Oklahoma football: Sooners’ 23 points fewest in Lincoln Riley era
By Chip Rouse
The Las Vegas oddsmakers had made the high-scoring Oklahoma football team a 22-point favorite. The Sooners barely reached that many points on their side of the scoreboard.
Saturday’s much-anticipated showdown with former longtime conference opponent Nebraska was another just-enough performance by Oklahoma, something that is deeply concerning for a team that currently sits in the No. 3 spot in the national rankings.
The Sooners, now 3-0 heading into the Big 12 portion of the schedule, did enough to win on Saturday, defeating a Nebraska team that isn’t anywhere close to what it used to be, 23-16.
Oklahoma came into the game with Nebraska and the 50th anniversary of the 1971 “Game of the Century” between these same two blue-blood national brands, leading the nation in scoring, averaging 58.0 points a game. The OU offense was well off that mark on Saturday, but a well prepared Cornhusker defense had much to do with that.
It probably also should be pointed out that Nebraska’s 16 points was 18 points below its 34-points scoring average through two games.
Here are a dozen more numbers that tell the story of this rivalry renewal:
1 — Interceptions thrown this season by Nebraska quarterback Adrian Martinez. That one came late in the game on Saturday in spectacular fashion by Sooner CB D.J. Graham.
2 — OU linebacker and defensive captain Nik Bonitto was credited with two sacks against Nebraska, the final one of which came on the Cornhuskers’ final possession of the game, helping preserve the Oklahoma win.
5/10 — The Sooners established season highs of five sacks and 10 tackles for loss in the win over Nebraska.
7 — Oklahoma scored on its opening position on Saturday, but those were the only points the Sooners scored through halftime. Those were the fewest points scored by an OU team in the opening half of play since Oklahoma scored just three in the first half at Ohio State in 2017.
9 — Number of Oklahoma offensive possessions in the game; just five in the first half.
10 — Number of Oklahoma receivers who caught passes on Saturday.
14 — Spencer Rattler scored a rushing touchdown and a passing touchdown on Saturday against Nebraska. He has thrown a touchdown pass in all 14 of his starts at Oklahoma.
23 — The 23 points scored by Oklahoma were the fewest scored by the Sooners since being held to just 20 points by TCU in a 20-17 home win.
51 — Oklahoma has outscored its opponents 51-0 in the second quarter this season. On Saturday, neither team scored in the second quarter.
95 — The Oklahoma defense held Nebraska to just 95 yards rushing on Saturday. The Sooners have held their opponent to 100 yards or less on the ground in nine of their last 14 games.
2014 — The Sooners’ Isaiah Coe got a hand on the Nebraska point-after attempt in the third quarter. The blocked extr-point kick was the first by Oklahoma since the 2014 season.
84,659 — Attendance at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium for Saturday’s game with Nebraska, the 136th consecutive sellout of a regularly scheduled OU home game.