Oklahoma football: Notable numbers from an unnoteworthy game
By Chip Rouse
Thanks to Kansas and seven other Big 12 teams, the 2017 Oklahoma football season is going to be 14 games long for the first time since 2010.
The Sooners played in the last Big 12 Championship, in 2010, beating Nebraska 23-20, and they will be there again in the return of the conference championship game this season, in a likely rematch with TCU.
Oklahoma’s 41-3 win over Kansas punched the Sooners’ ticket to the Big 12 Championship game and was their 15th consecutive victory over the bottom-dwelling Jayhawks. Not one of those 15 straight wins was by a victory margin fewer than 15 points. Seven of the 15 have been on the road at Kansas, where OU has outscored the Jayhawks by an average score of 39-10.
The win was Oklahoma’s 10th in Lincoln Riley’s first season as head coach of the Sooners. One more win will make the 34-year-old Riley the only head coach in OU’s storied, 122-year football history to win as many as 12 games in his inaugural season.
Here are a dozen more notable numbers from the OU win at Kansas, a game that
was noteworthy for the wrong reasons:
2.5 – Average yards per play by Kansas against the OU defense on Saturday.
7 – Kansas has not scored more than seven points in five of its last six games wih Oklahoma.
7 – Freshman cornerback Tre Norwood posted three pass breakups against Kansas, giving him seven for the season and the team lead in that category.
10 – Austin Seibert kicked two field goals at Kansas on Saturday. He has made his last 10 consecutive field goals.
11 – Rodney Anderson’s 34-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter against Kansas was his 12th touchdown of the season and his 11th in the last five games.
14 – The win at Kansas was Oklahoma’s 14th straight Big 12 road win, establishing a new conference record.
14 – Baker Mayfield has never lost a true road game in three seasons as the OU starting quarterback. With the victory at Kansas, Mayfield’s record in true road contests is 14-0
16 – OU’s 16 consecutive true road wins is the longest active streak among FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) teams.
37 – Baker Mayfield has thrown a touchdown pass in 37 consecutive games, which is a new Big 12 record. He also is the Big 12 record holder with at least two touchdown passes in 24 consecutive games.
128 – With three touchdown passes in the win over Kansas, Baker Mayfield now has 128 total touchdowns as an Oklahoma Sooner. That passes Landry Jones (126) for a new school record for career touchdowns.
155 – Total yards allowed by the Oklahoma defense against Kansas. That is the fewest yards allowed by a Sooner defense since 2015.
314 – Yardage by which OU outgained Kansas in the 41-3 Sooner victory.
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