Last season, No.  4 Oklahoma opened by losing two of three games, including a 35-38 nail-biter at home against Kansas State to open Big 12 Conference play.

It was the second year in a row that KSU upset the Sooners. OU fell to Iowa State the next weekend and then it took four overtime periods to beat Texas 53-45 a week later.

This season, OU is 4-0 but some fans and sportswriters are complaining that the Sooners are not scoring enough points and because  the victory margin in three of those games is a total of only 15 points.

OU travels to Manhattan Saturday for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff on Fox to play Kansas State. OU (4-0, 1-0 in the Big 12) has beaten Tulane, Western Carolina, Nebraska and West Virginia (2-2, 0-1), K-State (3-1, 0-1) has beaten Stanford, Southern Illinois and Nevada.

Last Saturday, OU beat West Virginia 16-13 in Norman while KSU lost to Oklahoma State 20-31.

While the Sooners are not running up the numbers they are used to on offense, the defense is stepping up to win games.

OU ranks 13th in the nation in rushing defense and is allowing only 79 yards per game (2.5 yards per attempt).

The longest run OU has allowed this season is 20 yards.

K-State is averaging 184 yards per game rushing (4.8 yards per attempt). Wildcat Deuce Vaughn has 393 yards rushing this season with five touchdowns. Last week against Oklahoma State, Vaughn had just 22 yards on 13 carries. The team had only 62 yards rushing against OSU. OU is tied for ninth in the nation in causing and recovering fumbles (seven). OU is 14th in sacks and 28th in total defense (300 yards per game).

OU’s defense held the Mountaineers to just 226 yards, the lowest total by a Big 12 opponent since TCU finished with 219 in 2019. OU has allowed only three touchdown drives in their last three games.

“You have a role in this organization, that’s to get stops. We got enough tonight, obviously there’s a lot of things we’ve gotta be better at, but really taking a personal ownership in our performance,” said OU coach Lincoln Riley. “That’s something that constantly you’re working on and constantly getting ingrained in them. You don’t ride the rollercoaster in terms of what the scoreboard reads.”

Riley praised the West Virginia defense.

“Hats off to West Virginia. I thought they played a really tough, physical game,” Riley said. “It was a battle out there. It really was, on both sides. I thought both defensive lines lived up to the hype. They were definitely the two most dominant groups on the field. No question about it. Proud of our resilience. I told the guys in locker room … to me, the biggest difference is we’ve found some ways here when we haven’t been at our best to win some close games. We’ve showed incredible resiliency, and we certainly did tonight. We were a very resilient football team, and we’re growing. We’re improving.”

On offense, quarterback Spencer Rattler has thrown for 1,017 yards and eight touchdowns with three intereptions this season. Against UWV, Rattler completed 26-of-36 passes for 256 yards with one interception. And late in the game, Rattler marched the Sooner offense down the field to set up the winning field goal by Gabe Brkic. That drive was set up by a procedure penalty followed by a bad snap by the West Virginia center and a punt.

“We got a break, took advantage of it. I knew we were gonna get another chance either way, but obviously it was a great job defensively holding them out and then offense basically having to go a length of the field drive,” Riley said. “It was just a tremendous close. You see a true team there. Defense holding them out when they’re driving. Offense, you haven’t played very well at all in the night and then all of a sudden, you’ve gotta go 80, 90 yards here, and then special teams gotta execute at the end.”

Yet, Rattler and Riley have drawn criticism for not crushing their opponents this season.

“It ain’t easy, man. It’s a big job, it’s not easy, and I’ll tell you on the sideline, he was never rattled, not one bit,” Riley said.

The TV commentators said some OU fans – mostly the student section – were calling on Riley to pull Rattler.

“Yeah it’s college football, man. I mean, listen, when you have the expectations that we have here in this program and the expectations offensively, I mean, it’s part of it,” Riley said. “It’s out of our control. Of course, it always helps us a lot more when our fan base supports us. I’ll come out and say that. I want to play better offensively more than anybody out there, but them being behind us is what helps. Spencer handled it. It didn’t bother him at all.”

Rattler concentrated on doing his job and not listening to the smattering of boos.

“We kind of just lock in on what we have to lock in on. I don’t really like … I don’t care. We don’t care. It doesn’t matter to us. We’re out here to win a game and they’re in the stands,” Rattler said.

Kennedy Brooks is OU’s leading rushing with 227 yards on 39 attempts and three scores this season.

Like Tulane and Nebraska, West Virginia’s offensive strategy was to slowly work the ball down the field with runs and short passes to eat up the clock and keep the OU offense off the field.

It worked but not enough for the Mountaineers to win.

“I thought we competed,” said West Virginia coach Neal Brown.  said. “I thought we were in good position when the game was tied 13-13 and we had the ball in good field position.”

West Virginia needed a perfect game and that didn’t happen.

“I think when we go back and look at it there were going to be three or four opportunities to win the game – and you never know when those plays are going to be – and we just didn’t get it done,” Brown said.

On defense, UWV dropped their safeties back to prevent long pass completions by OU and their defensive line pressured Rattler all night.