Tag: Oklahoma Sooners Football

There was a lot of optimism heading into the Bayou as the Oklahoma Sooners were looking to build off of a strong performance against the Alabama Crimson Tide in Week 13. But the LSU Tigers put together an impressive performance on offense and the Sooners weren’t able to respond in a 37-17 loss to the close the 2024 regular season.

The Oklahoma Sooners deferred to start the game and forced a punt on LSU’s opening drive of the game. But the Sooners offense struggled to get going and LSU was able to make something happen on their second drive of the game when Garrett Nussmeier found Kyren Lacy for an 18-yard touchdown.

Oklahoma punted the ball back on their next possession, but with LSU facing a third-and-10, Gracen Halton created pressure up the middle and as Garrett Nussmeier attempted to elude the rush, Halton swiped the ball away and R Mason Thomas recovered it and returned it for a game-tying score.

After the two teams traded punts, the game looked like it might turn in OU’s favor when Thomas beat projected first-round pick Will Campbell around the edge and hit Nussmeier, who landed hard on his throwing shoulder. But a big run from Caden Durham set up an LSU field goal to give them the 10-7 lead.

Oklahoma answered right back, though, as Jackson Arnold connected with J.J. Hester for a 50-yard strike to get the Sooners offense going. Arnold then picked up 28 yards on the ground, and Xavier Robinson punched it in for the two-yard score to give the Sooners a 14-10 lead.

But the lead was short-lived as Aaron Anderson took the ensuing kickoff 100 yards for the go-ahead touchdown.

Though OU answered with a field goal, the momentum was clearly in the hands of the Tigers.

Nussmeier returned to the game with just over two minutes remaining in the half, and after a few short passes to get the ball moving, the LSU quarterback hit Chris Hilton Jr. for a 40-yard touchdown with Eli Bowen in coverage.

Oklahoma elected to run out the clock to end the first half trailing 24-17.

The second half saw the Sooners punt on their opening possession. The Tigers then found another big pass play as Nussmeier connected with Hilton for another score, this time a 45-yard strike and again with Bowen in coverage.

That put the Sooners in a position they didn’t want to be in, forced to throw down multiple scores, and Arnold couldn’t create enough in the passing game to move the football. The LSU Tigers’ pass rush was simply able to tee off at that point with little concern for the Sooners’ passing attack.

And with that, the Oklahoma Sooners first season in the SEC ends with a whimper. There was a lot of hope after Oklahoma earned a big win over Alabama a week ago, but outside of the quarterback run game, the Sooners offense was back to their inconsistent ways.

Robinson suffered a groin injury during the game but he and the offensive line weren’t nearly as good this week as they were a year ago. The LSU Tigers defense held the Sooners to 277 total yards, with 167 coming on the ground. 75 of those rushing yards came from Arnold.

Through the air, Arnold was 14 of 21 for 110 yards in the loss. 50 of those yards came on the deep ball to Hester. Otherwise, Arnold had just 60 passing yards on his other 20 attempts, or just three yards per attempt.

For the game, LSU put up 395 total yards and were 8-of-17 on third and fourth down. Nussmeier, who battled back from the shoulder injury finished the game 22 of 31 for 277 yards and three touchdowns.

This wasn’t at all the performance that many were expecting after how well OU played a week ago against Alabama. But LSU provided a different challenge and Oklahoma couldn’t keep up with their passing attack.

The Sooners close the season 6-6 and have a lot of questions they’ll have to answer on the offensive side of the ball.

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