Oklahoma football: Five best Sooner games of the decade
By Chip Rouse
No. 1 — Oklahoma at Ohio State, Sept. 9, 2017
Still hurting from a 45-24 home loss to Ohio State from the year before, Oklahoma traveled to Buckeye country in its second game of the season in 2017 in a rematch with the country’s No. 2 team and game two in their two-game home-and-home series.
Neither team scored in the opening quarter, but matching field goals left the score tied at three-all heading into halftime.
Baker Mayfield was a man possessed in this game, completing 29 of 35 passes for 388 yards and three touchdowns, completely outdueling OSU quarterback J.T. Barrett, who was 19 for 35 for 183 yards and no touchdowns.
Oklahoma scored two touchdowns in the third quarter and two more in the fourth to run away from the Buckeyes and leave a capacity crowd of 102,000-plus at Ohio Stadium stunned as the Sooners evened the score in the two-game series with a dominating 31-16 road victory.
“It was awful,” Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said after the game. We got beat by a very good team and a quarterback that was dynamic.”
Oklahoma had 490 yards of offense and also took advantage of 85 penalty yards assessed against the Buckeyes.
The late ESPN staff writer Edward Aschoff summarized the Sooner victory over the No. 2 Buckeyes this way:
"“A year after hearing the chants of ‘O-H-I-O’ inside their own stadium, the Sooners brought the boom to The Shoe (referring to the Horseshoe, another popular name for OSU’s Ohio Stadium), thanks to a runaway fourth quarter and another stellar performance by Heisman Trophy hopeful Baker Mayfield.”"
In the postgame celebration by the Sooners, Baker being Baker took the giant OU flag and planted it in the center of Ohio State’s midfield scarlet “O,” a move that created major controversy inside and outside of the state of Ohio and all around college football.