The Oklahoma Sooners entered their primetime matchup with the West Virginia Mountaineers on a two-game losing streak. The OU team that showed up on Saturday night looked nothing like we’d witnessed in their road losses to Kansas and Oklahoma State in their 59-20 win over West Virginia.
On the opening drive of the game, the [autotag]West Virginia Mountaineers[/autotag] marched down the field on an eight-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that took a little over four minutes off the clock to take a 7-0. And then it was all Oklahoma from then on out.
The Sooners put together their own eight-play, 75-yard drive, culminating in Dillon Gabriel’s first touchdown of the night, a two-yard run to tie the game.
After the opening drive, the Sooners’ defense locked in and shut down the Mountaineers’ offense until their final drive of the first half. Oklahoma’s defense forced three punts, two turnovers on downs, including one at the goalline, and WVU missed a field goal. By the time West Virginia scored their second touchdown of the game, it was 31-14 Sooners.
In the first half, [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] threw touchdowns to [autotag]Austin Stogner[/autotag] and [autotag]Jayden Gibson[/autotag] and ran for two scores to stake Oklahoma to a big halftime lead.
In the second half, Oklahoma kept the pressure on West Virginia, and [autotag]Drake Stoops[/autotag] started to take over the game. On another career day for the veteran wide receiver, Stoops caught three touchdown passes in the second half to leave no doubt in the Sooners win.
On one of those scores, Stoops was hit hard in the end zone on a play that was reviewed for targeting. That play led to a skirmish under the strobe lights inside Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. No penalties came of it, but on the ensuing point after attempt, [autotag]McKade Mettauer[/autotag] went after Anthony Wilson for his hit and taunt of Drake Stoops and was ejected from the game.
But by that point in the game, the outcome was academic, as the Sooners had run away with the game.
In the win, Gabriel passed former Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan for 10th all-time in passing yards and had eight total touchdowns in the Sooners’ win. Gabriel finished the day completing 64% of his passes for 423 yards and five touchdowns and added 50 yards and three rushing touchdowns in the huge win. His eight total touchdowns are the most combined passing and rushing in the history of Oklahoma Football.
[autotag]Drake Stoops[/autotag], who had a career game a week ago in the loss to Oklahoma State, was dominant for the Sooners in the passing game. He had 10 receptions for 164 yards and three touchdowns.
Getting his second consecutive start, [autotag]Gavin Sawchuk[/autotag] carried the ball 22 times for 135 yards, showing great patience and explosiveness.
[autotag]Danny Stutsman[/autotag] returned for the Sooners defense and recorded eight total tackles and two tackles for loss. [autotag]Billy Bowman[/autotag] had seven total tackles and 0.5 tackles for loss.
The Sooners held West Virginia to 330 total yards, 4 of 16 on third down, and 2 of 4 on fourth down. Oklahoma was able to keep Garrett Green in check running the football, holding the dual-threat quarterback to 24 yards on 10 attempts.
Oklahoma recorded two interceptions in the win. One from [autotag]Reggie Pearson[/autotag] and the other from true freshman [autotag]Jacobe Johnson[/autotag]. As they had done during their 7-0 start to the season, the Sooners won the turnover battle.
With the win, the Sooners move to 8-2 on the season and 5-2 in Big 12 play. They received a bit of help from UCF who dominated Oklahoma State, opening the door a bit more for a trip to the Big 12 title game.
Oklahoma took care of their end of the bargain and will travel to Provo next Saturday to see if they can beat the BYU Cougars. BYU holds the all-time series lead at 2-0 over the Sooners.
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