst of a two-game losing streak, it would have been easy for things to continue to unravel. Credit to the coaching staff and the Sooners leadership for getting Oklahoma back on the right track.
If you needed any further evidence that this team is different from the one we saw in 2022, this win over West Virginia should rest that case.
Brent Venables, Jeff Lebby, and Ted Roof had this team ready to play on Saturday. They came out with an energy and a level of execution that we hadn’t seen in weeks.
After being penalized 19 times in the last two weeks, the Sooners were only penalized five times for 60 yards. Just one of the penalties was of the presnap variety, a false start on Walter Rouse early in the game. Drake Stoops was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after spiking the football. He played with an edge all game long on the way to a career day. The rest of the penalties could be described as “competitive penalties”; two defensive pass interference calls and a holding.
Oklahoma had a great gameplan on both sides of the ball and the team executed well. They played with passion and intensity for all 60 minutes, looking like a team wanting to make a statement.
And they did just that.
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