Before kickoff Sooner fans clapped to the Tulane fight song being played by the Oklahoma band.
And when the Tulane team came onto the field the crowd — in attendance numbers reduced by the last minute moving of the game to Norman because of Hurricane Ida and no doubt also by COVID concerns — gave them a warm ovation.
Not a single boo was heard. Not even from the student section. That is something unheard of in recent memory.
But those fans began to wonder whether their charitable nature was being taken advantage of by the fourth quarter, when the Green Wave had the Sooners backs against the wall and it took a much-needed defensive stand to keep Tulane from upsetting No. 2 Oklahoma.
The Sooners won 40-35. But it was an ugly win. Too many mistakes at QB. Too little aggressiveness in the offensive line. And a defense that had no answers for Tulane’s second year freshman QB Michael Pratt who had his way with the Sooner secondary most of the second half.
Pratt was 27-44 for 298 yards and three touchdowns against the Sooners.
Meanwhile, Spencer Rattler finished the day 30 of 39 for 304 yards, but he had only one touchdown and two interceptions, the last one near the beginning of the fourth quarter, with Oklahoma up 40-22 and knocking on the door to put the game away.
Tulane took the ball on the ensuing 47-yard drive to score and narrow the gap to 12 points — a two possession game.
After scoring again to cut the lead to 40-35, the Green Wave recovered an onside kick. That was one of the few kicking game mistakes by the Sooners.
Kicker Gabe Brkic hit four field goals of 26, 51, 55 and 56 yards — an unprecedented performance by an Oklahoma kicker. His scores were the difference in the ballgame.
Brkic’s 56-yard FB was the third longest in school history and Oklahoma’s longest since 1977. His three FGs for more than 50 yards in one game tied an NCAA record.
His 55-yarder was Oklahoma’s only score of the second half.
“We’ve clearly got a ton of work to do, all of us, if we’re going to reach our potential,” Coach Lincoln Riley said.
Given what happened in this game, the bigger question will be whether sports talk radio or Twitter will contain more doomsday declarations from Sooner fans.
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