Last second field goal ends painful 23-20 loss to West Virginia
A walk off field goal by West Virginia made one thing clear: The Sooners are headed for a possible 7-loss season, which would render Brent Venables’ first year as a head coach at Oklahoma a decisive failure.
The Sooners lost 23-20 on that Mountaineers field goal, but this loss had more to do with Oklahoma’s own ability to find ways to lose than West Virginia’s ability to find ways to win.
Check off these boxes:
— A missed field goal off an upright.
— A facemask penalty to negate an otherwise defensive stop, allowing W.Va. to complete a scoring drive.
— An offensive pass interference call that wiped out an OU touchdown.
— A give up of a fake punt.
— A dropped easy touchdown pass.
— Converting only one of 11 third downs.
— A defense that played well in the first half, but gave up big third down plays (like they have all year) in the second half — giving West Virginia three long scoring drives.
“We don’t deserve to win when not doing all those things the right way,” Coach Brent Venables said.
This Oklahoma team lacks the precision and focus to have any consistency.
And it looked apparent at Morgantown.
Just when the Sooners seemed to do something right, the followed it with something wrong.
For example, immediately after a brilliant 96 yard drive the take a 10-0 lead, the kicking team gave up a big return and the defense went soft to relinquish a response score by the Mountaineers in the waning seconds of the first half.
But then a botched extra point try by West Virginia ended up as a 2-point conversion on the other hand for the Sooners and Oklahoma had a 12-6 lead at the half.
West Virginia got some help in the second half when an apparent late hit on an interception was waived off by officials. Two plays later the Mountaineers score to tie it up 20-20, with 11:20 left in the fourth quarter.
After that the ability to score appeared anemic.
The only bright spot was Eric Gray’s 211 yards on 25 carries. The 5-foot-10, 210-pound running back now has 1,123 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns this season, surpassing the 1,000-yard mark on Saturday.
In Morgantown, Gray was a beast. In fact, the offensive line played well most of the time.
And to offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby’s credit, he made sure Gray had the ball often.
“I hate it that he’s not able to have a happy locker room (to celebrate Gray’s play),” Lebby said after the game.
Going to Gray, though was reflective of an apparent lack of confidence in QB Dillon Gabriel’s passing this season. It does not look like his timing with receivers has been consistent at all this season.
On Saturday, Gabriel was 17 of 28 for 190 yards and no touchdowns.
But the absence of an meaningful passing attack lead to Oklahoma shooting with only one bullet. And that was not enough on the road in a hostile environment in a rain storm.
The Sooners only converted one of 11 third downs. They tried to convert two fourth downs, but failed on both. This was despite gaining 426 yards total offense and capturing 22 first dows.
Meanwhile, the Mountaineers converted seven of their 19 third-down tries. West Virginia’s was4-for-5 on fourth down conversions. Opponents are now 9-for-11 on fourth down against OU in its past two games.
The Oklahoma (5-5, 2-5 Big 12) loss to West Virginia (4-6, 2-5) gave the Mountaineers their first ever win over the Sooners at home.
Next week is Bedlam. And the Sooners are still looking for the needed sixth win to gain bowl eligiblity.
The Sooners have been in 23 consecutive bowls — the longest streak in the nation.
That is in jeopardy now, with tough games against Oklahoma State and Texas Tech (in Lubbock) still left to be played.
The SOONER the better! TOUCHDOWN @1ericgray x @OU_Football ? ‼️ pic.twitter.com/h1aAPTmuIa
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 12, 2022
Follow
