Oklahoma Football: Sum and Substance of Houston Loss
By Chip Rouse
Numbers often tell the story in most college football games, but the numbers in the stunning Oklahoma football loss to Houston on Saturday are highly deceptive.
For example, Houston won this game by a 10-point margin, 33-23, but after the opening half, the game really was never that close. The tipping point came nearing the midway point of the third quarter when Sooner placekicker Austin Seibert attempted a 53-yard field goal that came up a few yards short of the mark.
The Sooner coaching staff did not anticipate Seibert leaving the ball short (head coach Bob Stoops said his kicker more than had the leg to get it there and had seen him do it many times in practice). It may have been debatable that Seibert would accurately place the ball through the uprights, but Stoops said if that was the case it would either miss left or right but he expected it to reach the stands and not be returnable.
Well, the kick did fall short of the mark and was fielded and returned 109 yards for a Houston touchdown. So instead of what potentially would have been a 20-19 Oklahoma lead ended up being a nine-point, 26-17 advantage for Houston and essentially sucked all of the momentum out of the Sooner comeback bid.
From that point, OU fumbled the ball away on two subsequent possessions and further contributed to their own demise with poor execution on offense.
Some other notable numbers from the game:
3 – The loss to Houston was just the third opening-game loss in Bob Stoops’ 18 seasons at Oklahoma. (TCU in 2005 and BYU in 2009 were the others).
8 – Pass receptions by OU senior wide receiver Dede Westbrook for 70 yards receiving. The eight catches were a career high for Westbrook in a single game while at Oklahoma.
9 – String of consecutive September wins by Oklahoma that was snapped by the 33-23 loss to Houston to open the 2016 season.
10 – Team and career-high tackles by nickelback Will Johnson in the Sooners’ first-game loss to Houston on Saturday.
11 – Tackles for loss by the Oklahoma defense against Houston.
35:06 – Time of possession for Houston in Saturday’s game. Oklahoma had the ball for 24:54.
60 – Running back Joe Mixon had a 60-yard pass reception in the first quarter. That was his third reception of at least 60 yards in the last two seasons.
64 – The 64-yard touchdown catch and run by Sooner sophomore tight end Mark Andrews in the second quarter was a career long reception and his eighth touchdown catch in two seasons at Oklahoma. He caught a second TD pass later in the game.
89 – The Sooner defense held the Houston offense and quarterback Greg Ward Jr to a total of 89 yards rushing on 40 attempts, an average of just 2.2 yards per carry.
323 – Passing yards by OU quarterback Baker Mayfield vs. Houston. That gives him 4,427 yards of total offense while at Oklahoma, moving him from 15th on the all-time Sooner list to 10th. His production on Saturday moved his past Steve Owens, Joe Washington, Billy Sims, Steve Davis and Trevor Knight, some pretty big names on the Sooner career list.