NORMAN — There was some good thrown in amongst the bad in Oklahoma's 21-13 loss to Kentucky at Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on Saturday night.
The offense looked passable at least for the most part. Manny Choice emerged as a strong weapon on the offensive side giving the Sooners a second wide receiving option they had been searching so desperately for. Jake Kreul had a coming-out party on the defensive front.
But there was still plenty of unevenness from several spots and the Sooners failed to capitalize on any momentum built with last week's win over Texas.
Here's a look at the position-by-position grades for the loss:
Quarterback: D
John Mateer was headed for a much better grade on the day.
The Oklahoma offense looked competent in the first half and Mateer largely avoided the problems that had plagued him for much of the season.
It really looked like the fifth-year senior had turned the corner.
But then the Mateer of old resurfaced in the second half, with three interceptions. The second was returned for a touchdown that put the Wildcats up by eight with just more than a minute remaining and the third ended any chance of Oklahoma forcing overtime.
Mateer was 24 of 40 for 270 yards — his most of the season — with one touchdown but the three interceptions killed the Sooners chances.
Running Backs: C-
The Sooners once again failed to rush for more than 100 yards.
This time, though, it was largely because they were having success through the air until the interceptions killed Mateer.
Lloyd Avant had eight carries for 31 yards, Tory Blaylock had seven carries for 23 yards and Jonathan Hatton Jr. had three carries for 13 yards.
But no Oklahoma running back had a carry of longer than seven yards.
Wide Receivers: B
The biggest revelation of the game was sophomore wide receiver Manny Choice, who had five catches for 98 yards. Choice came into the game with just three catches for 24 yards in his career.
Isaiah Sategna had eight catches for 83 yards. Jacob Jordan and Jer'Michael Carter also hauled in catches.
The Sooners spread the ball around to nine different players in the game but the wide receivers were at the center of it.
Tight Ends: B-
Rocky Beers hauled in a 20-yard touchdown pass late in the second quarter to give the Sooners a halftime lead.
Beers finished with four catches for 45 yards.
Hayden Hansen had a 5-yard catch.
The group was mostly decent blocking but did have at least one major bust, with Beers missing on a block that cost the Sooners yardage late.
Offensive Line: D
The Sooners used yet another combination up front, with Heath Ozaeta missing the game along with Michael Fasusi and Eddy Pierre-Louis.
Georgia Tech transfer Peyton Joseph started at right guard with freshman Noah Best starting on the left side.
Late in the third quarter, left tackle Ryan Fodje left the game briefly due to injury and Joseph had to move over into that spot. Fodje returned shortly after but was clearly not able to continue and was pulled.
Kentucky ultimately sacked Mateer five times and several times had hits on Mateer that changed the trajectory of his passes — including on Ty Bryant's first interception of the night.
It was another rough night for Bill Bedenbaugh's group.
Defensive Line: A-
Freshman defensive end Jake Kreul looks more and more like a star.
Late in the first quarter, Kreul teamed up with linebacker Kip Lewis to stop Kenny Darby for a 1-yard loss on a pass, and then on the next play, Kreul picked up his first career solo sack.
Kreul picked up another sack late in the third quarter, then came up with a massive sack on fourth down from the OU 5 to give the Sooners the ball back with 6:04 remaining trailing by a point.
Danny Saili played quite a bit and though he didn't record a tackle, he still made a difference.
The interior linemen didn't make much of a difference, though Kentucky couldn't run the ball much between the tackles.
Linebackers: B
Kip Lewis and Owen Heinecke had eight tackles each to lead the way. They each had two quarterback hurries.
The duo continued to show why they are the strength of Oklahoma's defense.
Defensive Backs: B-
It wasn't perfect but the Sooners continued to show that they are building depth on the back end with Trystan Hayes continuing his solid showing since Eli Bowen's injury.
The group helped hold Kenny Minchey to 158 yards passing, with a not-insignificant piece of that coming on former OU receiver Nic Anderson's excellent 17-yard catch over the middle late where the Sooners' defender did a great job but Anderson hauled it in off a couple of deflections.
Special Teams: D
It's hard to hold the fake field goal try against the Sooners.
The execution, however, left plenty to be desired.
Had Jacob Ulrich just thrown the ball straight away instead of running toward the line of scrimmage and trying a jump throw that was intercepted, Oklahoma very well could've come out with a touchdown.
The late turnovers were obviously the backbreakers, but that interception early — especially considering how tight the game was late until Kentucky's Pick Six — changed the complexion of the game.
Ulrich averaged 45 yards on three punts, while Isaiah Sategna had just 16 punt-return yards.
Tate Sandell hit both of his field-goal tries.
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