It took just two weeks for the Oklahoma Sooners to face adversity.
Oklahoma was surrounded by tons of offseason hype and expectations. For many valid reasons. The Sooners returned much of one of the nation's best defenses, added multiple offensive playmakers, and brought back a healthy veteran quarterback.
However, in just the second game of the season, all of that hype is now gone. Oklahoma came up short against Michigan 17-10 at the Big House in Ann Arbor on Saturday. Many of Oklahoma's bad habits from years past resurfaced: poor tackling at the worst times, an unwillingness to establish the run, inconsistent play calling, and errant throws by the star quarterback.
Now, Oklahoma's only chance at a successful season is how quickly they learn from
this past week. It is a results-based business and a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately business. Just ask Michigan. Just last week, Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood faced heavy scrutiny for his poor play against Western Michigan. There were even rumblings that he might lose his starting spot. Then he delivered one of his best performances as the Wolverines' quarterback. Now, Michigan is ranked again in the AP Poll.
That same situation can happen for the Sooners, who fell 11 spots to No. 21 after the loss. A ways away from Playoff contention. However, some of the veterans on the team, like linebacker Owen Heinecke, know Oklahoma can still make it happen. They’ve done it before.
“I think the biggest takeaway is that you can’t let a loss divide the team, get you down in the dumps, it's a whole season,” Heinecke said postgame. “Last year I think they had us at like a 4 percent chance to make the playoffs, and that’s exactly what we did. Just take this as a learning opportunity, fix the things that went wrong.”
Understandably, the slate is tough now with the loss. Oklahoma doesn’t have much buffer room if it wants to reach 10 wins and make the College Football Playoff again. From here on out, they’ll likely have to run the table through a gauntlet of an SEC schedule and, at worst, split with No. 2 Georgia and No.1 Texas, who they play in back-to-back weeks. It’s certainly a tough spot to be in and will likely take a ton of Sooner Magic to achieve. But it all starts with Oklahoma learning from its Week 2 mistakes and taking it one game at a time.
“We got to do everything we can to again put this game behind us," Venables said, "learn from it, grow from it, get better from it and get ready for again a 10-win New Mexico team that's coming into Norman next week."
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Can Oklahoma repeat history with a magical run after loss to Michigan?
