OU – BYU Game Summary

Posted September 8th, 2009 by Kyle Dalton No Comments »

When the University of Texas football team began the 2009 season on Saturday night at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium, no Longhorn fan figured that the Warhawks from Lousiana-Monroe would pose a threat, much less affect the Longhorn nation and its national title hopes.  By the conclusion of Saturday
’s game, the landscape of college football had changed alright, and it had done so in Texas, just not in Austin.   

Nearly 200 miles to the north at The House That Jerry Built or Dallas Cowboys Stadium as it is officially known, disaster struck for the Oklahoma Sooners. Just before halftime, Sooners quarterback Sam Bradford took a hard hit from blitzing BYU linebacker Coleby Clawson. Bradford went down, and stayed down. No one knew it at the time, but the Sooners national title hopes went down with him as Oklahoma suffered a season-opening 14-13 loss at the hands of the visitors from BYU.

Not surprisingly, in the second half, the OU offense struggled under the leadership of backup quarterback and redshirt freshman Landry Jones managing to score just three points. To make matters worse, when the Oklahoma defense needed a stop most, late in the game, it couldnít pull it off.  While the inability of the OU defense to stop BYU when it mattered most is disconcerting to head coach Bob Stoops and the OU coaching staff, Bradfordís injury and the reason for it exposed a much more glaring problemóa weak offensive line.   Bradford paid the price for the inexperienced line in the form of injury. Jones suffered in the second half taking several shots from the BYU defense on what appeared to be missed assignments.
Back in Austin, Longhorn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp and his defense were salivating, looking at the calendar and the meeting in Dallas on October 17.   Make no mistake about it, a lot can and probably will change by the time the two teams meet in Big D. But one thing is for sure, that one night in early September at Jerryís House, the Oklahoma Sooners looked vulnerable. They lost a game they should have won. The effectively played themselves out of the national title picture. And burnt orange fans couldnít be happier.

Posted in NCAA Football

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