The Baylor Bears handed the the Oklahoma football team its first and worst loss of the season — so far — on Saturday.
Even in a loss, it may not have been the Sooners’ worst performance of 2021, but it clearly was the most revealing. The way Oklahoma looked on Saturday, and with two equally challenging teams straight ahead on the schedule, that one loss could easily turn into two or even three before the month is over.
The Oklahoma loss to Baylor wasn’t nearly as telling, though, as what it rubber-stamped about this enigmatic Sooner football season.
Before Saturday, Oklahoma had not lost a football game in 17 consecutive outings, had not lost a game in the month of November in 23 consecutive games going back to the 2014 season, and had not lost to Baylor in seven straight meetings.
All of that came crashing down all around and on top of the Sooners on Saturday afternoon at McLane Stadium on the shores of the Brazos River in Waco, Texas.
Where do we begin? It was a fairly dismaying performance for an Oklahoma team who was eying a berth in another Big 12 Championship game, and a budding chance to make a College Football Playoff.
The Sooners were looking to grab that first truly quality win of the season, but Baylor had the Sooners figured out and was a step ahead of Oklahoma the entire game. OU struggled to get in any offensive rhythm, which was costly for a team that’s used to putting up points in a heartbeat and points aplenty over a full 60 minutes.
Baylor had other plans, racking up 296 yards rushing on a Sooners defense that generally does a good job stopping the run. A College Football Playoff isn’t completely out of question, but the Sooners need some chaos ahead of them with a run to the playoff no longer in their control.
Everything that couldn’t go wrong seemed to go against the Sooners on Saturday. They still have everything in front of them, but it’s hard to get over what happened in Waco. It simply didn’t look like a well-prepared group that was coming off a bye week with two weeks to prepare. Here are Four big takeaways from the Sooners loss in Waco: