Oklahoma Football: Rodney Anderson's injury puts the brakes on victory



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Oklahoma won big Saturday against UCLA – and he may have lost a lot. In the second quarter, running back Rodney Anderson left the game with an apparent injury to his right knee. In his sixth game of the day, after a touchdown in the first quarter, Anderson was tackled by three UCLA defenders and bowed to the ground. He ends up leaving the field, accompanied by medical staff, but walks alone, before returning to the bench with clothes and a splint for the second half.

The injury casts a shadow on the impressive 49-21 win against the UCLA Sooners, pushing the Lincoln Riley team to 2-0 over the year and Chip Kelly 0-2. For the second week in a row, Oklahoma's offensive seemed impossible to stop, while his defense held up well. In his second match as a quarterback from Oklahoma, Kyler Murray made three touchdowns and one interception. He completed 19 of 33 passes for 306 yards and handed the ball to seven different targets, including second, CeeDee Lamb, who had seven passes for 146 yards, averaging 20.9 yards per shot.

On the defensive, the Sooners lost 387 yards, 174 in the fourth quarter. After the unit gave only two touchdowns to the UAF during week 1, optimism surrounds an area that has been one of the weak points in recent years. "I think our overall talent level is improving," said coach Lincoln Riley in his interview on FOX. "Our depth is improving. … We fly around, doing a lot of games right now.

Still, although Mike Stoops' defense has sounded solid over the last two weeks, there is still not enough evidence that this unit is better than those in recent years, which have also started strong in non-competitive games. -conference. Last year, until the third week, the Sooners defense allowed an average of 12.3 points per game; on the season, this number would increase to 27.1. By 2018, it seemed that Stoops' unit would need to take a step forward to keep the Sooners in contention – assuming their offense regressed even slightly. Until now, there is no evidence that this is the case.

With Anderson out of the game, Murray led the Sooners to the race, finishing with 69 rushing yards and two touchdowns. In the past two weeks, Oklahoma has registered nine touchdowns, an improvement over a year ago. With Murray's ability to push the limits and run, the Oklahoma offensive in 2018 seems to be even more dynamic than expected, and even if Anderson misses a good time, there should be enough talent to fill the void. (Riley said postgame that there was no more information on the extent of the injury.) The rest of the rushing body – Saturday, it was Marcelias Sutton , TJ Pledger and Trey Sermon – combined for 91 yards on the ground.

In just two weeks, Oklahoma Square at the top of the Big 12 seems assured. He begins the conference next weekend in Ames, Iowa, against the team responsible for his only loss of the regular season in 2017. Last fall, Iowa State went to Norman and was found with a surprise of 38-31. a repetition, they should be able to move until mid-October, when they will go to TCU No. 16.

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