Oklahoma decided to switch things up against Kansas St. last Saturday. Instead of taking a big lead early and blowing it, they went ahead and let KSU jump on top in the first half, before we roared back in the…
With just 4:58 left in the fourth quarter the game had come down to one play. A third and goal from the seven yard line. Oklahoma was leading 37-34.
Score a touchdown and the Sooners would likely put this slugfest of a game over. End this drive with a field goal would put Oklahoma up by just six — an uncomfortable place, given the rapidity with which the Baylor Bears had scored.
I texted friends: “This is a game winning or game losing play right here.”
Baker Mayfield, who had been brilliant all night and exceptionally lucky all night (two fumbles providently bounced back in his hands to save disaster), dropped back to pass. He was looking for Sterling Shephard running a corner route. Covered. Mark Andrews was running another route. Covered. Mayfield started to run for it — but no, the opening closed. The Baylor pass rush was closing in. And Mayfield scrambled.
It looked like one of those run-a-thousand-yards scrambles that would end in an incomplete pass, or a sack or something worse.
Then fullback Dimitri Flowers — who had been blocking in pass protection — didn’t have anyone to block as the Bear defenders were “bearing” down on Mayfield. Flowers slipped into the end zone and started waiving his hands.
Oklahoma’s game against Tulsa was like walking a tight rope without a net.
After TU scored 14 points in the last minute of the first half, closing the Sooners lead to seven, it seemed like the game was just a play or two away from falling into disaster.
But, then, Baker Mayfield came in and said, at least figuratively, “we got this.”
Mayfield set a school record with 572 yards. He threw four touchdown passes. He ran for two more.
And Oklahoma won 52-38, in a game where the offense bailed out the defense, which struggled defending against TU’s Baylor-esque offense. It was a returned favor from the previous week, when the defense seemed to keep Oklahoma in the game at Tennessee even when the offense sputtered.