Oklahoma Sooners Football: Spencer Rattler shows improvement as Sooners top Kansas State, 37-31

After experiencing another too-close-for-comfort affair, the Oklahoma Sooners improved to 5-0 on the season with a 37-31 win over the Kansas State Wildcats. Yes, OU made some mistakes in this one that made us pull our hair out, but the performance of QB Spencer Rattler should give fans a bit more reason for optimism entering the Red River Shootout/Showdown/Rivalry/Whatever against the Texas Longhorns.

By the end of the day, the embattled Rattler completed 22 of 25 passes 243 yards and a pair of touchdowns to go with one INT. With Oklahoma’s defense repeatedly failing to get stops on third or fourth down, the redshirt sophomore’s clutch throws kept this one from becoming a third consecutive loss to the Chris Klieman’s program. This could have easily turned into an embarrassing blowout, but OU’s QB showed some much-needed mettle in front of a hostile crowd in Manhattan. He was able to do some nice things on the run and under pressure that give should give you a bit of hope that he can lead this team to the promised land provided that the offensive line continues to improve,

Speaking of the O-line, the group was far from perfect, but 4.1 yards per carry is certainly an improvement over what we saw last week. On a related note, OU needs to feed Kennedy Brooks the rock much more frequently.

The defense’s inability to consistently get pressure in a hampered Skylar Thompson was puzzling, and the inability to corral Deuce Vaughn in the open field was about as frustrating as one could expect. Actually, that’s probably an understatement. I think many of us are still livid about some of those third and fourth down conversions. At the same time, you have to recognize greatness, and Vaughn seems to fit that description even in the early stages of his career.

With all of that being said, this group made timely stops that simply would not have been made three years ago. Additionally, past issues with this K-State offense have a way of putting this into perspective, and I think most crimson-clad observers are just thankful for an improvement.

After struggling to a 13-10 halftime advantage, Rattler and the Sooners were able to put together a pair of fantastic TD drives to seemingly make this one comfortable. Sadly, ‘comfortable’ is not a word that ever really describes an OU lead, and late K-State kickoff return TD actually made this one come down to a late onside kick.

Anyway, we’ll gladly move onto the next one.

Boomer Sooner, and TEXAS SUCKS!