What Lincoln Riley had to say following the Oklahoma Sooners 37-33 loss in Bedlam - Sooners Wire
It was a disappointing way to end the regular season for the Oklahoma Sooners who fell to Oklahoma State 37-33 in Stillwater. The Sooners drop to 10-2 while the Cowboys move to 11-1 and will take on Baylor for the Big 12 championship next Saturday in Arlington.
After a wild weekend, the Cowboys have a chance to earn a place in the College Football Playoff, while the Sooners will await the conclusion of championship weekend to find out which bowl game they'll be playing in.
Though it was a disappointing loss, the team gave a great effort and Caleb Williams put them in a position to win the game at the end. They weren't able to make the plays at the end and the Sooners head back to Norman looking ahead to 2022.
Let's take a look at what Lincoln Riley had to say following the Sooners' loss.
On the 37-33 Loss
Gut-wrenching loss tonight. No other way to describe it. Heart's broken for our players. It's a horrible feeling, that's the only other way I can describe it. We've had a chance to win this league six years in a row. We're not going to have a chance to do that this year and it's a gut punch. I hate it for our players. They fought their a** off tonight. Guys laid it on the line, guys playing hurt, a couple of guys had the flu and probably shouldn't have even been out there, they just found a way. Had a ton of big plays on all sides and came up one play away and came up agonizingly close on that last drive.
On Oklahoma State's Performance
We had our chances. I give Oklahoma State credit. They played well. They're a good football team. They're an experienced football team. They did a nice job. It was a great fight.
On the Offense's Performance in the Second Half
We had plenty of opportunities, I would say the penalties was probably the number one thing in the second half that hurt us. We had the penalties and we had the crazy backwards pass that we ended up kicking out of bounds that ended up way back. Against a good defense like that, you've gotta play clean football. We played pretty clean football in the first half. We didn't really have penalties, we didn't have too many negative yardage plays, and we gave ourselves opportunities to get in good positon to make plays and we did quite a bit in the first half… (In the second half) we did not play as clean. We had too many unforced errors in the second half.
On the Running Game in the Second Half
Could I have given him the ball a few more times, sure. But I think the bigger issue was the penalties and all that that moved us backwards that put you in obviously a lot tougher spot.
On if it's consolation that they were close
I wouldn't say it's consolation. I leave this game, obviously disappointed that we didn't win and that we don't have a chance to play for a seventh championship in a row. I leave this game proud as heck of our team and my team for this fight, the way we fought. We did a lot of great things in this game. This year has taught you, winning on the road, just look all across college football, it's not easy, it's hard, especially against good teams. That's what this league has come down to. That's what a lot of these leagues, if you look across the country have come down to. In the year's past, we've been able to go win those tough ones on the road. It just shows you how hard it is. This game could have went either way. There were a few plays there that were back and forth… It still stings. I don't know if it's consolation, we expected to win the game.
On Caleb Williams' performance
He fought his guts out man. I thought he did a lot of really good things. Gave us a lot of chances, made a lot of plays, a lot of great throws. The run at the end was awesome. This stretch will be a very valuable stretch for him going forward. He'll learn so much, not afraid of the moment and made a ton of big plays. I'm proud of the way he played. Always have some things leaving any game that you want back but like a lot of our guys, he was a warrior.
On fielding the punt at the 5-yard line
It's close cause you kinda know where you're at, but you have to be confident and make confident decisions back there. You get a punt that's hanging up there in the air and you got guys bearing down on you, you gotta make decisions. We typically like our guys, if they start to get inside the 10 to get away from it, but at the same time, you can't be indecisive. Obviously wish we wouldn't have, but we did, and he didn't catch it, it's just an unfortunate play.
On the offsides penalties
We're so aggressive off the ball. We can live with one of those here and there. We had too many tonight. There's some risk-reward with that, we understand that.
On his place at OU.
I'm not going to be the next coach at LSU… All of us are trying to make this place better, make this program better… We work well together and we're going to continue to work well together.
Comments
Post a Comment