NORMAN, Okla. — On first-and-10 from his own 19-yard line, John Mateer tucked the ball and ran straight ahead. After reaching his offensive line, the Oklahoma quarterback darted to his right and looked down field for blockers. He made a cut, broke a tackle — and after a 19-yard gain, the Sooners had begun the slow suppression of the Michigan football team.
For eight minutes and 26 seconds, No. 18 Oklahoma held on to the ball in the fourth quarter to run the clock from 10:11 to 1:44, and squander any of No. 15 Michigan’s final hopes in the Wolverines first loss of the season.
The Sooners missed a field goal just over two minutes earlier, but Michigan couldn’t respond and had to punt it away — not knowing it would be its last true chance at taking down Oklahoma. Instead of letting the missed kick slow down the Sooners’ momentum, they drove full steam ahead.
“Nobody panicked,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said of the final drive following the missed field goal and opportunities earlier in the game. “We kept showing back up, made the plays when we needed to get an eight-plus minute drive there in the last 10 and a half minutes of the game. Man, that says a lot. And again, you’re not going against the Sisters of the Poor, you’re going against Michigan and (Wolverines defensive coordinator Wink Martindale).”
Following Mateer’s electrifying run on the first play of the drive, Oklahoma running back Tory Blaylock was stuffed for a loss of 1 yard, setting up second-and-long. Mateer then did it again. He dropped back and after running around the backfield to avoid pressure from Michigan junior linebacker Jaishawn Barham for what felt like an eternity, he made a pass while falling backwards to gain 10 yards and set up third-and-short.
Mateer converted that through the air on a quick completion in hurry-up offense to continue the drive. All night, Mateer made moves to extend plays and plays to extend drives.
“Just his playmaking building,” Michigan graduate linebacker Ernest Hausmann said when asked what’s most difficult about trying to defend Mateer. “He can do a lot of things to affect the defense. His feet, his arm, knowledge of the game. He’s a smart guy, he’s been playing football for a long time, is experienced and knows how to operate that offense.”
Although Mateer made an impact early in the final drive, Michigan’s defense had to allocate too much of its defense to stop Mateer. By causing distractions through play action or smart read options, the Sooners opened up the game on the ground for running back Jovantae Barnes to move Oklahoma into the red zone with four runs.
Although on third-and-goal, Mateer’s pass fell short of the endzone, a 21-yard chip shot allowed Oklahoma to take a two-possession lead under the two-minute timeout, leaving Michigan without time to salvage anything.
“I didn’t have any doubts that we were going to close that game out,” Oklahoma offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle said. “Now did I know we were going to go on an eight and a half minute drive? No, I didn’t exactly know that, but it was awesome to watch them just put the ball down over and over and over again on that last drive and get it done.”
That last drive not only sucked the life out of the Wolverines’ defense, but also didn’t give Michigan’s already struggling offense any room to comeback. The Wolverines’ final defensive stand was emblematic of the entire night, and fittingly how the night ended.
The post Oklahoma’s over 8-minute fourth-quarter drive kills any chance for Michigan in road loss appeared first on The Michigan Daily.
Leave a Reply