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Fansided

Oklahoma football: The 35-point Playoff loss to LSU wasn’t OU’s worst

By Chip Rouse

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - DECEMBER 28: General overhead view during the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl between the Oklahoma Sooners and the LSU Tigers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on December 28, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - DECEMBER 28: General overhead view during the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl between the Oklahoma Sooners and the LSU Tigers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on December 28, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images) /
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At the time, it seemed like the most one-sided defeat in Oklahoma football history.

It was clearly trending that way, with LSU holding a 56-14 advantage over the Sooners at halftime in last season’s College Football Playoff national semifinal game.

At that point, with Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Joe Burrow firing lasers to wide-open LSU  receivers all over the field, it appeared the eventual national champions were well on their way to “hanging a hundred” on the struggling Sooner defense, down four starters to the combination of injury, suspension and ejection.

As it was, the two teams played the second half to a 14-all tie, and the 35-point loss went in the OU record books as one of the worst defeats in school history, but not the worst. In fact, the LSU loss wasn’t even Oklahoma’s worst loss in the new millennium.

Sooner fans will not soon forget the humiliation they endured when No. 1-ranked USC dismantled Oklahoma to the tune of 55-19 in the 2004 BCS national championship game. That 36-point thrashing stands as the fourth worst margin of defeat in OU’s storied football history.

What made last season’s loss to LSU and the loss to USC in the 2004 season so devastatingly difficult to endure was that they both occurred on a championship stage and before a national television audience. From that standpoint, they could be considered the Sooners’ two worst losses, at least the two most noteworthy.

Oklahoma football has endured worst losses than the thrashing by LSU last season.

The truth of the matter is that for the first 70 years of Oklahoma’s football, only four teams scored 40 or more points against the Sooners. Oklahoma A&M defeated their in-state rivals 47-0 in 1945. That was the most points scored an Oklahoma team until Kansas State put 59 points on the scoreboard in a 59-21 win over the Sooners and Heisman-winning fullback Steve Owens in 1969.

The 38-point victory margin by K-State in 1969 is tied for the fourth worst Oklahoma loss in terms of scoring margin.

The worst Oklahoma loss in the team’s 125-year history belongs to the 1997 Sooners coached by John Blake. 1997. Top-ranked Nebraska defeated OU 69-7 that season.

Although Oklahoma owns a 45-38-3 all-time record against its former conference rival, the Cornhuskers are credited with three of the eight worst losses — again based on scoring margin — in Sooner history.

Circling back to the disappointing way last season ended for the Sooners — a 35-point beatdown by No. 1 LSU — as difficult as it was to sit through it, OU fans can take some solace in the fact that it was only the seventh worst Oklahoma football loss all-time.

Some consolation, huh?

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