Oklahoma football: Murray outguns Mayfield in desert duel
By Chip Rouse
The matchup between the Cleveland Browns and Arizona Cardinals on Sunday may not have held a lot of interest around the NFL, but that was not the story if you consider yourself a diehard fan of Oklahoma football.
Neither team is experiencing the greatest of seasons, both sporting sub-.500 records heading down the homestretch of the 2019 NFL season. Although the Browns were holding on to the slim hope they could still earn a wild card playoff spot in the NFL postseason.
Nevertheless, this was a game that Oklahoma fans had circled on the calendar since long before the start of the 2019 NFL season. It actually dates back to last April, when Kyler Murray was selected by Arizona as the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft, a year after his Sooner teammate Baker Mayfield had been chosen in the very same position by the Cleveland Browns.
Both played quarterback at Oklahoma and both won the Heisman Trophy in successive years (2017 and 2018), the first time ever that different players at the same position and with the same school had won college football’s most prestigious inidividual honor in back-to-back years.
The game on Sunday at State Farm Stadium in the Arizona desert was being touted as a classic showdown between two of the greatest quarterbacks in the storied history of Oklahoma football. Mayfield was in his second season as starting QB for the Browns, while Murray is about to complete his rookie campaign starting at quarterback for Arizona.
The game turned into anything but a passing duel. Mayfield completed 20 of 43 passes for 247 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Murray was 19 of 25 in the aerial department for Arizona with one touchdown toss. Both QBs threw an interception (the 17th of the season for Mayfield, matching his touchdown total, while Murray has thrown 10 picks to go with 17 touchdowns),
In the end, though, it was the running of Arizona’s Kenyon Drake, coupled with two Cleveland turnovers, that made the difference in the game. Drake, who played collegiately at Alabama, rushed for 137 yards and four touchdowns to propel the Cardinals to a 38-24 win over the Browns, all but eliminating Cleveland’s playoff hopes.
Murray got the better of his former OU teammate — on this day, anyway. He threw for 28 fewer yards, but in 18 fewer attempts than his Browns’ counterpart. Murray’s finished with a quarterback rating of 91.2 for the game, 21 points better than Mayfield (70.2).
Round one goes to Murray, but you can expect these two former teammates, friends and fierce competitors to face each other on the gridiron again a time or two before their NFL careers come to an end.