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Orange Bowl take from a Sooner fan
Make no mistake, Clemson won that game because of two factors: They dominated the line play and OU forgot how to tackle. I've already found articles and commentary trying to credit other things, but if either of those two factors weren't the case OU would have had the chance to win!
I'm not too surprised by the poor play of OU's offensive line. This has been the worst OLine in a while for OU. They are plenty big and physical (see Orlando Brown), but their youth and general lack of skill showed up plenty this season, though it was masked later on in the season by OU's elite RBs and lack of tough DLine competition in the Big12 this season. And Clemson had the best defense they faced all season. I thought they would play a little better than that, but I still feared this would happen.
I am surprised at the poor play of OU's front 7. Yes it did hurt that they lost 40lbs in the middle when Charles Walker got a concussion and Romar had to go pretty much full time. But they just inexplicably played very poorly all over the place. They couldn't get penetration and suddenly couldn't tackle. They have faced better OLines this season: Ask UNC about Baylor's OLine that managed over 600 yards on the ground with a 1-dimensional offense using all backup RBs. Losing Jordan Evans halfway through the game hurt and Frank Shannon played poorly in his place. Still there is no excuse for how badly they played. Unlike the OLine, the front 7 was eminently capable of playing much better than that. But they sucked last night!
Sometimes we Sooner fans forget how bad Stoops' OU squads play in bowl games. Yes he pulled off some miracles against Florida State in the '00 season and Bama in the '13 season. But he's come out playing worse than the team is capable of in bowl games way too many times. Not sure what the solution is...
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http://247sports.com/Season/2015-Football/CompositeTeamRankings (Clemson #8, OU #15)
http://247sports.com/Season/2014-Football/CompositeTeamRankings (Clemson #17, OU #14)
http://247sports.com/Season/2013-Football/CompositeTeamRankings (Clemson #15, OU #16)
http://247sports.com/Season/2012-Football/CompositeTeamRankings (Clemson #15, OU #12)