NORMAN, Okla. John Cominsky Jersey . -- There is good news and bad news for Oklahomas defense heading into Saturdays showdown with Ohio State.The good? The Sooners faced a system much like Ohio States version of the spread offense two weekends ago when they faced Houston, which is coached by former Ohio State offensive coordinator Tom Herman.The bad? Oklahoma got gouged in the first half of the 33-23 loss to the Cougars.The 14th-ranked Sooners must be better against the third-ranked Buckeyes.They have a lot of similarities, of course, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. Each will do a few things a little bit different, but overall theres a lot of carry over.Perhaps the biggest difference between Houston and Ohio State is that the Buckeyes focus on the run more offensively. Houston hurt Oklahoma through the air, passing for 321 yards and rushing for just 89. Ohio State has averaged 313.5 yards rushing and 283 yards passing in its first two games.It gets down to what they emphasize with their schemes, Oklahoma defensive coordinator Mike Stoops said. Theres a lot of similarities, but yet, theres a lot of differences in how they utilize their personnel.Still, the foundation is the same. Oklahoma linebacker Ogbonnia Okoronkwo said having faced Houston will help his teammates feel more comfortable.You can react faster, he said. You know whats coming. Stuff like that.The Sooners also should benefit from having faced a talented dual-threat quarterback. Houstons Greg Ward Jr. didnt rush for many yards against the Sooners, but his elusiveness created problems. He threw 40 passes and was sacked just twice. J.T. Barrett, Ohio States dual-threat quarterback, has run 22 times for 85 yards and three touchdowns this season for Ohio State.Theres some advantage there in that weve dealt with a guy who is similar, Bob Stoops said. We can try and tweak some things that you thought you could have done better. The other side of that is they got to see how you want to play it. They will make their adjustments as well.Oklahoma was successful making adjustments against Houston. The Sooners surrendered 337 yards in the first half, but just 83 in the second.Oklahomas defense took another step forward during a 59-17 win over Louisiana-Monroe last Saturday. The Sooners led 42-0 at halftime, and controlled the game defensively, aside from a few breakdowns. Stoops said the Sooners didnt hurt themselves as much last week and were in position to make plays more often.The competition is going to be different, Bob Stoops said. But still, like I said, when you still make plays that you are capable of making, it is still a positive.Regardless how much the Sooners learned against Houston, Mike Stoops knows Ohio States exceptional talent will be hard to deal with.Theres challenges all over the place when you play them, he said. Theyve got answers for a lot of things. Youve just got to keep them off balance and not let them zero in on everything youre doing.---Follow Cliff Brunt on Twitter (at)CliffBruntAP Kendall Sheffield Falcons Jersey . - Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie never doubted he would bring back coach Dennis Allen for a third year despite back-to-back 4-12 records. Custom Atlanta Falcons Jerseys . The Olympic champion curler and TSN curling analyst immediately went online to look at the Halls long list of honoured members. Thats when the enormity of the honour sunk in. http://www.falconsrookiestore.com/Falcon...ckinley-Jersey/ . Perhaps Carroll was so prepared for a break because he believes there is very little the Seattle Seahawks need heading into the off-season. "I dont see anything that we need to add. We just have to get better," Carroll said.According to Kruger van Wyk there are many things to like about his former coach John Wright, but top of the list is his humour.I remember him waiting a while before telling me that the South Africans were going to give me shit during my debut Test [for New Zealand], says van Wyk. Thinking back on it, that was probably his way of telling me I was in the team, because he was always very dry. John was very much a mans man: he had that old-school toughness and was really comfortable in those sorts of environments. The best thing about him was his sense of humour, because hed listen to things for a long time and then come in with perfect timing. In that respect he was always very good to me.Van Wyk spent the three days prior to his Test debut, in Dunedin against the South Africans in March 2012, flat on his back with a bad case of gastroenteritis. I lost 5kgs and really wasnt in the best of shape, he says. By the time it came to the Test itself he was, however, back in the saddle - slightly lighter but ready to pounce should the South Africans forget he was there and lapse into some ill-advised vloeking (swearing) or off-the-cuff analysis in Afrikaans.Far from the South Africans giving him shit, the Test passed off reasonably amicably. Van Wyk had grown up with players like Jacques Rudolph and AB de Villiers and the verbals were restricted to a good-natured trickle. Chris Martin nipped [Jacques] Kallis and [AB] de Villiers out on the first day and we led on the first innings by 40-odd, van Wyk remembers. They batted well in the second innings [with hundreds to Kallis, Smith and Rudolph], and then at close on the fourth day we were about 140 for 2, with Brendon [McCullum] and Ross [Taylor] at the crease; we needed 300 runs to win with eight wickets standing on a flat track on the final day. Kane [Williamson] was due to come in at five. I think we could have been in for a very exciting final day of cricket, except that it rained on the fourth night and that was it.By his own admission, van Wyk wasnt ready for international cricket when he arrived in New Zealand. He was there because Dave Nosworthy, his former coach at Titans (in South Africa), had been recruited by Canterbury and the South Island outfit needed a wicketkeeper. Mark Boucher wasnt going to relinquish the gloves for South Africa anytime soon and the opportunity seemed like a godsend. This was a chance to reinvent himself, have an adventure and subsume himself in the New Zealand cricketing way.I think we play a boring brand here in South Africa - were one-dimensional, he says. The Kiwis ingenuity is something theyre really proud of. If they need to pick three spinners in a World T20 to beat India in India, theyre going to do that. Theyre really proud of their ingenuity. [Brendon] McCullum and [Mike] Hesson were always prepared to be brave, and thats absolutely great.While the stereotype of the canny Kiwi can be overplayed, theres no doubt that their mentalité, as the French would call it, is to put everything they have to the best posssible use - in terms of being prepared to lose as they gamble for a win. Kaleb McGary Womens Jersey. Van Wyk says he loved this approach, the idea that they were exhausting every available opportunity to improve themselves, and found himself growing exponentially as a cricketer.He played nine Tests, being knocked off his perch by BJ Watling, but there is no sign of regret. Indeed, you rather feel that his sojourn turned out far better than he ever had reason to expect. Here, after all, was the boy from Wolmaransstad, a veritable Wagga Wagga of the veld. He was too small for rugby and didnt like disappearing into the wastes of the outfield, so became a wicketkeeper. His entire career was a story of scaling heights he didnt naturally reach. Van Wyk and his young family (one boy, one girl) returned to South Africa in December 2015, after nine years in New Zealand, and he became director of cricket at the Assupol Tuks Cricket Academy at the University of Pretoria. Hes hoping to back up words with deeds by inculcating a far more adventurous brand of cricket, saying that hes frequently gobsmacked at the conveyor belt of talent that the African sunshine and good facilities seem to almost carelessly produce. You have to allow players to grow outside of a structure or a game plan, to keep challenging them in different ways. Id say its a state-of-mind thing rather than a technique or set of techniques.Van Wyk has an opportunity to see what Tuks can do when they defend their Red Bull Campus Cricket World Finals title in Sri Lanka early next month. In preparation for the event, van Wyk has been hard at work simulating the kinds of conditions he expects to find in Sri Lanka, roughing up wickets, underpreparing them and leaving them bereft of grass. Twenty-over cricket provides players with the opportunity to be reckless - and youve got to allow them that freedom and license.Prior to the New Zealanders hopping up to Zimbabwe, they spent a week at Tuks Pretoria facility where van Wyks boys were able to rub shoulders with the tourists. It was great, he says, for his left-arm quicks to swap notes with Trent Boult or his fast bowlers to bask in the presence of, say, Tim Southee.Unlike the South Africans, who havent played much recent Test cricket, the visitors look well-grooved. Kingsmead, the venue for the first Test, has been known to be unkind to home sides in recent years, and the New Zealanders will probably be closer to where they want to be than the hosts. Its increasingly tempting, in fact, to see the two teams as different sides of the same ball: South African cricket is in the midst of blithely frittering away its riches (some of those riches heading for New Zealand), its Test outfit less successful than it should be. By contrast, New Zealand make best use of what they have, proud to innovate and bold enough to try. Its the very shift Van Wyk is trying to initiate with his young charges. Wholeslae Jerseys NFL Jerseys Cheap Wholesale NBA Jerseys Cheap NHL Jerseys Cheap MLB Jerseys Wholesale Soccer Jerseys Cheap College Jerseys Cheap Football Jerseys Cheap Basketball Jerseys Cheap Baseball Jerseys ' ' '