Oklahoma football: Takeaways from 38-35 loss to Baylor

Oklahoma football hosted a solid Baylor Bear football team Saturday in Norman. Both teams came in at 5-3 with a few warts on their resume, but with a lot of hope to finish the season strong.

These two schools combined have won the last ten Big 12 championships, and while Oklahoma came in likely out of that race, the Bears still control their own destiny with just two conference losses.

The Sooners fell in the game 38-35 as Oklahoma could simply not get out of their own way in the most critical moments of the game. The Sooners lost the turnover battle, failed to find their run fits at times and had costly mistakes from a discipline standpoint that likely had a direct impact on the score of the close loss.

The Good

Marvin Mims and Eric Gray continue to be dominant forces. The Sooner’s WR and tailback had both had over 100 yards, and Mims scored on the long ball, and Gray battering rammed his way in for two other scores. The Oklahoma offensive line, which is amongst the best in the country continued to put on a clinic of how to move people, and pave the way forward for Eric Gray and company. It was another strong outing for the group, as they helped OU carve up Aranda’s defense for 500 yards despite the three interceptions and turnover on downs.

Billy Bowman continues to be a bright spot when he’s on the field for Oklahoma, and he recorded an interception against Baylor that was key in Oklahoma staying in the contest.

The Bad

Dillon Gabriel has been steady eddy all year long for OU. Only had one interception on the year coming in. He has at times had his accuracy wane, but against Baylor, he tossed three interceptions. A late throw across the middle on one that got tipped, and another thrown into tight coverage was just a bad decision. Gabriel made poor decisions and was late which led to turnovers on those plays. It was a forgettable performance for the UCF transfer who has been a pivotal piece for the Sooners as evidenced by his absence.

Discipline issues reared their ugly head once again. With a few seconds left in the half,  Andrew Raym committed an illegal hand to the face, which changed an Oklahoma field goal attempt of 40 yards, to one of 55 yards which narrowly missed. Isaiah Coe committed a very foolish after-the-play penalty where he ripped a Bear player’s helmet off after David Ugwoegbu made a fantastic play for a TFL. This play very well resulted directly in four additional points for Baylor.

Critical penalties alone cost Oklahoma seven points in a three-point loss. Devastating way to lose.

In addition, Oklahoma struggled at times vs Baylor’s run game. The Bears racked up 281 yards on the ground. The frustrating part is the Sooners were not consistently gashed. The Bears turned in 46 rushing attempts. 37 of those carries went for 89 yards or roughly two yards per carry. On the other hand, Baylor had nine rushes that went for 192 yards. In review, a vast majority of these explosive runs were run-fit issues for Oklahoma. The Sooners at very little doing of Baylor simply made controllable mental errors that led to big runs, when they had the players available to fill gaps. These issues have become far too consistent of a story for the Sooners, and a systemic one beyond just the fault of the players.

The Oklahoma football play of the game

The pretty deep ball from Dillon Gabriel to Marvin Mims! MARVELOUS!

Player of the game

Baylor running back Craig “Squirrel” Williams. The Baylor back tore Oklahoma apart, on  25 carries the young man had 192 yards rushing and two scores. He had just come back from injury and was thought to be a minimal-impact player for this game coming in. He was the best player on the field Saturday.

What is next for Oklahoma?

The slim hopes the Sooners had of making it to the Big 12 championship game are officially over. Not sure if they are mathematically eliminated yet, but it’s over.  The Sooners had a grand opportunity to finish strong and point out “hey the only real games we struggled in were the ones where our QB wasn’t available.” But after two home losses, where the Sooners have virtually fallen to their own mistakes it’s hard to point at a specific thing that plagues this team aside from, being hard to gauge. OU is consistent at only being inconsistent. When some groups on the team are playing well and doing their job, other units are not. This is not an issue that solely plagues the defense either as the offense has had plenty of moments where some players are not doing the right things.

Can Oklahoma still finish strong? Well, a double-digit win season is now out the window, but 9-4 would not be a bad first season for the Sooners. But not sure that four straight victories is possible for this team right now.