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Porter Moser critical of Oklahoma's defensive play

On3 imageby:Dan Morrison01/20/23

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Porter Moser
Ed Zurga / Contributor PhotoG/Getty

On Wednesday night, Oklahoma Sooners head coach Porter Moser watched his team struggle and lose to rival Oklahoma State. During that game, the Sooners tried for a comeback attempt, but it never manifested into anything.

After the game, Moser was critical of Oklahoma’s defense, blaming it for the Sooners’ inability to pull off the comeback.

“I felt like we couldn’t string stops together,” Porter Moser said. “That’s the thing of coming back. When you come back, like we call them a gap. You got to get three stops in a row. I don’t think we had one gap in the second half.”

In the second half of the game, Oklahoma was outscored 48-26. This was largely due to those defensive struggles, but as Porter Moser explained, they also couldn’t take advantage of opportunities on the offensive end.

“You know, if we did get a stop or two, we didn’t have good offense. We actually had some good offensive possessions at times, but not enough to come back and not enough to string gaps. You’ve got to start stringing consecutive stops. If we did get a stop, we didn’t string two or three in a row and the lead just kept on expanding.”

Oklahoma is looking to bounce back against a string of tough opponents. That starts Saturday, January 21st, against Baylor. After that, Oklahoma has games against TCU, Alabama, and Oklahoma State again.

Porter Moser on when the game got away from the Sooners

Porter Moser explained what happened that led to Bedlam getting away from the Sooners.

“I saw that Oklahoma State team that just played with their confidence [and] just exploded. And [Woody] Newton came out, hit that three to start the half. And then I think they scored five out of six, maybe six out of seven, maybe it’s 25 or 26, whatever it was possessions in a row our defense. We’ve been pretty good,” Moser said.

“Starting the second half we were trying to win the second half and our defense and to start it, you could just see their competence go when they would hit a three. Thought Bryce [Thompson] was terrific hitting shots. They all were there. You just saw the confidence come through and they went on a great run and completely dominated the second half.”