Winning is not easy in any sport. And in college football, where a 12-game regular-season schedule is considerably fewer games than in the other major sports, one or two plays in any game can often mean the difference between winning and losing and ultimately contending for a conference championship or something more.
Coaches will tell you that one or two plays out of the 60 or so that are typically executed, with or without success, by one team in a college football game should not be the sole factor in why a game is won or lost. But it is often easy enough to break it down so it appears that way.
Entering Week 9 of the 2026 season, Oklahoma is mired in the middle of the SEC with an overall record of 4-3 and 2-2 in the conference. The Sooners' four wins are over UTEP, New Mexico, Texas, and South Carolina, with the Red River Rivaly win vs. then No. 1-Texas being their biggest win of the season thus far. The three losses have been to Michigan, then-No. 2 Georgia, and No. 15 Kentucky.
The Georgia loss was a legitimate butt whipping, although the margin of victory would have been closer had it not been for several costly turnovers by the Sooners. But Oklahoma could have and probably should have won the games it lost to Michigan and Kentucky. My how things would be different for the Sooners had it all played out like that.
Beating Michigan and Kentucky would have Sooners in CFP conversation
The Sooners squandered a prime first-half scoring opportunity in the game at Michigan when wide receiver and Texas transfer Parker Livingstone fumbled the ball at the 27-yard line on what would have been a first-down catch and kept a six-play, 48-yard drive alive.
At the very least, that scoring drive early in the second quarter against Michigan would have set up OU's Tate Sandell for a makeable field-goal try that could have been the difference in the game, had Sooner quarterback John Mateer not thrown an ill-advised pass on a 3rd-and-9 possession deep in Oklahoma territory early in the fourth quarter with the score deadlocked at 10. The pass was picked off by Michigan's Jyaire Hill at the OU 30-yard line and returned 24 yards to the Sooner six-yard line.
Michigan ran it in for a touchdown two plays later to go up 17-10, and for all intents and purposes, that was the ball game.
Another turning point in the Michigan game was a 38-yard touchdown scamper by Wolverine quarterback Bryce Underwood late in the first quarter. Had the Oklahoma defense not given up that one explosive play and held the Michigan offense to a field goal and three points instead of seven, it might just have changed the outcome of the game.
Even just one of those plays going differently could have had the Sooners starting the season at 2-0.
The Kentucky game was even more of a giveaway on Oklahoma's part. Yes, the Sooners committed four costly turnovers in the game (three on Mateer interceptions), but perhaps the most costly mistake was a fake field goal that failed in the red zone early in the game.
On a 4th-and-2 play call at the Kentucky 10-yard line with 8:22 to go in the second quarter and Kentucky leading 7-3, Sooner head coach Brent Venables and special teams coordinator Doug Deakin dialed up a fake on a field-goal attempt. Holder Jacob Ulrich took the snap from center and attempted a jump pass intended for tight end Rocky Beers, who was open at the goal line with space to move into the end zone for a touchdown. Instead, the pass sailed wide of the mark and was picked off by Kentucky defender Jordan Castell in the end zone for a touchback
As a result of that blown scoring opportunity against Kentucky, the Sooners walked away with no points instead of widening their advantage to either 13-7 or, better yet, 17-7. The importance of that one play would become even bigger later in the game during crunch time.
The first of Mateer's three intercepted passes on the night occurred late in the third quarter with Oklahoma on a potential scoring drive and holding on to a 13-7 advantage (courtesy of a Sandell field goal earlier in the quarter). On a 1st-and-10 play from the Kentucky 38-yard line, a Mateer pass was intercepted at the 13-yard line by Ty Bryant of Kentucky and returned 31 yards to Oklahoma's 44.
Kentucky turned that critical Oklahoma mistake into seven points, marching 44 yards in seven plays to take a 14-13 lead. A potential 14-point swing.
Oklahoma still had enough time left in the game to get into position for a game-winning field goal when the Sooner defense forced a Kentucky punt with 2:35 to go in regulation. Faced with a 3rd-and-8 from his own 32-yard line, Mateer's pass attempt was picked off for a second time by Kentucky's Castell, only this time it was returned 41 yards for a touchdown and the final nail in Oklahoma's coffin.
That's how important a couple of plays, or missed plays, can be to the outcome in any given game, especially in a conference as competitive top to bottom as the SEC, where 14 of the 16 teams already have two or more losses this season.
A win is a win, as they like to say, but a loss is also a loss and can't be changed after the fact. But it is fun, if not a little aggravating, to think about what a difference a couple of plays going another way can make in a game and in the course of a season. We're talking about the difference between Oklahoma being 6-1 overall and 4-1 in the SEC and tied for the conference lead with Georgia as a serious CFP contender.
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