In miraculous fashion, No. 10 Oklahoma overcame a 28-3 first half deficit to shock No. 13 Baylor 34-31 with a game-winning field goal.
The Sooners looked dead.
Jalen Hurts’ turned the ball over three times. The defense couldn’t get a stop. Baylor had all the momentum from the second drive until halftime.
Here are three reasons why Oklahoma came back in the second half and beat Baylor.
CONTROLLING THE CLOCK
In the second half, the Sooners flipped the script on the main strategy to beat them.
Oklahoma had the football for 24:20 of the 30 second half minutes. The Sooners out-gained Baylor 368-to-69 and outscored the Bears 24-0. That is also aided by the help of a defense that forced two takeaways and three three-and-outs in the second half alone.
It truly is hard to find a time this season where Oklahoma played better than in the second half against Baylor on the road.
TAKEAWAYS
They ended the streak.
The last time the Oklahoma defense forced a takeaway prior to Saturday’s night game was on Sept. 28 against Texas Tech when Neville Gallimore ran down a ball carrier and popped the football free.
Parnell Motley got it going after Baylor’s running back sprung free on its first drive of the second half. The senior defensive back popped the ball free from behind as safety Pat Fields picked it up.
The game-sealing play came from an interception by RUSH linebacker Nik Bonitto who dropped into the flats and in front of the receiver running a quick out route.
Takeaways equal victory, as Alex Grinch says, and did Oklahoma learn that lesson the hard way at Kansas State, but flip that script on College Football Playoff hopeful Baylor.
BELIEF
There is not a stat or a number to bring up here.
After Jalen Hurts’ fumbled on the two-yard line heading into the end zone, you’d have been crazy not to think that his journey and Oklahoma’s season was over. The Sooners, though, stayed the course.
A three-and-out later, a surge from the young pups in Oklahoma’s receiving corps and Hurts finding a new gear culminated into what has become the latest version of Sooner Magic.
Questions about this team were valid. The Sooners answered them and showed the world who they were this Saturday night.
That doesn’t happen without confidence and belief from the top-down of Oklahoma’s football program.
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