Oklahoma's maligned defense has much to prove, and a chance to do it

George Schroeder, USA TODAY Sports Published 11:10 p.m. ET Dec. 28, 2017 | Updated 2:36 a.m. ET Dec. 29, 2017

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LOS ANGELES — Not so long ago, Baker Mayfield challenged defensive end D.J. Ward to a game of Madden NFL. Ever confident, the Heisman Trophy winner fancies himself to be a gamer, but this didn’t work out so well.

“He didn’t score,” Ward says. “It was 21-0.”

So it turns out that yes, Oklahoma’s defense can get stops.

Yeah, sorry — but you had to know it was coming, right? As Oklahoma prepares for Georgia in a College Football Playoff semifinal at the Rose Bowl, the story lines are already well-worn: It’s Mayfield and the Sooners’ high-flying offense against the Bulldogs’ defense. On the other side, it goes something like this: Does Oklahoma have any prayer of slowing Georgia’s running game? All of which means only this:

“We’ve got another chance to go out there and change the narrative,” Ward says.

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The statistics are not pretty. Where the other three Playoff participants all ranked in the top six nationally in total defense, Oklahoma ranked 58th (allowing 5.7 yards per play). Alabama, Clemson and Georgia rank first, second and fourth nationally in scoring defense, respectively (Georgia allowed an average of 13.2 points), and Oklahoma ranks 52nd (25.0-point average).

All of which fuels the perception that Oklahoma has won because of its offense, which clearly is the best in the four-team field — and in spite of its defense, which clearly is not. The Sooners bristle at the idea that they might not be physical enough to handle Georgia.

“We’re capable of playing at a very high level,” Oklahoma defensive coordinator Mike Stoops says. “There are some unique challenges in our league.”

He’s not wrong. For all the talk about Big 12 defenses (or the lack thereof), it’s fair to argue the stats are skewed a bit by the league’s prolific offenses.

“In the Big 12, you’re going to be stressed in a lot of different ways,” senior defensive end Ogbonnia Okoronkwo says. “We’re not complaining — it’s just the nature of the beast. I think it’s just a little misleading, looking at it on paper.”

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It’s also fair to point out that most of the SEC’s offenses were, well, not prolific — perhaps skewing some of the defensive statistics in a more positive direction. But we’ve watched Oklahoma’s defense more than occasionally struggle to cover receivers or stop the run or prevent touchdowns by the bushel. That 62-52 shootout win at Oklahoma State?

“In our league, it’s gonna happen,” Stoops says — though after that win, he was downcast in describing the defense as “porous.”

And if people were skeptical of Oklahoma after the win against Oklahoma State, how to gauge when the Sooners gave up lots of points and yards against lesser teams such as Baylor and Kansas State — and of course, in a loss to Iowa State?

“We know what good defense is, and we know what isn’t,” Stoops says. “Nobody has to tell me or any of our players what’s acceptable or what’s not acceptable. At times, it just wasn’t acceptable.”

But at other times, it was actually decent. It’s pretty clear that without Mayfield and that offense, Oklahoma would not be anywhere near the Playoff. The enduring image is of those Big 12 opponents running free with the football. But Oklahoma’s body of work also includes a 31-16 victory at Ohio State and two late-season wins against TCU when the Horned Frogs managed 20 and 17 points.

In Oklahoma’s last four games — which includes both wins against TCU — the Sooners allowed an average of 17.8 points and 321 yards. Those aren’t exactly shutouts — but in 21st Century football, they’re not half-bad, either. And they’re data points that at least suggest Oklahoma got better late, and perhaps can make stops in something other than video games.

Georgia’s downhill running game will present a different challenge than what Oklahoma has faced for most of the season. The three-headed rushing attack of Nick Chubb, Sony Michel and D’Andre Swift churned for 5.8 yards per play and 263.5 yards per game. But there’s also a sense that the Sooners aren’t exactly unhappy to try to defend a more conventional scheme.

“It’s not anything crazy,” Okoronkwo says. “It’s not like they’re just stressing us a hundred different things they can do. They’re just gonna hand the ball and you have to stop them.”

It’s not quite that simple, of course — either Georgia’s scheme or the task of stopping it. When someone asked Stoops if he would rather face an offense like Georgia’s than those Air Raid spreads the Sooners have seen so often this season, he chuckled.

“I’ll let you know New Year’s Day about 8 o’clock or 8:30 (p.m.), how’s that?” Stoops says. “They have great talent, their backs. It’s gonna be a huge challenge. … If they’re able to control the clock for 35 minutes and grind out 35 points, it’s gonna be tough. So we have to be able to come up with critical stops.”

If and until that happens, Oklahoma defenders will find themselves, uh, on the defense.

“The only time you pretty much do hear about our defense is how much we suck … or how we’ve got to improve in this and this and this, and how we’re holding the team back,” sophomore linebacker Caleb Kelly says. “So we have a lot to prove and we have these next two games to do it. And I’m just hoping we come together as a defense and continue playing well like we have the past couple of games.”

The TCU Horned Frogs celebrate their 39-37 victory over the Stanford Cardinal in the 2017 Alamo Bowl. Erich Schlegel, USA TODAY Sports

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