It was an Oklahoma football game for the ages. If you are a fan of offensive football, and we say that in a positive context, this was a video game-like display to put defensive football to shame.
High-scoring offenses that can put up plenty of points plenty fast is the way of the world in the Big 12, but the show put on the night of Oct. 22, 2017, by two gun-slinging quarterbacks named Mayfield and Mahomes was as crazy as it gets.
The two teams combined for a basketball-like over-under of 125 points and 1,708 yards in an offensive shootout for the ages.
Baker Mayfield completed 27 of 36 passes for 545 yards and a school-record seven touchdowns and Joe Mixon rushed for 231 additional yards and a couple of touchdowns (he also accounted for three receiving TDs) as the Sooners amassed 854 yards of offense and totaled 66 points. Even with all that, Oklahoma’s winning margin that night was a mere seven points.
"“I definitely felt we were watching two guys who would be playing on Sunday,” former Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops told Jake Trotter of ESPN.com."
Patrick Mahomes uncorked an unbelievable 88 passes in the game, completing 52 of them for 734 yards and five touchdowns. The fact that Mahomes was battling a sprain in his throwing shoulder and a fracture to his left wrist made his performance even more remarkable.
Ironically, Texas Tech’s offensive total in the game was exactly the same as the Sooners: 854 yards. It would take most teams two games to produce that much offense.
Both quarterbacks were literally on fire. The Sooners never trailed in the game, but throughout the second half were never able to open up an advantage larger than 14 points. The two teams scored 71 points in the second half, and it seemed like every time Oklahoma would appear to be pulling away, Mahomes and the Red Raider would answer with a scoring drive of their own.
Oklahoma held a 66-52 advantage with just a few ticks over five minutes remaining in the game following a 42-yard run the paydirt by Mixon. But Mahomes and Co. responded with a 13-play, 92-yard touchdown drive to make the score 66-59 with a minute and a half to go.
The Sooners covered an onside kick by the Red Raiders and held on to the ball for the remaining 1:38 on the game clock to preserve the hard-earned, high-scoring victory.
The Sooners and Red Raiders meet again in Lubbock on Saturday night for the first time since the 2017 game. The quarterbacks will be different — Kyler Murray for Oklahoma and Alan Bowman, a freshman, for Texas Tech — but the two offenses are still very explosive and very similar and are easily capable of putting up lots of points, as evidenced by the fact they stand one and two in the conference in scoring offense (OU 48.9, T-Tech 42.2).
As fate would have it, Mayfield and Mahomes will meet again this weekend, for the first time since the epic 2017 battle, this time in an NFL showdown. The two quarterbacks are still drawing all kinds of attention, only now at the next level. Mayfield and the Cleveland Browns will host the red-hot Kansas City Chiefs, quarterbacked by Mahomes, on Sunday.
Mayfield and Mahomes have a deeper connection than many people may realize. Mayfield, of course, transferred to Oklahoma from Texas Tech on 2013 after his freshman season. ESPN’s Trotter reminds us that while he was at Texas Tech, Mayfield actually hosted Mahomes on the latter’s official recruiting visit.
So for Oklahoma fans, this weekend features a doubleheader of sorts: the Sooners versus Texas Tech on Saturday night and Mayfield versus Mahomes Part II on Sunday in Cleveland. Here’s hoping for a doubleheader sweep in favor of the good guys.