OU Football: Highlights From Bob Stoops' Weekly Press Conference

After a tough loss to open the season, OU head football coach Bob Stoops talked to the media on Monday at his weekly press conference to address the loss to Houston along with the upcoming game against Louisiana Monroe. 

Related: Humbled In Houston: Sooners Drop Season Opener To Cougars

Here are some of the takeaways from what Stoops had to say. 

Opening statement…

“Compliments to Houston for a well-played football game. They played better and coached better than we did, that’s always the case when you’re on the wrong end of it.”

“Through the first half we were really in a good football game, but I really felt we lost some momentum with that last field goal at the end of the half. Another situation where we’re out of it, but we roughed the passer, so made a critical mistake that ends up leading to three points, and that kind of started it.”

“Our kicker got anxious, started to kick too soon, had to stop momentum and was not able to complete the kick like he normally does.”

“In the first half our offense was really clicking, I think we scored on four of our first five possessions. Defensively we gave up some yards and some drives but held them to some field goals in those situations and so you’re back and forth in a pretty good game.”

“Then in the second half the defense plays better than the offense does, and we give up the big play on the return. Anytime you’re away from home and playing a good football team and give up a return for a touchdown and two fumbles, you’re on the short end of turnover ratio and you’re going to be on the wrong side of it and course that’s how it was.”

“Tough position to start right now being 0-1, but we’ve got a long season ahead of us, our guys are very aware of that, we get a chance to start off at home this week against Louisiana Monroe, a team that got their first win under a new coaching staff, they’ve got a lot of new life so we’ve got to do a lot of work this week to push for improvement.”

“Offensively the inconsistency, I thought a lot of it was us forcing the issue, trying for the big plays instead of taking what was there for us, with getting the ball out sooner with some of our reads, we had the plays there, got a little greedy waiting for bigger plays then it leads to whether you’re stripped of the ball or incompletions or getting chased around in the pocket instead of just taking some of the throws and some of the execution that was there could’ve been better.”

On if he thought his receivers got enough separation…

“Yes. I think at times Baker held on, instead of taking what was open and what was there on his first read, he was waiting for something different, something that takes a little bit longer to progress, and that’s not how the offense operates. We had guys in certain spots that would’ve been easier throws and would’ve helped us.”

On the play of the offensive line...

“You know the offensive line was one of the better groups that we had on both sides of the ball in how they played. Jonathan Alvarez and Orlando Brown were really standouts in having great games. With all that they were throwing at us, the offensive line really picked it up and did a good job.”

On if the Sooners have to be more committed to the run...

“It looks that way, but at halftime we ran the ball 14 times for 83, 85 yards, pretty good. It’s what you want, and I’ve been through it maybe nine or ten times. We had good balance, and then the third quarter happens, and now you’re behind sixteen, you know we were driving and we fumbled two times and we had the long field goal that gets returned then all the sudden you’re in a hole and you lose your patience.”

On the play of the secondary…

“A lot of 1-on-1 throws that we’ve got to be better at competing with them. You can only cover so many legs, and in the end you’re going to go through games and you’re going to have 1-on-1 matchups and you’ve got to be able to go up and play the ball.”

On if there will be any personnel changes…

“We’ll see. There will be more competition. That’s something that could happen and it’s something we’re going to pay attention to all week, who’s competing the best and making the most plays, but we did that everyday too.”

On evaluating Parrish Cobb playing his first game…

“You give that some consideration that it’s your first time out there, you know that usually you’re only going to keep getting better. Parrish competed well, so that’s something to be considered.”

On true freshman receiver Mykel Jones…

“He hasn’t quite caught up to where he’s supposed to be all the time, routes, blocking and everything else. He’s working his way back in there.”

On the injuries from Saturday's game…

“Should be okay. Samaje was just muscle, no structural damage. Steven is sore, but played through his injury and should be okay by the end of the week, we’ll see.”

On the play of the linebackers…

“They played okay. I thought Obo had a really good game, he had some good pressures, sacks, forced another sack, had a lot of tackles. He did really well. The other guys did good, they were solid.”

On if he has a sense this group will respond well to losing…

“I could tell after the game they were disappointed, but still angry and know they’ve got to do better, and that was the mood, and a lot of them were around yesterday even though they had the day off. I do believe they’ll respond.”

On if he thinks Baker Mayfield will be motivated after loss…

“I haven’t seen him yet. I’m sure when we go to practice today he’ll be one of the ones pushing for improvement and working hard to make it.”

On the Houston’s kick six…

“Austin’s going to kick that ball out every time when he’s in his normal rhythm, that ball’s going left or right or through the goal post, but I’ve never seen him short at that distance with no wind, so he didn’t hit it right and that’s how it goes.”

On if he was happy with the pass rush…

“We made him move a lot, we did get some pressure. The one pass down the middle where he scrambled and had too much time, that was on one occasion. On other times I thought he either got rid of it quickly, or other times we were chasing him but he was hard to get.”

On Will Johnson’s performance…

“He played well, had a ton of tackles, I think we had 11 tackles for loss, he didn’t have all of them but he had several, covered well. Will played pretty well.”

On if the team tackled a lot in preseason…

“We tackled as much this camp than we ever have. We had two major scrimmages that went a long time, and then two half scrimmages where we scrimmage half the practice. We’ve done it more than we have in probably 17 years.”

On the fumbling issues...

“We’re constantly addressing it, pulling at it in practice with the scout team guys. They do drills after every practice in regard to holding onto the ball so, we’ve got to do a better job.”

On if he has confidence in Lincoln Riley…

“I’ve got total confidence. He’s a great guy and a lot of it too it’s not him out there making plays or not making them. I see what some of the opportunities were, we’ve got to do a better job of executing but he’ll get it across to the players who ultimately have to get it done.”