Oklahoma football: Notable numbers from an OU Bear trapping
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma won its fifth consecutive game of the 2018 season on Saturday, a 33-point romp over an improved Baylor team. The last time an Oklahoma football team started the season 5-0 was in 2013.
In 2013, the Oklahoma win streak to start the season ended at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on the sixth game of the season, a 36-20 loss to the hated Texas Longhorns. That loss not only ended Sooners’ unbeaten season but also snapped a three-game winning streak over their Red River rivals. Oklahoma would lose just one more time that season, which was topped off with a 45-31 Sugar Bowl win over No. 3-ranked and defending national champion Alabama.
If the fifth-rank Sooners (in the Coaches Poll) are able to take down archrival Texas next Saturday, they will run their record to 6-0 at the midway mark of the 2018 season, which would represent their best start since 2004.
Looking back at OU’s 66-33 victory over Baylor, it was the second time the Sooners have scored more than 60 points in five games this season and the sixth time since 2015 that they have exceeded 60 points in a game, Their 48.6 scoring average through five games is the best in the Big 12.
Oklahoma is now 25-3 against Baylor all-time, the second best winning percentage (.890) the Sooners have against any opponent they have played at least 20 times.
Saturday’s game against Baylor at Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium marked the 120th consecutive sellout, which dates back to the opening game of the 1999 season.
Here are a dozen more noteworthy numbers from the Oklahoma victory on Saturday:
2:57 — The longest of OU’s 10 scoring drives in Saturday’s win over Baylor.
7 — Oklahoma touchdowns on Saturday (out of nine total) that Kyler Murray contributed to (six passing and one rushing TDs). That ties Baker Mayfield, who had seven passing TDs against Texas Tech in 2016, for an OU program record.
11.24 — Oklahoma averaged 11.24 yards on 54 plays in the 66-33 win over Baylor. That is tied for the third-best single-game average in OU football history.
17 — The Sooners’ 28-point first half versus Baylor was the 17th time in the last 19 games they have scored 20 or more points in the opening 30 minutes.
23 — Kicker Austin Seibert has not allowed a runback in 23 consecutive kickoffs. All 23 were touchbacks, kicked out of the end zone or downed in the end zone by the return man.
25.17 — Oklahoma’s yards-per-completion average (17 for 23 for 432 yards) on Saturday, a school record.
40 — Oklahoma came into the Baylor game leading the Big 12 this season with eight plays of 40 yards or more. The Sooners had six such plays against Baylor on Saturday.
49 — Three of Oklahoma’s nine touchdown scores came from 49 or more yards out.
50 — The Sooners have scored at least 50 points 17 times since the 2015 season.
107 — Redshirt freshman Kennedy Brooks had a career-high 107 rushing yards in just eight carries. He averaged 13.4 yards per carry.
132 — Marquise “Hollywood” Brown had five catches against Baylor for 132 yards and two touchdowns. This was the seventh time Brown has had a 100-yard receiving day in the 18 games he has played at Oklahoma in one and a half seasons.
348.0 — Kyler Murray’s quarterback rating in the win over Baylor, an OU program record and the highest passer rating by an FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) since at least 1996 (when statistics for that category were first recorded).
Statistical information for this article was extracted, in part, from the postgame notes issued by the Oklahoma athletic department.