Oklahoma football: Notable numbers from another Wild Wild West shootout
By Chip Rouse
Why should we have expected anything less from an Oklahoma football game at Texas Tech?
High-scoring, all-offense-little-defense gridiron battles between the Sooners and Red Raiders have become the norm in recent years. We’re talking about two teams that have deep personal connections and similar offensive styles.
Former Oklahoma offensive coordinator Mike Leach took the Air Raid offense to Texas Tech when he left Norman after the 1999 season to become head coach of the Red Raiders. Kliff Kingsbury was the Texas Tech QB when Leach arrived, and Lincoln Riley was there too.
Riley and Kingsbury were on opposing sidelines on Saturday night in Lubbock, Texas, as the Sooners and Red Raiders met on the football field for the 26th time, 22 of those coming as members of the Big 12 Conference.
This was Riley’s second trip back to Lubbock since leaving the Red Raider coaching staff in 2009 to become the offensive coordinator at East Carolina, but his first as the Sooner head coach.
Two years ago, when Riley was in his first season as the OU offensive coordinator on Bob Stoops’ staff, OU and Texas Tech battled each other in an offensive display that was one for the ages. The two teams put up 125 combined points and produced over 1,700 yards of offense in a game that was won by Baker Mayfield and the Sooners 66-59 over Patrick Mahomes and the Red Raiders.
The last three times Oklahoma has traveled to Texas Tech, the average score has been 53-45, with OU coming out on top all three times. Saturday night was no exception, resulting in a 51-46 Sooner victory and 1,156 yards of combined offense.
When Oklahoma scored its final of seven TDs on the night, on a 30-yard run by Trey Sermon with 4:03 remaining to go up 51-40, it sent a good number of the 60, 454 fans headed for the exits at Jones AT&T Stadium.
Here are some more numbers of interest from Saturday night’s offensive fireworks:
2 — OU had two rushers exceed 100 yards on the ground (Trey Sermon with a career-high 206 yards and Kyler Murray with 100 rushing yards). It was the first time this season that two Sooners reached triple digits in rushing yards.
5 — Coming into Saturday’s game at Texas Tech, the Red Raiders had beaten five ranked teams, including three top-10 teams, dating back to 2007. Oklahoma entered the game on Saturday ranked No. 7 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings for 2018.
18 — Kyler Murray targeted Marquise Brown and CeeDee Lamb, the Sooners top two receivers, a combined total of 18 times in the game, but only nine were completed.
19 — The win at Texas Tech extended Oklahoma’s winning streak in true road games to 19, the longest active such streak in the nation.
30 — The Sooners have won 30 of their last 32 games against Big 12 opponents.
32 — Oklahoma tied a season-high in first downs with 32 versus Texas Tech. OU also produced 32 first downs a week ago against Kansas State.
79 — Oklahoma ran 79 offensive plays in the game and also controlled time of possession (32:11 tp 27:49).
113 — Oklahoma was flagged 10 times in the game, resulting in 113 yards in penalties.
360/323 — As it has been most of this season, the Oklahoma offense was very balanced: 360 passing yards and 323 rushing.
460 — Kyler Murray accounted for 460 of Oklahoma’s 683 yards of offense in the game, including four touchdowns (three passing and one rushing).