Oklahoma football: Sixth straight win puts OU in line for 6th straight Big 12 title
By Chip Rouse
A sixth straight Oklahoma football win has put the Sooners in line for a sixth straight Big 12 crown.
The numbers from Oklahoma’s 27-14 win over Baylor on Saturday night aren’t big or mighty by typical Sooner standards, bet they do tell the story of the game.
Unlike many a Big 12 game, and especially one involving Oklahoma, in which we have come to expect plenty of offense and only token defense, Saturday night’s game between the 6-2 Sooners and 2-6 Bears was little about offense, with the defenses dictating the ultimate outcome.
Entering the game Oklahoma had outscored its previous eight opponents 124-17 in the first quarter and was averaging 15.5 points in the opening 15 minutes and a 28 to 9 halftime margin. On Saturday night, the halftime score was 10-0 in favor of the Sooners, and it was 3-0 until Rhamondre Stevenson scored on a three-yard touchdown run with 1:04 remaining in the half.
Oklahoma totaled just 269 yards of offense the entire game, the Sooners lowest offensive total since the 2014 season, and a little more than half of its season average.
Fortunately, the Sooner defense was there to pick up the slack, shutting down the Baylor run game and holding the Bears to just 288 total yards and a mere 3.5 yards per play.
Here are some of the other noteworthy numbers that tell the story of this game:
0 — The halftime score was 10-0. It marked the first time Oklahoma has shut out an opponent in the first half since 2015 in a 55-0 win at Kansas State
2 — Spencer Rattler through two TD passes against Baylor. The redshirt-freshman quarterback has thrown at least two TD passes in eight of the Sooners’ nine games.
8 — Defensive tackle Isaiah Thomas had 2.5 sacks and three tackles for loss in the Baylor. He leads the Sooners with eight sacks and 11.5 tackles for loss this season.
8/2 — The Oklahoma defense finished the game with eight pass breakups– and two interceptions. This is the fourth time this season that the OU defense has intercepted two passes in a game.
27 — OU’s record 60-game streak of scoring at least 28 points in a game was snapped in the 27-14 win over Baylor. Only to be replaced by a new consecutive games streak. The Sooners have scored at least 27 points in a school-record 61 games.
43 — Lincoln Riley has now won 43 games in his first four seasons as the Oklahoma head coach. That ties Bob Stoops for the most wins in the first four seasons by an OU coach. Stoops was 43-9 in his first four seasons. Riley is currently 43-8 in his head-coaching career with as many as three more games to play this season.
30:10 — Oklahoma won the time of possession battle with Baylor by 30 seconds (30:10 to 20:50). The Sooners have won time of possession in eight of their nine games this season.
50 — Gabe Brkic made a 50-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter to give Oklahoma a 20-7 lead. It was his 33rd career field goal in two seasons, tying him with Uwe von Schamann for 10th all-time on the Sooner career list.
248 — Total yards the Sooners have surrendered in the third quarter over the last six games, including minus-two yards by Baylor on Saturday night.
22,700 — Attendance at the game, the finale home game for the Sooners in 2020. The Sooners were 4-1 at home this season, the one loss coming to Kansas State in the second game of the season.