Postgame Thoughts: Navy 21, Oklahoma 20
The Oklahoma Sooners’ painful 2024 season came to a fitting conclusion on Friday with a 21-20 loss to the Navy Midshipmen in the Armed Forces Bowl.
Here are some knee-jerk thoughts on what went down based on a live viewing of the broadcast.
*Some plays matter more than others in a football game, which is what makes it different from other sports. You can get the better of an opponent on the vast majority of snaps and still lose because you end up on the wrong side of a few high-leverage situations. Teams like Navy thrive living in those margins.
This game turned against OU on two missed fourth-down conversions in short yardage by the Sooners in the first half. Brent Venables made fine decisions in both cases to go for it. The play calls by interim offensive coordinator Joe Jon Finley, on the other hand, betrayed OU’s maddening tendency this year to do something overly complicated in key spots. One involved a fake toss sweep combined with an inside counter that got stoned by the Navy defense. On the second, Finley called a quarterback draw out of an empty set, which fooled no one on a day when OU’s receivers couldn’t catch a cold.
*You could argue the real problem is that OU’s play callers felt compelled in the first place to resort to a bunch of window dressing in those instances. I’d argue OU could have bulldozed the Navy front, but we’ll never know.
*Finley had a superb game script that enabled OU to race out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Once he used that up, things got choppy quickly.
*Of course, things will look choppy when your receivers repeatedly drop passes in a game. The Sooners bobbled away a total of eight throws on the day, and they did it in all manner of situations – deep shots, bubble screens, slants.
Aside from a nice catch-and-run for a touchdown by Zion Kearney and some timely catches on the final drive of the game, the wideouts contributed next to nothing. Just a miserable performance to cap off a miserable season for that unit.
*Talk about a bizarre rotation at running back. Gavin Sawchuk had a total of 26 carries this season before this game. He got 17 today, and that was with a nearly full stable of backs at OU’s disposal.
Can anyone make sense of what Demarco Murray is doing?
*Michael Hawkins played well, especially considering what he was working with. He wasn’t ready for prime time this season, and it’s unfortunate he got pressed into action. Down the line, he could turn into a danger threat at QB. It wouldn’t shock me if some programs reached out to him in the next few days to try to lure him into the transfer portal.
*On defense, OU played passable football with its two best players out of action. Eli Bowen had some nice some nice flashes. Not many standouts on that side of the ball, however.
*Time to flush this season and move on.