As the weeks and days counted down to the actual day of the game, the point spread for the Armed Forces Bowl featuring Oklahoma and Navy dropped from an 8.5 opening line in the Sooners' favor all the way down to 1.0 just ahead of kickoff.
Interestingly, that was exactly the way the game played out, except that Navy was the one with the 21-20 winning margin instead of narrowly favored Oklahoma. A missed two-point conversion attempt by the Sooners ended up being the deciding factor in the game.
For the second time in three seasons, Oklahoma and head coach Brent Venables have failed to win more games than they lost, finishing with a 6-7 overall record. Some fans might qualify this as life in the fiercely competitive SEC, but the same thing happened two seasons earlier when the Sooners, 14-time Big 12 champions, ended the 2022 season, Venables' first as head coach, with the same identical record.
Venables is now one of just three Oklahoma head coaches to have as many as two losing seasons whole serving in the head coach's role at OU. The other two are Bennie Owen and John Blake. By contrast, Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer and Bob Stoops, the three winningest coaches in Sooner football history, had just one losing season combined.
With all due respect to Navy, which with the win over Oklahoma reached the 10-win level for the sixth time in its long history and the first since 2019, this was a game the Sooners could and should have won, even with 25 transfer portal departures and their two best defensive players (consensus All-American Danny Stutsman and All-SEC selection Billy Bowman) opting out of the game to prepare for the NFL Draft.
Oklahoma scored touchdowns on its first two possessions to jump out in front 14-0 midway through the first quarter, but failed to score in its next eight possessions before driving 65 yards in 13 plays to score a potential tying touchdown with just six seconds remaining in the game. Instead of settling for a tie and sending the game to overtime, the Sooners went for the win and failed on a two-point conversion try.
Navy recovered a futile onside kick attempt by the Sooners and took a knee out of victory formation to run out the final seconds. End of game. End of a most disappointing season for Oklahoma.
Seven dropped passes by Sooner receivers that would have extended drives, several questionable OU coaching decisions, a back-breaking 95-yard record-setting touchdown run by Navy's Blake Horvath that probably shouldn't have happened and a holding call that wiped out a 56-yard touchdown run by Sooner QB Michael Hawkins Jr. all had a cumulative effect on what might otherwise have been a different outcome .
This will be a pivotal offseason for Brent Venables and his staff. If they aren't able to get things turned around and headed back in the right direction, Oklahoma could be looking for head coach No. 24 by this time a year from now, if not sooner.
Here are some of the other numbers that help tell the story of OU's Armed Forces Bowl loss to Navy:
1 -- The Sooners had one turnover against Navy and no takeaways. Oklahoma is 2-8 since the start of the 2023 season when it loses the turnover battle and 0-6 this season.
2 -- Number of Oklahoma victories in eight bowl appearances since Bob Stoops retired after the 2016 season, and Stoops has one of the two.
3 -- The Oklahoma defense gave up three touchdowns to Navy. In 13 games this season, the Sooners allowed 28 touchdowns out of 155 offensive possessions (18%). That is one out of every 5.5 offensive possessions.
4 -- Four Oklahoma wide receivers who caught at least one pass in the Armed Forces Bowl vs. Navy are true freshman.
7 -- Receptions by true freshman WR Ivan Carreon against Navy to lead all Sooner receivers.
26 -- Oklahoma's Armed Forces Bowl appearance was the team's 26th consecutive bowl appearance, second-longest active streak in college football to Georgia with 28.
28 -- OU DB Woodi Washington made his first career pass reception in the Armed Forces Bowl game on a fake punt and pass from punter Luke Elzinga that was good for 28 yards and a first down.
31 -- Oklahoma held Navy to 4-of-13 on third-down conversion attempts (31%).
The Sooners have held 11 of 13 opponents this season to 44% or lower on third-down conversions.
95 -- Navy QB Blake Horvath's 95-yard touchdown run was the longest given up by an Oklahoma defense since the 1997 season.
143 -- Zach Schmit was 2-for-2 on extra-point attempts against Navy. That gave him 143 out of 143 successful extra-point tries in his Oklahoma career.
247 -- Freshman QB Michael Hawkins Jr. had 247 passing yards against Navy, his best performance of the season. He also had 61 yards rushing, his second-best in four starts this season.
433 -- Total yards of offense accumulated by Oklahoma against Navy, the Sooners' second-best offensive output of the season. OU had 665 yards of offense in a win over Maine.