Oklahoma football: Takeaways from WVU for Championship Saturday
By Chip Rouse
Can anyone stop. or even slow down, the explosive Oklahoma offense?
The Sooners ran just 54 plays against West Virginia, averaging an unworldly 12 yards per play, and producing 646 yards of total offense. The last time Oklahoma was that efficient on offense was back in 1971, when OU rolled up over 700 yards of offense against Kansas State.
What makes the OU offense so dangerous this season is their ability to run the ball well, which gives Mayfield more opportunity to do his magic throwing the ball. The Sooners ran for 313 yards rushing, 118 of that total coming from Rodney Anderson, including four first-half touchdowns.
The Sooners threw just 19 passes in the game, completing 17 of them (Mayfield was 14 of 17 for 281 yards and three touchdowns; Murray was 2 of 2 for 52 yards and a touchdown). Mayfield’s passing efficiency rating for the game was 279.4, which is the fourth best single-game rating in OU football history.
Mayfield, who may go down as the greatest quarterback in OU program history, has now thrown a touchdown pass in a Big 12 record 38 consecutive games, and has thrown two-or-more TD passes in 25 consecutive games. The latter is believed to be two shy of setting a new FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision history) record, according to the OU athletic department.
Oklahoma’s 300-plus rushing and passing yards against West Virginia represents just the sixth time since 1996, the inaugural season for the Big 12 Conference, that the Sooners have exceeded 300 yards in both categories in the same game.
The Sooners will need all of that going for them next Saturday, when they go up against the Big 12’s best defensive team and one of the best in the country.