What About Bob?: Blaming Stoops' Staff in Oklahoma

The apparent cause of No. 4 Oklahoma's upset loss at Texas Tech Saturday night is obvious: blown opportunities and disastrous injuries.

Two times late in the fourth quarter, the Sooners had the ball inside Tech's 15 yard line and came away with nothing.

As for the disastrous injuries—as we saw Thursday night with Dennis Dixon and Oregon, when you take away the quarterback on a QB-dependent team...disaster follows.

After Sam Bradford left the game in the first quarter with a concussion, the outcome was all but official.

But missed chances and ill health only tell part of the story.

The real crux of the Sooners' problems?

Mistakes and miscalculations from a coaching staff long considered one of the best in the country.

Head coach Bob Stoops is a defensive guy through and through. His signature win, the 2000 National Championship against Florida State, featured one of the best big-game defensive performances in recent memory.

And that makes Tech QB Graham Harrell's Saturday stat line even more mind-boggling.

Harrell racked up 420 yards passing and two touchdowns on 47 completions. During one stretch, he led the Red Raiders to 24 straight points.

And the most damming stat of them all:

Harrell had 72 pass attempts...and wasn't sacked once.

On offense, meanwhile, everything that could go wrong did go wrong for OU in the first half.

The Sooners were down just 17 points going into the third quarter. With an inexperienced backup under center, the logical call would have to be lean on the running game.

Not so fast, my friends.

Stoops and offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson put the game in the hands of QB Joey Halzle. To his credit, Halzle  did better than anyone could have expected: 21 of 41 for 291 yards and one touchdown.

But therein lies the problem—41 pass attempts for a career backup, compared to 30 rushes TOTAL for the Oklahoma running backs...when the Sooners should have been trying to control the clock and keep Tech's unstoppable O off the field.

Does this make sense to you?

The truth is, nothing about OU's night makes sense—not the inability to stop the pass; not the offensive playcalling; not the fact that the coaching staff seems to always get a free pass for dropping the ball.

I'm not calling for Stoops to be fired, but I am calling for some accountability from a program that has a habit of laying eggs in big-time games (see the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, the 2003-2004 Sugar Bowl, and the 2004-2005 Orange Bowl).

Maybe it's time for a shakeup in Norman. Bring in a new defensive coordinator. Or let Stoops be in charge of the defense. Or better yet, try to steal Bob's brother Mike back from the Arizona Wildcats.

Something has to be done, because Sooner Nation likes its defense mean and nasty and its offense smart and efficient.

And it hates seeing the Sooners lose.