Brent Venables can finally let out a sigh of relief after the Oklahoma Sooners did what they haven’t done in 307 days
Brent Venables’ defense finally got a takeaway.
“Luck’s not the right word, but the stove is hot. We’re going to continue to emphasize turnovers.”
That’s the message that Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables preached after their win over the Auburn Tigers, when they’d still not had a takeaway yet as a defense, despite being the nation’s best unit. Now, on Saturday against Kent State, Venables can breathe a sigh of relief, as his defense has two.
“I wasn’t anxious about that, I knew they would come,” Venables told reporters after the 44-0 shutout over Kent State. “We are on our way, minus four [in turnover differential] on the season.”
This has easily been the best unit in the league all year long, as they’re top-three in pretty much every single defensive category, besides takeaways.
Sooners’ defense played lights out vs. Kent State
Sure, it’s Kent State, a team that had 60 points dropped on them twice already this season by Texas Tech and Florida State, but this is still a game where the Sooners showed that they’re not letting their foot off the gas. They’re coming off a bye week, with some injuries happening, against a much inferior opponent, and they did what they’re supposed to do.
The defense stopped the run, swarmed to the ball with all parties involved, and sacked the quarterback. Then, you have sophomore safety Jaydan Hardy getting a very nice interception on the day, following R Mason Thomas’ strip sack that led to a Gracen Halton scoop and score.
Venables mentioned after the game that he wants his team to celebrate their success, and this is the type of game where they should do that. Like we said, we know it’s just Kent State, but there are other great teams in the country who did not shut out Kent State, and the Sooners did.
The best part about all of this is that now that the first takeaway is out of the way, they will start coming more frequently. The pressure to be the guy to make that play had to have been heavy. Let’s face it, there were so many opportunities in past games to get an interception, but the ball was dropped. Now, that won’t happen as often. And, they could replicate this next week against the Texas Longhorns, who looked absolutely atrocious against the Florida Gators on Saturday.
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