The Oklahoma football lead was 28-7 with midway through the third quarter
Oklahoma football quarterback Spencer Rattler became only the third Sooner quarterback to throw eight TD passes in his first two starts. He threw four TD passes in this game, and the Sooners led 35-21 entering the fourth quarter. What happened after that point, however, will haunt Oklahoma for the rest of the season.
A year ago, it was the Sooners making a valiant comeback late against Kansas State that unfortunately fell short. This time it was the Wildcats — a team that lost at home to Arkansas State just two weeks ago — making the improbable comeback, and they managed to finish the job, upsetting the Sooners for a second straight year and for the fourth time in the last eight years.
The deciding factor in this game was the play of the two teams in the fourth quarter. Kansas State continued to play over the final 15 minutes and Oklahoma did not. The Sooner offense gained a total of 37 yards in the final quarter after amassing 480 yards of offense up to that point.
Some would call this game a tale of two halves. It was really a tale of one quarter and a team that kept fighting and was determined not to lose while the other was content sitting on what was believed to be a comfortable lead and easing off a little to the finish line.
There was a lot to like in this game for the first 40 minutes or so, but much more to dislike in the Sooners’ self-inflicted fourth-quarter implosion.
Here are five takeaways from a game that was literally stolen from the Sooners.
The more things change the more they stay the same
Blowing big leads is not anything new to Oklahoma football teams. Fortunately the offense has been so good in recent seasons, the Sooners have been able to win most of their games by simply outscoring their opponent.
The OU defense under Alex Grinch had made dramatic strides between the 2018 and 2019 seasons, but while they can look great for stretches in a game at other times there are mental breakdowns, coverage confusion on the back end and lapses in the game when they are prone to give up big plays. The latter is what did the Sooners in late in the second half against Kansas State.
On three consecutive K-State possession late in the third quarter and into the fourth, the Wildcats completed touchdown drives of 78, 75 and 53 yards, all of which included big plays and wide open K-State receivers downfield enabled by blown coverage, poor tackling and the absence of pressure on the quarterback.
Part of the breakdown can be attributed to a tired OU defense that had been on the field for quite a few minutes as the second half wore on, but we’ve seen this same movie in quite a few games the past couple of seasons. and on this fateful occasion, the Sooners were unable to recover from it.
Oklahoma’s defensive breakdowns prompted one writer covering the game to describe things this way:
"“Alex Grinch’s defense looked at times in the second half like OU’s defense had reverted to the Mike Stoops era, with receivers surrounded by nothing but grass and defenders missing routine tackles.”"
The porous play of the Oklahoma defensive unit in the critical fourth quarter is extremely troubling with the most difficult part of the 2020 schedule upcoming.