Oklahoma football: Four takeaways from surprisingly close but clinching OU win

It was far from the best Oklahoma football performance of the season, but it was enough to clinch a spot in the Big 12 Championship .

Eleventh-ranked Oklahoma’s 27-14 win over Baylor in the 2020 home finale at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium earned the Sooners sole possession of second place in the Big 12 and an opportunity for a rematch with conference regular-season champion Iowa State.

But it was not a win Lincoln Riley and the Sooners will look back on feeling good about themselves.

For one thing, the high-powered Oklahoma offense, which had averaged 55 points in its last three games produced just 27 on Saturday, snapping the team’s 60-game streak of scoring at least 28 points. Moreover, the Sooners generated just  269 yards of total offense after averaging 512 yard a game through the first eight games of the season.

Baylor actually outgained Oklahoma in total yards, 288 to 269. Outside of the postseason, tell me the last time that has happened under a Riley-led offense?

The Sooners (7-2, 6-2) still have a makeup game at West Virginia scheduled for next weekend before the Big 12 title game on Dec. 19 and a chance to win a sixth consecutive conference crown and a 14th in the Big 12 era.

There are some who have suggested that Oklahoma might want to get out of the West Virginia game with a spot in the league championship already secured and with Iowa State having already finished its season and having an extra week to prepare for the championship.

Riley immediately dismissed this notion in his postgame press conference on Saturday. “We believe in competitiveness. And we believe in not backing down from anything,” the Sooner head coach said.

“In all the years, but especially in this one, the opportunity to play another game?  If we can do it, we’ll be there.”

Here are four immediate takeaways from from the Baylor win, putting OU than much closer to another Big 12 summit.

The OU offense was out of synch all night

The Sooner offense was stagnant all game, with only brief moments of what we’ve come to expect. It’s difficult to tell, although entirely plausible, that the Sooners’ offensive sluggishness had a lot to do with unsettled nature of the past week and not knowing if Saturday’s game was going to be played because of COVID concerns within the Oklahoma program.

Spencer Rattler did not look himself for much of the game, and the offensive line seemed to have trouble protecting for him, which led to four sacks and an uncharacteristic number of three-and-outs for the normally high-output Oklahoma offense. Four of those three-and-outs happened on four successive OU possessions in the opening half.

Baylor had Rhamondre Stevenson’s number all night. The bruising OU running back had gained over 100 yards in each of his last two games, but was held to just 76 yards on Saturday and 21 of that came on one play.

The Sooners drove 67 yards after the opening kickoff before having to settling for a a 20-yard field goal, but managed just 32 more yards the remainder of the first half.

Oklahoma’s 269 total yards (193 passing and 76 rushing) for the game was the team’s lowest in the six seasons Riley has been in Norman and the fewest since the 2014 season.

The Sooners’ were undeniably flat offensively. Their first touchdown didn’t come until the one-minute mark of the first half, and they had just three plays of 20 or more yards and none longer than 30.

A good part of Oklahoma’s offensive struggles, however, was the result of an excellent game plan by Baylor defensive coordinator Ron Roberts and solid execution by the Bears’ defense.

The undermanned Sooner defense played outstanding

While the Oklahoma offense was struggling, the defense was credited for delivering this win. As one sports writer put it, “It was a stand-up night for the Sooner defense. The Baylor offense — which was down several key offensive weapons because of injury — didn’t fare much better than OU’s.

Baylor gained just 288 yards, 50 yards below its season average, with most of that coming on one long 39-yard pass and mostly short throws of 10 yards or less. Of particular note, though, was the Sooner run defense, which came into the game as the country’s ninth best and allowed just 25 rushing yards by Baylor.

The Sooners had one interception (by Tre Norwood, halting a Baylor drive in Oklahoma territory) and batted down six passes at the line of scrimmage.

When you consider that the OU defense was absent more players presumably due to COVID issues than the Sooner offense (most of the team’s key offensive weapons were healthy and available), it make the defensive performance against Baylor even more impressive.

The Oklahoma defense has held four of its last five opponents to 14 or fewer points and now ranks 29th in the country in that category.

Baylor’s 14 points could just as easily been zero. The first Baylor TD came after an offsides penalty on OU’s Marcus Stripling wiped out a failed fourth-down conversion attempt by the Bears. On the very next play, quarterback Charlie Brewer connected with Tyquan Thornton on a 25-yard touchdown pass.

Baylor’s final score came on a two-yard run by Brewer with just 59 seconds remaining.

The game ended fittingly, with Sooner defensive tackle Isaiah Thomas taking Brewer to the ground on a quarterback sack as time expired.

A win is a win, and this one clinched a spot in the Big 12 Championship

After suffering back-to-back losses to begin Big 12 play, Oklahoma has rebounded with six consecutive wins, and with the win over Baylor has clinched a spot in its sixth consecutive conference title game and 16th overall in the 25-year history of the Big 12 Conference.

Following a 37-30 loss at Iowa State on the first weekend in October, the Sooners’ chances of making it to the Big 12 Championship, let alone winning it for a sixth straight season, appeared to be a long shot at best.

The Oklahoma win over Baylor was easily the least impressive in the current six-game winning streak. But they did what they needed to do to win and got it done and are now are in a position to defend the the conference crown that has been in Norman for five consecutive seasons.

Where was Marvin Mims all night?

The Sooners leading receiver in terms of passing yardage caught one pass for negative yardage on Oklahoma’s second possession of the game. He wasn’t heard from thereafter. Not sure whether he suffered an injury or was just well defended, but I don’t recall seeing him on the field or being targeted any other time in the game.

Extra points

Oklahoma assistant Shane Beamer has reportedly accepted the head coaching job at South Carolina. Beamer has been at OU three seasons and has worked with the tight ends and H-backs and served as special teams coordinator. Before coming to Georgia, he performed similar activities.

This will be his second coaching stint at South Carolina. He was on the Gamecocks coaching staff from 2007 to 2010, coaching the cornerbacks, linebackers and working with special teams.