SoonerScoop Sights & Sounds: OU 28, SMU 11
OU earned a hard-fought 28-11 victory against visiting SMU on Saturday. Here’s how head coach Brent Venables began his postgame press conference.
“The game is hard to win. I know that’s maybe a popular thing to say and it sounds cliche, but it is,” Venables said. “They did a great job. First of all, I want to say congratulations to SMU, I know they’re disappointed in losing, but it was a hard-fought game. There’s nothing easy about winning
“And the belief and the never-flinching attitude that they had — that’s what you want to see. A year ago I’m not sure if we would’ve figured out a way to win that game. I think there’s a silver lining in knowing that at any point in time there, we had some moments there in the third quarter and the fourth quarter both, where we had a real chance to slam the door. We didn’t, but there’s a good opportunity to learn.
“Whether it’s self-inflicted penalties, we’ve got to clean up some technique, there’s some pre-snap alignments, some positioning. I thought we made some really good, competitive plays and then again, we had some opportunities there, a fourth-and-one, we were supposed to be in cover two and they ran a little fullback in the flat and we had nobody there. They threw it over our head there and converted a fourth down to extend the drive, but it’s just a safety concept — one side’s doing one thing and one side’s doing another and the guy didn’t know what he was doing on his side. So it’s just stuff like that that to me they were correctable, fixable. But man, I love the attitude of the guys. Halftime was really business-like, that’s all part of the growth element of our team.
“And then offensively in the second half there they came out and we had nine plays, again had some opportunities to extend that drive when we could’ve punted. We turned it over on downs and the next drive had an 11-play drive and we’ve got to be a little bit more efficient there and get that first down, wherever it is.
“They get the ball and we turn around and had five drives on defense in the second half where we forced a punt. A three-and-out right out of the gate. They get into a rhythm and then we forced a fumble. We had the long touchdown drive and I took a penalty on that one and gave them first-and-goal. That can’t happen. And then we turned it over on downs the next drive. So we responded after the long touchdown drive, come back and go four plays for five yards. And then we had an interception there at the end. The offense after turning it over on downs they come back and go 10 plays, 75-yard touchdown and had a nice, after the turnover on downs, they punched it in on a free play for another touchdown to seal it.”
Quarterback Dillon Gabriel threw for four touchdowns. Linebacker Danny Stutsman had a whopping 17 tackles.
And now the Sights & Sounds from SoonerScoop video editor Eddie Radosevich.
