WACO, Texas – Had it all the way, right? Oklahoma rallied from a 25-point deficit to beat No. 10 Baylor, dominating the second half and keeping its College Football Playoff hopes alive. Gabe Brkic’s 31-yard field goal with less than two minutes left provided the winning margin in the No. 8 Sooners’ 34-31 victory.
Jalen Hurts committed three turnovers – two led to Baylor touchdowns and another prevented an Oklahoma TD – but the Sooners dominated the second half to knock off the Bears.
Nik Bonitto’s interception with 29 seconds left in the game sealed Oklahoma’s victory, and Baylor’s first loss.
Oklahoma, meanwhile, remains in the hunt for the College Football Playoff, as well as in the driver’s seat for another Big 12 championship, which would be the Sooners’ fifth consecutive.
Here are three takeaways from Oklahoma’s 34-31 win:
- Oklahoma is – well, what is Oklahoma? Alive. On a night when its playoff hopes were on life support, that’s enough. During the first half, that suspicion the last few weeks that Oklahoma was on the verge of falling apart seemed about to be realized. The Sooners trailed 31-10 after a combination of Baylor superlatives and Sooner mistakes – including a fumble and an interception committed by Jalen Hurts that led to Bears’ TDs. That suddenly porous defense looked even moreso.
And then the second half was completely different. The defense held Baylor without a first down deep into the fourth quarter – the Bears ran just 10 plays in that span. And Hurts and the offense grinded its way into a tie, then won it.
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Is Oklahoma good enough to win its way into the playoff? Who knows? But the Sooners showed grit. And they’ve still got a very strong pulse.
- Despite the loss, let’s reflect on what Baylor has accomplished in three seasons under Matt Rhule. In 2017, Rhule’s first season, the Bears went 1-11. That included losses to Texas-San Antonio and Liberty. Last season, they scrabbled to six wins, then beat Vanderbilt in a shootout in the Texas Bowl.
With a veteran team, including junior quarterback Charlie Brewer and seven senior defensive starters, there was reasonable hope for more incremental improvement this season – but 9-1 was not on anyone’s radar.
The Bears remain in position to play in the Big 12 championship game.
- Jalen Hurts’ deficiencies as a passer – and at times as a decision-maker – have become evident in recent games. Although Hurts engineered the Sooners’ second-half comeback, he also caused some of the deficit.
Hurts committed two first-half turnovers that led to two Baylor touchdowns. And then in the third quarter, as Hurts bolted toward a score that would have cut Baylor’s lead to a touchdown, he was stripped by Bears defensive end James Lynch, who fell on the football in the end zone. Instead of cutting into Baylor’s lead, the Sooners remained two touchdowns behind.
But Hurts and the Sooners just kept plugging.
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November 16, 2019 at 08:16PM
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