Riley explains Sooners fourth-down decisions
— With his Sooners down 21 points at two junctures Saturday night, OU coach Lincoln Riley opted to kick a pair of 26-yard field goals rather than keep his offense on the field.
The first came with 7:30 left in the second quarter when Oklahoma trailed Alabama 28-7. The Sooners faced fourth-and-5 at Alabama’s 9-yard line. OU’s Austin Seibert made the kick to cut the deficit to 28-10.
Then with OU trailing 31-10 with 9:42 left in the third quarter, Riley called on Seibert rather than having his offense attempt a fourth-and-6. Seibert was again good from 26 yards, making it a 31-13 game.
Riley had to weigh OU’s inability to stop Alabama’s offense with the difficulty of converting fourth-and-mediums against the Crimson Tide.
“I felt it had started to turn, there in the middle,” Riley said of the momentum. “We were starting to get some stops. We were really moving the ball well at that point. So we considered (going for it). We felt like, they were long-enough yardage situations, it was get the points.”
Riley opens up about Brown
Riley summed it up best Sunday morning when recapping Marquise Brown’s Orange Bowl performance.
“His desire was certainly there,” Riley said. “But it just wasn’t his night.”
Riley and the Oklahoma coaching staff had been quiet on the status of their star receiver ever since he was carted off the sideline a month ago in the Big 12 Championship game. The injury was described then as “lower-leg.”
Brown said Saturday night that he pulled a muscle in his left foot. He was held catchless on five targets in an Orange Bowl loss to Alabama.
Now that OU’s season is over, Riley opened up about Brown’s injury and explained how limited he was in the weeks leading up to the game.
“We tried to condition him in our pools as much as we could,” Riley said. “We were worried about the conditioning, and then of course we caught the muggiest night of the entire trip.”
The temperature at Hard Rock Stadium was in the low 80s Saturday night with almost 90 percent humidity.
“I think the conditioning had an effect, and we could tell pretty soon he just wasn’t sharp like he normally was,” Riley said. “It was frustrating. He had made some real progress in about the last two or three days. When we left I didn’t know if he was going to be able to play or not.”
Brown was eventually replaced in the second half Saturday night by redshirt freshman receiver Charleston Rambo.
Brown led the Sooners with 1,318 receiving yards this season. He’s expected to declare for the NFL Draft.
Extra point
Oklahoma became the first FBS team to produce a 4,000-yard passer (Kyler Murray), two 1,000-yard rushers (Kennedy Brooks, Murray) and two 1,000-yard receivers (Brown, CeeDee Lamb) in a season.