Oklahoma football: Seven different Sooners score TDs in blowout win
By Chip Rouse
The numbers from Saturday night’s Oklahoma football blowout win are plentiful, as you might expect, and all about the Sooners.
It’s always fun to be on the winning side of a lopsided score and mismatch, as was the case in Oklahoma’s not-that-surprising 76-0 smackdown of of lowly Western Carolina. But because of the gargantuan talent gap between these two teams, it’s difficult and a fool’s errand to read too much into this win, especially what it might tell about the Sooners for the rest of the season.
All week long, in the practice sessions preparing for the game with Western Carolina, Lincoln Riley and his coaching staff emphasized giving a full effort for a full four quarters and finishing. The Sooners obviously were listening because they kept the pedal to the medal from start to finish this week, unlike the letup that occurred in the second half the week before after powering out to a 23-point first-half advantage.
The result was a highly satisfying if not statistically significant smash-mouth victory and now the look-ahead to the much-anticipated reunion next Saturday with former longtime conference rival Nebraska.
Here are a dozen numbers that help tell the story of the OU Week 2 win:
-2 — Western Carolina entered the fourth quarter with minus-two yards rushing in the game. The Catamounts ended with 55 yards rushing for the game.
3 — A pair of Oklahoma walk-on running backs (Jaden Knowles and Todd Hudson) found the end zone three times in the win over Western Carolina.
7 — Seven different Sooners scored touchdowns in the game, and three players (Jadon Haselwood, Jaden Knowles and Todd Hudson) scored two TDs apiece.
10 — Oklahoma has now won 10 consecutive games, the second longest active winning streak in college football and the team’s 14th win streak of at least 10 games in its history.
12 — The game was so one-sided that the two coaches agreed to a 12-minute fourth quarter instead of the regulation 15 minutes.
14 — Oklahoma scored no fewer than 14 points in every quarter, with a high of 28 in the second quarter.
45 — OU led 45-0 at the end of the first half. This is the 15th time in program history the Sooners have scored at least 45 points in the opening half.
56 — Junior kicker Gabe Brkic made a 56-yard field goal in the first quarter in his only FG attempt in the game. He has made five of six FG tries in the Sooners first two games, and four of them have been good from longer than 50 yards.
65 — The Sooners have scored at least 27 points in 65 consecutive games.
76 — Fifth most points scored in OU football history and the most since a 77-0 win over Texas A&M in 2003.
135 — The announced attendance of 83,538 at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium was the 135th consecutive sellout of a regularly scheduled OU football game (excluding the 2020 pandemic season when their were attendance restrictions).