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It amazing what a year can make for a football program. When the Oklahoma Sooners hosted the Baylor Bears in Norman last year, the Bears were a 2-5 team and struggling to put anything together offensively.
Even with a veteran quarterback in Charlie Brewer, the Bears weren’t able to score week to week to keep up with the high-flying Big 12. Baylor was held to 23 points or fewer in four of their first seven games of the season, scoring 30 or more just three times. Even with an improved defense, it’s hard to win in the Big 12 if you can’t score.
That’s changed in 2021, though. This season, the Bears have been held to 30 or fewer just three times in nine games and are averaging 36.67 points per game on the season. In 2020, the Bears averaged only 23.33 points per game. That’s a stark difference and it’s stood out to Oklahoma Sooners’ defensive end Isaiah Thomas.
Definitely a diverse group. You see it on film. It’s impressive to see what they’ve done in my opinion. I say impressive because of what they were last year comparing to what they are now. The things that they’ve put on tape this year is definitely eye opening compared to what it was before. – Thomas
The biggest difference is that this year Baylor can run the football. The Bears are averaging 231 rushing yards per game. That’s 140 more yards per game than they averaged in 2020. They’ve improved from 2.7 yards per attempt last year to 6.0 yards per attempt in 2021.
They like outside zone. They like mixing in some play action, some boots and stuff like that, so I see what you mean by a diverse group of players, group of plays that they have. It just keeps us on our toes. It opens up our playbook as well since they have an open playbook. It just allows us to cut it loose, have some fun. Instead of honing in on one thing that they do primarily, be able to open up, cut it up and have some fun. – Thomas
And that’ll be the difference when the Oklahoma Sooners line up to face the Bears on Saturday. If they’re able to get into the backfield and slow the Bears running game, it will go a long way to securing a win and remaining undefeated.
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By: John Williams
Title: Oklahoma's Isaiah Thomas: Baylor Bears offense 'eye opening'
Sourced From: soonerswire.usatoday.com/2021/11/11/oklahomas-isaiah-thomas-baylor-bears-offense-eye-opening/
Published Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2021 19:00:18 +0000
