Oklahoma football: Numbers to know from a troubling Sooner win
By Chip Rouse
There was nothing pretty or particularly pleasurable about Oklahoma football victory No. 10 on the season on Saturday.
You can always fall back on the popular cliché, a win is win and that’s all that really matters. But the victory over Kansas seemed more like a loss than a win. This was clearly not a win to beat the drum about.
The Jayhawks have won just two Big 12 games in the last four years, and one of those wins was at home against Texas. Sooner fans are hopeful history will repeat itself this season, with the Jayhawks hosting the Longhorns on Friday. I recognize some fans are leaning the opposite way, wanting an OU-Texas rematch for the Big 12 Championship. That would require Texas and the Sooners to both win on Friday.
Kansas played like giant killers on offense on Saturday at OU. If they play that well again this week, Texas might be in for a much bigger dogfight than most people expect.
“No matter whether teams are running it or throwing it, you’ve got to tackle. At the end of the day, you have to tackle.” — OU head coach Lincoln Riley on his team’s defensive troubles against Kansas
Oklahoma leads the nation in total offense. The Sooners average 576 yards of offense per game, and they produced right at that number against Kansas on Saturday (566 yards of total offense).
The Jayhawks came into the game on Saturday ranked 106th out of 129 FBS teams in total offense (355.8). Against an OU defense that struggled getting players to the ground on Saturday, Kansas met its season average and upped the ante by another 175 yards. That’s just 42 yards fewer than OU’s total for the night. The Jayhawks rushed for 348 yards alone.
The numbers were big, as they seem to be in every Oklahoma game this season. Somehow the Sooners keep managing to win, despite the fact their last three opponents have scored an average of 44 points against them.
Here are some more compelling numbers from the Oklahoma-Kansas game, the 2018 home finale for the Sooners:
0 — Number of punts by Oklahoma in the game with Kansas.
5 — Quarterback Kyler Murray accounted for five touchdowns on Saturday vs. Kansas (three rushing, two passing). This is the third time this season Murray has totaled five TDs in a game. He has scored four TDs in eight games.
9.7 — Yards per play averaged by the Kansas offense every time it ran the ball against the Sooners. KU running back Pooka Williams, who rushed for a game-high 252 yards, averaged 16.8 yards per rush by himself
14/15 — Oklahoma has won 14 consecutive games against Kansas. Each of those wins has been by at least 15 points, which was the margin of victory on Saturday.
16 — Consecutive wins by Oklahoma in the month of November.
9 of 10 — Successful third-down conversions by Oklahoma against Kansas.
21 — The Sooners have scored at least 50 points six times in 2018. They lead the nation, scoring 50 or more points 21 times since 2015.
23 — Points scored in the fourth quarter by Kansas on Saturday. That is the most points scored in the fourth quarter by an OU opponent in program history.
39 — The win over Kansas gives the Sooners their 39th 10-win season, the most by any team at the FBS level.
500 — Oklahoma gained 500 or more yards of offense for the seventh consecutive game.
Statistical information that appears in this article was obtained, in part, from the postgame notes provided by the OU athletic department.