Oklahoma football: Breaking down another Bedlam victory
By Chip Rouse
Special teams played a bigger role than realized in the Sooners’ Bedlam win
Baker Mayfield drew most of the headlines in leading OU’s hard-fought shootout victory at the O.K. corral on Saturday, but he had a large supporting cast, including junior punter/placekicker Austin Seibert. Seibert kicked field goals of 20 and 36 yards, giving him seven consecutive made field goals.
He averaged 47 yards in the Sooners’ two punts. The first of the two was a booming 53-yarder on Oklahoma’s second possession of the game that was kicked from the OU end zone and fair caught at the Oklahoma State 36-yard line, completely flipping the field instead of giving the Cowboy offense a short field.
The Sooners kicked off 11 times in the game. Only one of Seibert’s kickoffs was returned (for 16 yards), with 10 of them sailing deep into the end zone for touchbacks.
Field position, both on offense and defense, can have a major impact on the outcome of a game, particularly when the two teams are closely matched like they were in Bedlam (No. 5 vs. No. 11 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings). Seibert made sure on Saturday that this did not play to Oklahoma State’s advantage.