If you went to bed a little early last night, perhaps when Baylor was leading Oklahoma 28-3 in the first half of their Big 12 matchup, you might be up and and asking: Wait a second. What happened now?
Oklahoma stormed back for a 25-point comeback, as the Sooners kept their playoff hopes alive and erased what was truly an awful first half.
Honestly, it’s hard to understand how this happened. After multiple Jalen Hurts turnovers, and the Sooners looking completely lost without injured wideout CeeDee Lamb, the Bears jumped all over them.
Baylor up 28-3 with 11 minutes remaining in the second quarter, and I was worried we were heading for a real embarrassment. At the very least, any shout Oklahoma had for a spot in the College Football Playoff was now laughably over.
Then, the comeback happened. Let’s get into how:
Oklahoma’s defense woke up
The Sooners defense, which had been laughable for the first half and had given up 89 points in its previous two games, decided to go and play football for a bit. They forced two turnovers of their own in the second half, and shut the Bears out in the second half.
Baylor took their foot off the gas
With the lead in their hands, Baylor got a little too predictable. The Bears started running on first down, then getting put in long yardage situations which they couldn’t execute on.
They started the second half with a monstrous 32-yard run by JaMycal Hasty … who fumbled at the end of it. It was a nightmare result, but then Baylor got bad. Conservative play-calling, lack of execution, it was all on display.
The second half drive results from Baylor:
- Fumble
- Punt
- Punt
- Punt
- Interception
No drive lasted more than six plays.
All credit to Oklahoma’s defense, which finally got aggressive and put Baylor quarterback Charlie Brewer under pressure. But that’s an absolute disaster for Baylor.
Oklahoma committed to running with Jaylen Hurts
Without Lamb in the game, the Oklahoma receivers were struggling to get separation from Baylor’s backs. Hurts made some awful throws in the first half, too, so he remedied that in the second half by running the dang football.
Credit to Oklahoma for that. The only thing that looked good for Oklahoma in the first half was when Hurts ran the ball, but it would have been easy to look at the 31-10 halftime score and figure that Hurts needed to come out chucking.
They didn’t do that. They stuck with the game plan, and he kept finding ways to extend drives. He finished with 27 carries for 114 yards, and the threat of the run finally allowed him to find some space for his receivers. That’s how you come back from down 25.
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