Opinion: Oklahoma Sooners seem long way from solving their College Football Playoff problem

ATLANTA — The Peach Bowl scoreboard had yet to short-circuit from so many LSU points. The Sooners trailed by only seven. I know, I know; seems like a long time ago.

But even then, late first quarter Saturday, this national semifinal felt squishy. Things coming easy for the Tigers. Nothing easy for Oklahoma.

And soon enough arrived empirical evidence. LSU quarterback Joe Burrow was running for his life, which happened rarely on a night the Sooner lights went out in Georgia.

But OU’s Kenneth Murray chased Burrow from the pocket, and fellow linebacker David Ugwoegbu made Burrow flee for the sideline, where he cocked his arm to toss the ball, apparently into the seats.

Except for Burrow and LSU, this was a magical game to go with a magical season. So Burrow launched a pass vertically instead of horizontally. Right down the sideline. And sure enough, LSU tight end Thaddeus Moss, not Tre Brown or any other Sooner in the vicinity, came down with the ball. Twenty-four yard gain. First down.

Three plays later came the third of Burrow’s seven first-half touchdown passes. And here we go again, said the collective Sooner Nation.

LSU routed OU 63-28, and nobody could be blamed for thinking of that USC Orange Bowl, won 55-19 by the Trojans in the 2004 national title game.

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Except this was worse. That was 38-10 at halftime. This was 49-14. That was a bad day at Black Rock. This was a cold-slap reminder of how far the Sooners are from winning one of these things.

“We're continuing to make strides,” Lincoln Riley said bravely. “There's no doubt about it. I mean, just putting yourself here four times in five years is … that's so hard to do, man. This program has championship DNA. We kind of find a way, and we'll be back.”

Uh, that’s what’s scary. The last two semifinals, against LSU and Alabama, the Sooners have trailed by a combined 80-24 at halftime. There’s only so much of this a fanbase can take.

OU’s playoff losing streak now sits at seven, counting three title-game losses in the BCS era, and this was the worst.

Whipped every which way. Offense was a resistible force; defense was a movable object.

Burrow, who needs no padding to his Heisman Trophy highlight tape, got some anyway, with more first-half passes to paydirt (seven) than passes that hit the dirt (six incompletions).

OU’s defense might have been in trouble had Roy Williams and Rickey Dixon been its safeties. Instead, by the second quarter, Justin Broiles and Woodi Washington were on duty, and Burrow showed no mercy, picking on them like Eddie Haskell picked on Beaver Cleaver.

Jalen Hurts, better suited for a grind-it-out game, was forced into sandlot ball. Kyler Murray against Alabama can thrive in that environment; Hurts against LSU, not so much.

In a previous life, Hurts quarterbacked Bama to 10-0 and 24-10 victories over LSU. But these are different Tigers. These are the sum of all fears. What Alabama has become: an SEC defense paired with a spread offense led by a superstar quarterback.

“The obvious difference is they're scoring 50-something points,” Hurts said. “I think they've always had a really good defense, and they have this year. They have a hell of a offense.”

The Sooners have that spread/superstar QB thing down pat. But defense? For all the strides Alex Grinch has made since arriving to coordinate last January, this OU defense was merely OK in a Big 12 that in 2019 didn’t have its usual firepower. The Sooners are a long way from LSU/Alabama/Georgia defense. Which apparently is what’s required to end this playoff losing streak.

I mean, Grinch has spent all season telling us he had only three safeties he trusted in his favored three-safety alignment. What did we think was going to happen when OU played all game without the injured Delarrin Turner-Yell and three quarters of the game without the ejected Brendan Radley-Hiles?

“I think we've made some great improvements with the program,” Riley said. “I'm excited about where we're heading defensively. I think we've just scratched the surface about how good we can get on that side.”

Goodness, I hope so. I hope this isn’t anything close to the finished product.

“LSU's a good team,” Riley said. “They're a good enough team that you're going to trade blows with them no matter what. We made some uncharacteristic mistakes that we haven't made, some all year. And you can't give a team like that any help.

“So give them credit. Certainly didn't play our best. Where that is in the big picture, I honestly don't really care.”

I don’t think Riley means that. He cares. And he knows. He knows the Sooners seem no closer to solving their playoff problem after a Peach Bowl debacle that was much more than a bad day at Black Rock.