The Oklahoma Sooners improved to 2-1 on the 2026 season with an ugly home win over the New Mexico Lobos in Week 3. OU won by a final score of 14-6, overcoming bad offense and bad special teams with an impressive defensive performance.
As a result, each of the Sooners' stars comes from the defensive side of the ball. Simply put, if the defense wasn't as good as it is, Oklahoma would have had little chance to win this game, despite playing a Group of Six opponent. Sure, the Lobos might be one of the favorites to win the Mountain West Conference, but OU shouldn't need a full four quarters to decide the game, especially at home.
Still, Oklahoma finished out its non-league slate with a victory, and now it's all SEC opponents from here. Let's take a look
at three stars from OU's win over UNM.
1. Owen Heinecke, LB
Sixth-year linebacker Owen Heinecke is a big reason why the Sooners won this game. He tallied eight total tackles, including 1.5 TFLs and one sack. He was everywhere for the OU defense, and he looked absolutely gassed at the end of the game. Without his running mate Kip Lewis or Oklahoma's No. 3 linebacker Cole Sullivan, it was Heinecke who held everything together in the middle of the unit. He'll have to do more of the same in the weeks to come.
2. Jayden Jackson, DL
Junior defensive lineman Jayden Jackson played well last week against Michigan, and that continued this week against New Mexico. Though he had just five total tackles, he helped OU limit the powerful Lobo rushing attack to just 69 yards. Oklahoma's continued ability to get stops won them the football game, and you don't do that without strong performance at defensive tackle.
3. David Stone, DL
Junior defensive lineman David Stone had his best performance of the young season in Saturday night's win. He tied Heinecke for the lead in total tackles with eight, and he also registered 2 TFLs and half a sack. With the Lobos driving late and looking for the tying touchdown, Stone made the stop on fourth and short that took away what would become UNM's final chance to score. After a quiet start to the year, he flashed several times this week.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: 3 stars from OU's 14-6 win over New Mexico
