Riley not giving up on Sooners’ defense

NORMAN — Two days after Oklahoma hung on by the skin of its teeth in Bedlam, Sooners coach Lincoln Riley took on an almost defiant tone when questioned about his defense and whether things were spiraling out of control on that side of the ball.

“If being 9-1 is in dis-

array, then we’ll define it what it is,” Riley said. “Our defense has had a hand in winning all the nine games we’ve had this year. Are there areas we need to improve? Yes. I’m not looking the other way. But at the same time, we’ve got a team that’s capable of winning a championship right now, so our focus right now is on getting better and putting ourselves in position to do that.”

After Saturday’s 55-40 win over Kansas in which the Sooners gave up 524 yards of total offense, any hint of defiance in Riley was gone.

Riley avoided any criticism of specific players or coaches, but there was little defense of them either.

“I can’t sit here and say something that’s not true,” Riley said. “We didn’t take the step that I felt like we would take.

“We felt like we’d defended the run well all year. We really put a lot of emphasis on our pass coverage, which we felt was better, and then we sprung some new leaks. But no matter if teams are throwing it, running it — it don’t matter. You’ve got to tackle . ... We have guys there. We have a lot of times calls that should be shutting things down, or three guys are there to make plays — we’ve got to make ’em.”

They made far too few Saturday. And the challenge this week — at a West Virginia team that has a Heisman contender at quarterback and is averaging more than twice the scoring output and nearly 140 more yards of total offense than Kansas in conference games — is even greater.

“Coaching’s challenging,” Riley said.

“That’s our job title. You try to get that absolute best out of each and every kid, out of each and every unit. We haven’t played up to our capabilities these last few weeks, but I don’t look at it discouraged because I still see a group I know is capable of playing good football . ... I see a group that has the potential to play well enough for us to be the team we want to be.”

Time to show that potential — if it’s there — is all but up, though. That has started to sink in with the Sooners, though they still say they’ll continue to work toward improvement.

“I mean, we won (but) in my book it feels like a loss,” Robert Barnes said. “Every win is important (but) the type of player I am, being a defensive player, being a safety, giving up 40 points to any team is unacceptable.”