The long, neverending nightmare that is the 2022 season for the Oklahoma Sooners got a little worse in the final game of the regular season. The Sooners lost to the Texas Tech Red Raiders 51-48 after leading 14-0 in the first quarter and 24-6 in the second.
In the final seconds of regulation, Texas Tech lined up for the game-tying field goal. Brent Venables decided to ice the Texas Tech kicker. Venables called his timeout, but Texas Tech snapped the ball. The play proceeded as normal. OU blocked the kick.
No matter.
Since Venables called timeout, the play didn’t count. Trey Wolff did not miss his second attempt. After Oklahoma kicker Zach Schmitt missed his field goal on the opening possession of overtime and Wolff hit his attempt to give the Red Raiders their first win against OU in a decade.
There were over 1200 yards of total offense in this game. Jeff Lebby, for the most part, called an excellent game, and Dillon Gabriel looked phenomenal. The southpaw had a career-high six touchdowns on the night. Gabriel threw for 449 yards and six touchdowns.
Texas Tech’s secondary could not defend the deep ball, and Marvin Mims, Theo Wease, and Jalil Farooq all took advantage. The Sooners’ talented trio of pass-catchers each burned the Red Raiders downfield. Mims finished a yard shy of setting a new career-high in yards with his five-catch, 162-yard first-half outburst. After a dominant performance in the first 30 minutes, Mims didn’t have a reception in the second half. Wease stepped up to set a new career-high in yards with 123 yards and a touchdown on three receptions. Brayden Willis got in on the action as well, with seven receptions for 74 yards and a touchdown.
But the strong offensive performance was let down by another poor performance from the Oklahoma Sooners defense.
After last week’s phenomenal effort against Oklahoma State, the defense looked dreadful. There always seemed to be one Texas Tech receiver open downfield. Down the stretch in the fourth quarter, the pass rush got no push. Another quarterback that started the season as a backup sliced and diced the OU defense.
This time, it was Tyler Shough’s turn. Shough threw for 436 yards and two touchdowns and added 44 yards rushing, taking advantage of wide-open space in the scramble drill to kill Oklahoma’s defense. Texas Tech gained 599 total yards and converted 7 of 17 third downs and both of their fourth down attempts.
It was just an incredibly frustrating and, quite frankly, deserved loss. The Sooners did not deserve to win this game. They had their chance to bury Tech, much like they could have buried Oklahoma State, and they couldn’t.
OU will finish the season 6-6 and 8th in the Big 12.
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