Oklahoma needed another strong defensive effort in the second half, but they came through, and the Sooners beat the Tulane Green Wave 34-19 to move to 3-0 on the season.
Tulane started with the ball, but the Sooners forced a three-and-out to give Oklahoma’s much-maligned offense a chance to find some early momentum.
After the Sooners failed to score over their final eight drives against Houston, they got off to a nice start against Tulane, marching down the field on a methodical 14-play scoring drive. Oklahoma converted three third downs on the drive, each of them coming with less than five yards to go to get the first. The longest play of the drive was a 12-yard catch and run by Jovantae Barnes.
The drive culminated with a tough [autotag]Jackson Arnold[/autotag] one-yard touchdown drive.
Oklahoma and Tulane traded punts for the next five drives, but the Sooners missed out on points when the kicking operation took too long to get set up and drew a flag for delay of game. Oklahoma was forced once again to punt.
Punter [autotag]Luke Elzinga[/autotag] pinned the Green Wave inside their own 10-yard line, and the Sooners defense forced another three-and-out.
The Sooners then came through with another 7-play scoring drive to take a 14-0 lead. OU didn’t face a third down on the drive, and true freshman running back [autotag]Taylor Tatum[/autotag] scored the first touchdown of his Sooners career on a nine-yard reception for the score.
After Tulane missed a field goal, the Sooners took over and had another efficient drive, going six plays for 67 yards, with Tatum picking up his second touchdown of the day on a one-yard run. Jackson Arnold showed off his wheels with a 47-yard run on a read-option to open the drive and put the Sooners in scoring range in an instant.
The Green Wave then followed it up with a clock-eating 12-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that took a really nice throw from backup quarterback Ty Thompson and an incredible catch from Reggie Brown to get on the board. Tulane missed the extra point so the Sooners went into halftime up 21-6.
After halftime, it was a different ball game. The Green Wave held the Sooners to a field goal on their opening drive of the half. On Oklahoma’s third and seven from the Tulane eight-yard line, Jackson Arnold was sacked for a three-yard loss. It forced the Sooners to settle for a field goal. The way the drive ended would signal what the Sooners offense would look like for their next four drives.
The running game couldn’t get going, and the offensive line struggled with Tulane’s pressure packages.
The Green Wave cut the score to 21-13 on their first drive of the second half, finding some explosive plays in the passing game. It was aided by a questionable pass interference call on safety Robert Spears-Jennings, but the Green Wave were able to take advantage.
The Sooners and Green Wave traded punts as the offensive line struggled to contain Tulane’s blitz packages.
Facing a first and 15 after an illegal formation penalty on Michael Tarquin, left guard Heath Ozaeta released a Green Wave linebacker who ran right up the middle and put pressure on Arnold. Arnold avoided the pressure and tried to throw a ball to Deion Burks, but Tulane linebacker Tyler Grubbs stepped in front of the pass for a pick six to cut Oklahoma’s lead to five.
The punters continued to do incredible work as Brent Venables and Jon Sumrall tried to play the field position game. But Tulane got the ball with just over 10 minutes to go in the game. The Sooners defense stepped up before forcing a fourth and one attempt from Tulane. Darian Mensah faced the run and dropped back to pass, but his attempt to hit the slant was disrupted by cornerback Kani Walker, who knocked the ball into the air and after it went through linebacker Kobie McKinzie’s hands, Billy Bowman came up with the interception.
The Sooners responded with a four-play 43-yard touchdown drive, capped off by a Jackson Arnold 24-yard touchdown run, his second of the game. Arnold had to break multiple tackles to get in the end zone.
With Tulane attempting to move the ball to try and come back in the game on, the Oklahoma Sooners defense stepped up and shut the door. Defensive end R Mason Thomas had three sacks on the final two drives, including a strip sack and fumble recovery.
OU’s defense came through on fourth down twice in the final minutes to seal the game once again for the Sooners.
Despite the interception returned for a touchdown, Jackson Arnold had a nice afternoon for the Sooners. Though he failed to throw for more than 200 yards once again in 2024, he ran for 97 yards on 14 carries. He would have had 100 yards, but took time off the clock to kneel on the ball so that the Sooners could avoid snapping it again, taking a three-yard loss on the final play of the game.
Arnold finished the night 18 of 29 for 169 yards, one passing touchdown, two rushing touchdowns, 97 yards rushing, and one interception.
[autotag]Deion Burks[/autotag] was really good once again. He had seven receptions for 80 yards to lead the way for a dinged-up receiving corps. Other than a drop on a critical third down, Burks showed off his catch and run ability through the game.
[autotag]Bauer Sharp[/autotag] was second on the team in receiving with four receptions for 28 yards. Offensive coordinator Seth Littrell made a concerted effort to get the tight ends and running backs involved in the passing game and they caught nine of Arnold’s 18 completions.
The defense held the Green Wave to 13 points and came through once again in critical moments. Senior linebacker Danny Stutsman led the way with 12 tackles and 0.5 tackles for loss. Robert Spears-Jennings had seven tackles, including six solo, and 0.5 tackles for loss.
The Sooners won the turnover battle once again, the third time that’s happened this season, and held a really good Tulane offense to just 279 yard of total offense. Oklahoma held the Green Wave to just 3.1 yards per carry for the game.
The Sooners are now 3-0 on the season as they get ready to welcome the high-flying Tennessee Volunteers to Norman next Saturday night in primetime.
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