The proverbial cherry on top of OU’s second-half collapse in its Big 12 opener against Kansas State on Saturday—it was historical in nature.
Since 2009, Oklahoma has now lost six different games that they entered as a 20-point favorite. The most by any other team during that span: three.
OU’s close relationship with mind-boggling upsets in particular is no breaking news for Sooner Nation, but twice as many times as anyone else tends to speak volumes.
Three of those losses have occurred since Lincoln Riley took over as head coach in 2017 (loss to Iowa State in 2017, loss to Kansas State in 2019, loss to Kansas State at home).
While Riley has rightfully earned plenty of praise for his hot start at Oklahoma, there’s no denying that his teams tend to struggle in games where they shouldn’t. If Riley wants this program to take the next step, this may be a necessary problem to address first.
This is Oklahoma's 6th loss as a 20-point favorite since the start of the 2009 season. No other team has lost more than three in that span.
— Chris Fallica (@chrisfallica) September 26, 2020
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