Oh. My.
With one batted ball, the Sooners will play for the Big 12 Championship on Saturday in Stillwater.
That wasn’t so certainly in the final moments of the OU-TCU game on Saturday. But Steven Parker made it happen.
Parker batted away a 2-point conversion attempt by TCU in the closing seconds of Oklahoma’s 30-29 hang-on-for-dear-life victory over TCU Saturday night.
TCU had a chance to tie the game after Kohlhausen’s 14-yard touchdown pass to Emanuel Porter with 51 seconds remaining. Instead, Horned Frogs Coach Gary Patterson called a 2-point conversion play, but it was turned away by Parker.
“I just had a hard decision between staying on my receiver and coming to get the quarterback,” Parker said. “And I kind of just played in between, and just timed my jump right. It’s probably my most memorable moment in my football career.”
Had Parker not batted the ball, a TCU receiver was wide open in the end zone and would have scored to likely win the game for TCU.
At halftime it looked like the Sooners had this game won. Maybe not easily, but handily. The Sooners led 23-7. But QB Baker Mayfield did not come out to start the second half. He was hit hard in the second quarter by a helmet-to-helmt hit from a TCU linebacker, Ty Summers, who was ejected for targeted.
“Our trainers and doctors were constantly, with each series, every time Baker was off, checking him, asking him questions, making sure he was OK, and everything was checking out fine,” Stoops said. “And then at halftime, they approached him again to go over some things and Baker admitted to having a headache, and that’s when our doctors said we’re not going to have him play.
“That threw us off in the second half. We weren’t very consistent at all.”
Back up QB Trevor Knight played the rest of the game, completing 5 of 16 passes for 76 yards, with one interception.
The very successful Sooner offense seemed stymied under Knight’s helm.
But, by game’s end, Samaje Perine had run for 188 yards and a touchdown and Mayfield completed 9 of 20 passes for 127 yards and two touchdowns for Oklahoma (10-1, 7-1 Big 12, No. 7 CFP) before leaving with the head injury.
Oklahoma, winner of six straight, will now gain the Big 12 Championship next week with a win over No. 4 Oklahoma State, and perhaps a berth in the 4-team College Football Playoff.
Sooners coach Bob Stoops believes if they win that one, they should make it into the College Football Playoff.
“Sure, I would think so,” Stoops said. “When you cannot be at your best and win, it’s always a positive against a ranked team.”
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