This week would be a great time to right the ship offensively and put together a complete game against the Kansas State Wildcats. At 4-0, Oklahoma is losing respect nationally. And while all that matters is they keep winning, there is a committee of folks that determines OU’s College Football Playoff fate that needs convincing.
If the Sooners win every game, even if they’re one-score games, they should find themselves in the playoff. However, crazy as it may be, there’s a scenario where an undefeated Oklahoma team is left on the outside looking in.
Oklahoma can’t be concerned with the “eye test,” but it is a real concern. The Sooners haven’t been overly impressive aside from the second quarter against Tulane. And even in that quarter, the offense was forced to settle for three field goals in a 23 point outburst.
National observers are losing faith in the Sooners. In Dennis Dodd’s most recent power rankings for CBS Sports, he has the Oklahoma Sooners ninth after their 16-13 win over West Virginia. OU drops two spots from last week’s rankings and with a difficult matchup coming for the Sooners against Kansas State, they could be in danger of falling out of the top 10 entirely.
Is OU the shakiest 4-0 team in the country? The Sooners survived West Virginia with a late field goal. Other than that, Rattler has underachieved and the offense looks mediocre with a lack of explosiveness. Big plays are Lincoln Riley’s signature. Watch out this week at Kansas State. The Wildcats have won the last two meetings and three of the last seven. – Dodd
Every team ahead of the Sooners is 4-0 as well and one could argue has looked more impressive along the way. Three of those teams are from the SEC, two are from the Big 10, then there’s Cincinnati, Oregon, and Notre Dame to round out the top eight teams.
There’s a lot of football left for the Sooners to earn back the trust of national observers, but unless they start stringing together convincing wins, it may not be enough for them to land in the College Football Playoff at the end of the season.
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