Writing on the wall all season
WACO, Texas — Two important things were determined here Saturday on the north bank of the Brazos River:
One, Oklahoma’s nine-game win streak coming into its contest with Baylor was built on a thin foundation — mostly the bricks of a remarkable physical talent in freshman QB Caleb Williams, and, honestly, some luck.
Second, Baylor Coach Dave Arenda’s excuse for his grossly unsportsmanlike time out and game-ending field goal (that it was for points needed for a conference tie-breaker calculation) was a fraud. He isn’t fooling anyone who knows the Big 12 conference rules.
I’ll explain the latter later, but first, let’s talk about the Sooner’s 27-14 loss to Baylor.
Sitting on my perch in McLane Stadium, I knew things weren’t going to go well when Gabe Brkic missed two field goals.
That’s like watching Tiger Woods miss two 7-foot putts in a row (never mind Gabe’s attempts were from 51 yards and 40 yards, respectively).
The writing was on the wall. The OU offense has had problems all year. This loss against Baylor… should have been no surprise to anyone
The 11 am game had the feel of one of those days when things just weren’t right.
Now, statistic gurus may look at the yardage that Baylor put up and think the Sooners defense cratered.
After the game, defensive coordinator Alex Grinch took the heat, saying , “We didn’t do our job,” referencing Baylor QB Gerry Bohanon’s 107 rushing yards and Abram Smith’s 148 rushing yards.
The defense has been the whipping boy of the Sooners for the last half decade. And certainly, a fourth-quarter weary OU defense gave up some big plays.
But the D also made some big plays that kept Oklahoma in the game for three quarters, including an interception by safety Delarrin Turner-Yell and a fumble recovery by linebacker Nik Bonitto. The Sooners had 11 tackles for a loss — the most since recording 11 TFLs last season against Kansas.
No, the breakdown here was the heralded Oklahoma offense, the golden goose of the program that, even though it had looked sleepy and sputtered out of sync for much of the season, still brought an air of invincibility to each game and previously managed to score enough points to eke out wins in every contest.
Six of those earlier nine wins were by 5, 7, 3, 6, 7 and 12 points.
The writing was on the wall. The OU offense has had problems all year. Anemic run game. Inconsistent passing game.
This loss against Baylor — the second best defense in the conference — should have been no surprise to anyone.
Neither should have been the play of Caleb Williams, the freshman phenom quarterback willed by the OU student section to replace an inconsistent Spencer Rattler earlier in the season and the heralded star of the Red River Rivalry game (a 7-point win over a sub .500 Longhorn team).
Williams is still a freshman. And he played like it against Baylor.
His youthful enthusiasm, which had delivered crazy acrobatic runs and mind-blowing passes thrown with reckless abandon for big gains and scores in previous games, brought instead just recklessness against good Division I competition (the Bears), resulting in two ill-advised tosses becoming interceptions.
When pressured, Williams looked out-of-kilter. He panicked. He ran into defenders instead of around them. He did not see open receivers down field.
His freshman instincts, in desperation, made the Oklahoma offense irrelevant. Only one touchdown in the first half. Only one in the second half. It was the fewest points by an Oklahoma offense since the 2014 Russell Athletic Bowl, a 40-6 loss to mighty Clemson.
In fairness, some of William’s erratic play came when in the second quarter he scampered around end and scooted to a stop on the Baylor sideline after a 19-yard run, only to have a Baylor player step on his hand.
Sooners Coach Lincoln Riley said the resulting bruised hand hampered Williams’ play. Williams was only 10 for 19 passing for 146 yards, not enough to prevent Oklahoma from suffering its first defeat of the season.
“I don’t know how much that affected his throwing or not,” Riley said of Williams after the game. “It probably affected him a little bit. We were just a little stale, honestly. (Williams) had a little stress there in the second quarter and kind of began the third quarter where we had a few things that he missed that he just typically doesn’t miss.
The offense had only 260 yards and 14 points — the lowest totals in Riley’s tenure at Oklahoma.
The loss may have knocked Oklahoma out of the college football playoff race, although wins against Iowa State on Saturday and against OSU the week following would improve their resume.
Oklahoma has managed to be in the CFP before with one loss, although this year it is evident their No. 8 ranking by the playoff committee showed recognition this Sooners team does not match up with previous ones.
Moreover, this loss — an uncommon November loss (the first since 2014) — could have significant impact on where this team goes in terms of cohesiveness.
That was the subject of Riley’s post-game locker room talk to the team.
“He told us that this game is going to do either two things to this team,” Turner-Yell said.
“It is going to tear us apart or it’s gonna bring us together. … We have a lot of football in front of us. We still have the things we want to accomplish this year in front of us, so it’s very important that we put this game to bed and that we attack the practice field next week and just do things that we need to do in order for us to finish out strong this season.”
Arenda’s FG excuse is baloney
Now for the Baylor field goal decision by Baylor’s Coach Arenda to close out the game:
Near the end of the game the Bears had taken knees to run the clock out. With three seconds left on the game clock and Baylor leading 24-14 thousands of Baylor students stormed the field in celebration. Most of the Oklahoma team headed for the locker room to avoid confrontation in the melee.
But Baylor called a time out in all that chaotic mess. The officials gave it to them. After several minutes the field was cleared again, OU players returned to the field and the Bears kicked a meaningless field goal to up the score to 27-14 with time running out.
It was salt in the wounds, considering it had no bearing on the outcome and came as if to prolong the celebration and trigger yet another storming of the field with Oklahoma players and coaches in the middle.
No unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was assessed against Baylor for the fans rushing the field. Had it been assessed, the penalty would have resulted in a 10-second runoff of the clock and the game would have been over, ending in a 24-14 Baylor victory. Instead, the field goal made it 27-14.
Aranda said afterward he wanted the three additional points to assist his team with the Big 12 Conference tiebreaker. He acknowledged OU isn’t “happy with it.”
Well, duh. Who would be?
As I filed out of the stadium there were even some Baylor fans who said they weren’t pleased with it either, finding it distasteful and detracting from what had been an otherwise untarnished victory.
Riley said he would not have done it had the tables been turned.
“I don’t agree with it. I still think above all else, there’s a code of sportsmanship that I believe in. I wouldn’t have done it, but that’s his decision, it’s his football team,” Riley said.
Riley may not be in the best spot to complain, as doing so only diverts from the more serious problem of his team’s play.
But that does not change the fact Arenda’s time-out decision to keep the game from ending and then kick the field goal was poor sportsmanship. Moreover, his justification for it was bogus.
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