Oklahoma football: Sooner offense outguns Baylor for 66-33 victory

Backup quarterback Austin Kendall started and finished the Oklahoma football game on Saturday, but it was Kyler Murray that stole the show as the Sooners hammered out a 66-33 win over the Baylor Bears.

Murray threw for 432 yards and six touchdowns and averaged 20.6 yards per completion in leading No. 5 Oklahoma to its fifth win of the season without a loss. The Sooners finished with 604 yards on offense, including 175 yards on the ground. The redshirt junior OU quarterback did not start the game for disciplinary reasons after reportedly oversleeping and reporting late to practice on Friday.

In addition to Murray’s six passing touchdowns, he also ran for a score. His seven total TDs tied Baker Mayfield by the most touchdowns accounted for in a single game.

For the second week in a row, the Sooners ran considerably fewer plays than its opponent and had much less possession time, but they were extremely efficient on offense, scoring 10 times in 13 total possessions. Oklahoma scored all six times they had the ball in the second half, expanding a 28-9 halftime advantage by outscoring Baylor 38-24 over the final 30 minutes.

Baylor ran a total of 101 plays (14 more than Army had last week against the Sooners), 47 more than Oklahoma, which totaled 54 offensive plays.

Redshirt freshman running back Kennedy Brooks rushed for 13.6 yards per carry and a career-high 107 yards, including two touchdown runs, to lead Oklahoma on the ground.

Marquise “Hollywood” Brown caught five passes for 132 yards and two touchdowns for the Sooners.

Baylor quarterback Charlies Brewer, who went to the same high school as Mayfield, also had a strong game passing the football. Brewer completed 38 of 60 passes for 400 yards and two touchdowns. Four different Baylor receivers caught five or more passes, with senior wide receiver Denzel Mims the primary target, hauling in 11 passes for 114 yards and a touchdown.

After Army’s triple-option offense gouged the Sooner defense for 339 yards a week ago, Oklahoma gave up just 77 yards on the ground to the visiting Baylor Bears on Saturday.

Baylor had the ball on offense nearly 15 minutes longer than Oklahoma. Because the Sooners’ scoring drives were relatively short in duration, defensive coordinator Mike Stoops’ defense was again forced to play a disproportionate number of snaps. The Sooner defenders were able to come up with big plays when they needed them, however. Baylor was just 9 of 20 in third-down conversions.

Baylor cut the Oklahoma lead to 12 points twice in the second half, at 28-16 and 35-23, but the Sooners closed out the threat by outscoring the Bears 28-10 the rest of the way. It was the second time in five games this season Oklahoma has exceeded 60 points and the sixth time since 2015.

Oklahoma heads down I-35 next weekend for its annual showdown with archrival Texas in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. This will be the first time since 2012 that both the Sooners and the 4-1 Longhorns will enter the game ranked in the top 25 in both major polls. Texas held on to defeat Kansas State 19-14 on Saturday.