Oklahoma football: Sooners make big defensive plays late to stay in Big 12 title chase

Three BYU turnovers turned into 21 OU points, and that proved to be the difference in a 31-24 Sooner victory in the first ever trip to the state of Utah by the Oklahoma football team.

BYU, a 25-point underdog coming into the game and going with its backup quarterback, gave the Sooners all they could handle and for most of the contest appeared to be the better team.

The two teams battled to a 17-17 tie at the intermission, and that’s when things took a big turn for the worse for Oklahoma to start the second half.

The Sooner defense forced a three-and-out and a punt on BYU’s opening possession of the second half. As the OU offense took the field on its first possession of the second half, it was led onto the field by a new quarterback. True freshman Jackson Arnold was in the game for starter Dillon Gabriel, who was reported to have been injured on the Sooners final possession of the first half. The nature of the injury was not immediately disclosed but it appeared from video replay to be a head injury.

There is something to be said about injuries to the starting quarterback when the Oklahoma football team is matched up against BYU. The same thing happened in 2009 when Sooner QB Sam Bradford suffered a shoulder injury at about the same point in the game as Gabriel. Neither OU quarterback was able to continue in the game. In the 2009 game, it probably cost Oklahoma the win as BYU scored late in the game to eke out a 14-13 victory.

Fortunately for the Sooners, Arnold acquitted himself well in just his fifth appearance of the season. Before Saturday, Arnold, a five-star recruit and designated as the Sooner quarterback for the future, had taken just 62 total snaps in actual game action. He had completed all 11 of his pass attempts, however, including one touchdown pass.

Arnold finished the game with five of nine passing for 33 yards, none bigger than an eight-yard completion to Jalil Farooq on third-and eight to give Oklahoma a new set of downs with just two minutes remaining. Arnold also added 24 rushing yards to his stat line for the game.

Following a critical fumble recovery by the Sooner defense at the BYU 25-yard line, the freshman Arnold and running back Gavin Sawchuk made the Cougars pay, as OU ground out the final 25 yards in three plays for the go-ahead touchdown and a 31-24 lead with eight minutes to go in regulation.

With BYU forced to use its final two timeouts, the Sooners were able to run out the clock from there with Arnold taking a kneel on three consecutive plays.

On the Oklahoma possession before the BYU fumble that led to the Sooners’ final touchdown, OU squandered a 59-yard drive that ended in a missed 28-yard field goal by Zach Schmitt. It was his seventh missed FG of the season.

Perhaps the biggest play in the game, and the one that may have saved the game for Oklahoma, was a 100-yard interception return for a touchdown by the Sooners’ Billy Bowman. BYU had a first-and-goal from the OU two-yard line when Bowman stepped in front of BYU’s Cody Epps to pick off a pass from Jake Retzlaff and was off to the races. That resulted in a potential 14-point turn around that was the backbreaker for BYU.

Oklahoma was outgained by BYU 390 to 368, including 217 yards rushing. It is only the third time this season that the Sooners have been outgained on offense. The Sooners had no answer for the BYU run game, allowing 217 yards and an average of over eight yards per carry to junior running back Aiden Robbins, a transfer from UNLV.

The Sooners return home next weekend for the regular-season finale and senior day against TCU. OU improves to 9-2 overall and 6-2 in the Big 12. A loss by either Texas or Oklahoma State in one of their final two games and a win next week against TCU will earn Oklahoma a spot in the Big 12 Championship game.