Oklahoma football: Three-for-21 a winning hand for Sooners at BYU
By Chip Rouse
This past weekend marked the final Oklahoma football road trip as a member of the Big 12 Conference, and the Sooners were fortunate to escape with a seven-point win.
The Sooners ended the game with a 31-24 victory over a stubborn BYU team that has just two conference wins in its first Big 12 season. On Saturday, the Cougars looked like anything but a team with one of the worst offenses statistically in the conference.
The OU defense had no answer for BYU running back Aiden Robbins, who had his strongest game of the season, rushing for 182 yards and over eight yards per carry against the Sooners. Overall, the Cougars totaled 390 yards of offense, 22 more than OU’s high-powered, Big 12-leading offense.
Although the offense was credited with three of the Sooner’s four touchdowns in the game, two of those scoring drives were set up by a pair of forced fumbles by the OU defense. And another touchdown came on a 100-yard interception return by the Sooners’ Billy Bowman. Bowman’s pick-six resulted in a 14-point swing as the Cougars were sitting first-and-goal from the OU two-yard line when the pass was picked off.
The win was Oklahoma’s ninth of the season to go with two losses. For what it’s worth, that’s three more than the Sooners’ six wins last season and two more than Lincoln Riley’s USC Trojans produced this season. And OU still has one more regular-season game remaining (at home vs. TCU) plus a postseason bowl game.
Here are some other notable numbers that help tell the story of the win over BYU and Oklahoma’s 2023 season:
5 — Billy Bowman’s 100-yard interception return was his fifth interception of the season, tied for second most nationally and the third 100-yard touchdown return in school history.
5 of 14 — BYU’s third-down conversion ratio against the Sooners. OU has held each of its 11 opponents to a 42 percent or lower third-down conversion rate this season. That ranks 10th in the country.
9/16/2023 — The date on which Jackson Arnold last threw a pass in a win this season, against Tulsa.
9 — Redshirt-freshman Nic Anderson caught his ninth touchdown pass of the season in the BYU game. His nine TDs this season ties an OU freshman record and comes on 27 total receptions.
10:07 — Saturday’s game kicked off at 10:07 a.m. Mountain Time, the earliest game time in Sooner football history.
13 — Before Saturday, BYU was one of 13 teams the Sooners had played against all-time and never beaten.
30 — Oklahoma has scored at least 30 points in 41 of their last 47 true road games. The Sooners scored 31 against BYU on Saturday.
91-3 — Points off turnovers this season (OU vs. opponents) in the Sooners’ nine wins.
122 — Dillon Gabriel threw two touchdown passes before retiring from the BYU game with an injury late in the second quarter. That gives him 122 TD passes for his career, ninth best in FBS history.
175-60 — Oklahoma’s record all-time in regular-season Big 12 games — a winning percentage of 74.5 percent, best in the conference, over 28 seasons — with one more remaining, vs. TCU on Friday, before moving to the SEC next season.