Oklahoma football: It’s Bedlam; why wouldn’t big numbers dictate?
By Chip Rouse
On a day when the Oklahoma State and Oklahoma football offenses were virtually unstoppable, it was a couple of stalwart defensive plays that determined the outcome of the annual Bedlam battle on Saturday.
With the game tied at 41 and Oklahoma State driving, with just over six minutes remaining in the game and a first and 10 at the OU 40-yard line, Sooner defensive lineman Neville Gallimore delivered a bone-crushing tackle on Cowboy running back Chuba Hubbard , who coughed up the football for the first turnover of the game. The ball was recovered by defensive end Kenneth Mann, only the Sooners third fumble recovery of the season, but in all probability the biggest.
Oklahoma took over at its own 36-yard line courtesy of the turnover. Six plays and 64 yards later, the big play being a 39-yard run by redshirt freshman Kennedy Brooks to the OSU 1-yard line. Trey Sermon delivered the final yard for an OU touchdown, putting the Sooners up 48-41 with 3:29 left in regulation.
The way the these two offenses were going — producing nearly 1,300 yards of combined offense to this point in the game — no lead seemed safe, and certainly not a seven-point advantage with plenty of time left on the clock.
True to what has become an expectation in recent years in this longtime rivalry series, Oklahoma State responded to the Sooner scoring drive with one of its own, going 71 yards in nine plays on a 24-yard touchdown pass from Taylor Cornelius to Tylan Wallace for what appeared to be a game-tying touchdown.
Only head coach Mike Gundy and the Cowboys weren’t thinking about a tie and potential overtime, they wanted to put the game away then and there. That’s when the Sooner defense came up with it with its second game-saving defensive play of the quarter. Cornelius again tried to connect with Wallace on the two-point attempt, but his hurried pass fell short in front of Wallace, sealing the win for OU.
Here are some more notable numbers from yet another Bedlam shootout that kept fans from both sides on the edge of their seats till the very end:
1 — OU quarterback Kyler Murray threw one touchdown pass in the game. It was the first time in 10 games that Murray has not thrown at least two touchdown passes.
5 — Number of Bedlam games in the last 11 years in which the losing team scored at least 40 points.
15 — Oklahoma has won 15 consecutive games in the month of November.
31 — The Sooners have won 31 of their last 33 games against Big 12 opponents.
88 — Saturday’s Bedlam win was Oklahoma’s 88th over Oklahoma State, the most Sooner wins against any other opponent and the second most by any FBS team against any opponent.
300 – For the second consecutive win, the Sooners exceeded 300 rushing yards and 300 through the air.
415 — Total yards of offense accounted for by Kyler Murray out of OU’s game-high 702 yards.
700 — Saturday’s game was the 12 time in OU football history that the Oklahoma offense has exceeded 700 yards in a game, six of which have come since Lincoln Riley joined the Sooner coaching staff in 2015.
811 — Total yards of offense by the two teams (453 by Oklahoma and 358 by Oklahoma State) in the first half of Saturday’s game, the second most in the FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) this season.
87,635 — Attendance at Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on Saturday for the 113th Bedlam Series football meeting between OU and OSU. This was the third largest crowd in the history of the facility.
Statistics that appear in this article were sourced from several sources, including the Oklahoma Football Game Notes provided by the OU athletic department.