Oklahoma player says Sooners pressured Ty Simpson more because of fumbling streak

The Oklahoma Sooners sent a blitz on over half of Ty Simpson’s drop backs and finished with a 62.5% blitz rating in their win over Alabama. 

Oklahoma generating this much pressure is not an accident as head coach Brent Venables, his staff and the defensive players saw a trend that led to them blitzing on 30 of Simpson’s 48 drop backs.

After the game, Oklahoma’s Peyton Bowen was asked if there was anything that him and his team saw that made the Sooners want to pressure Simpson consistently throughout the game.

“Honestly, the only thing that we really saw was that Ty Simpson was the highest fumble rate for getting sacked,” Bowen said. “I don’t know what the statistic is, but every time he gets sacked, he fumbles the most out of anybody in the country. So, I think that was a big shot at like ‘alright, we got to go get that ball out.’ People just making plays. Trying to get that ball out like every play, and I really loved it. I loved the intensity that we played with today.

Simpson has fumbled in each of his last five games and has turned the ball over six games in a row. The first-year starter did not turn the ball over in his first four starts of his career, but he now sits at seven turnovers on the year.

He threw a pick-six against Oklahoma after making an inaccurate throw under pressure, and Oklahoma’s Eli Bown was able to catch the ball and take it 87 yards to the house.

Simpson threw another interception, but a flag for defensive pass interference negated the turnover and put the ball back into Alabama’s hands near the end zone.

Pass protection was bad at times from Alabama’s offensive line, but the Crimson Tide did not get enough help from the running backs. Jam Miller’s pass block grade was 23.1%, the worst on the whole team last night. Daniel Hill had a decent rushing performance, but even the 244-pounder looked awful in pass protection as he allowed rushers smaller than him to go through him and get to Simpson.

The pressure that Oklahoma put on Simpson caused him to make a couple of mistakes that changed the game, and with a defense like Auburn coming up in two weeks, the blueprint for how to beat this Alabama team was displayed Saturday night.