Oklahoma football: Notable numbers as Sooners survive ISU upset bid
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma football has been a offensive juggernaut ever since Lincoln Riley arrived in Norman.
The Sooner offense rolled up video-game like numbers for a third straight weekend to begin the 2018 season, but you can whittle down Oklahoma’s 37-27 victory at Iowa State on Saturday to two game-changing numbers that potentially altered the outcome of the game.
The first was a fourth-quarter scoring drive that took nearly eight minutes off the clock that ended in a field goal and stretched the Oklahoma lead from seven to 10 points and left just under three minutes remaining in the game.
The second was an interception by the Sooner defensive back Parnell Motley, his first of the season, on the ensuing Iowa State possession that sealed a hard-earned victory for Oklahoma and avoided a second straight loss to the Cyclones, a team OU has lost to just six times in 83 games all-time.
For the third consecutive game, quarterback Kyler Murray was the difference maker of Oklahoma, completing 72 percent of his pass attempts for a career-high 348 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for 77 yards, leading all Sooner rushers for a second straight week.
Here are a dozen more notable numbers from OU’s win over Iowa State:
1 — Number of punts by each team in the game.
6 — Oklahoma has won six straight Big 12 openers and 10 of the last 11.
7 of 11 – -The Sooners scored on seven of their 11 offensive possessions in the game.
7:44 — Oklahoma’s 12-play, 47-yard scoring drive in the fourth quarter took seven minutes, 44 seconds off the game clock and was the Sooners longest drive of the season in terms of time elapsed.
11/5/60 — The date Oklahoma last lost a game in Ames Iowa (three days before John F. Kennedy was elected president). The Sooners are 24-0 since then in games played at Iowa State.
17 — First-half points given up by Oklahoma in three games.
29:17 — Time of possession by OU in the final 45 minutes of the game.
30 — Oklahoma has scored at least 30 points in 26 of its last 27 games and in all 17 of its current winning streak in true road games.
48 — Austin Seibert kicked three field goals in the game, giving him 48 for his career. That ties him with Tim Lashar (1983-86) and Tim Duncan (1999-01) for second place on the OU all-time list. Michael Hunnicutt (2011-14) holds the record with 78.
75 — Marquise “Hollywood” Brown caught a 75-yard touchdown pass from Kyler Murray in the first quarter against Iowa State. That was the Sooners’ longest play from scrimmage this season.
189 — Brown caught nine passes for 191 yards, 189 of which were recorded in the first half. That set a new Sooner record for receiving yards in the first half. The previous mark was 178 yards, which Brown posted last season against Oklahoma State and shared with Juaquin Iglesias (2008).
1,032 — Total offensive yards accounted for by Kyler Murray through three games this season. That is one yard less that what Baker Mayfield had at this same point last season.
Statistical numbers for this article were sourced from postgame material provided by the OU athletic department.