By Michael Kinney
Oklahoma’s fading Big 12 title hopes were on the line Saturday when they went on the road to Utah to take on BYU in their first-ever matchup as conference foes. Needing a win to just stay in contention to earn a spot in the conference championship game, the Sooners were going to have to do it without their record-setting quarterback for half the game.
But behind a few big defensive takeaways and BYU miscues, the Sooners earned a 31-24 victory at BYU.
“The defense continued to fight,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said. “They’ve played pretty dang good on the season. This (was) one of those moments where if they’re not prepared for the worst-case scenario, or mentally and physically they don’t have good leadership, things (could’ve gone) south there in the second half. But that’s not how they responded. They responded like a champion would.”
Oklahoma played the entire second half without quarterback Dillon Gabrel after he left the game with a possible concussion. True freshman Jackson Arnold stepped in and took his place to close out the game.
Even though Arnold completed only five passes for 33 yards, he didn’t turn the ball over and kept them out of bad situations
But it was the Sooners running game that kept the chains moving. Gavin Sawchuk paced OU with 107 yards rushing. That included a fourth-quarter 16-yard TD run that proved to be the game-winner.
Yet, the most pivotal play of the day came when it looked like Oklahoma was set to crumble. With the score tied at 17-17 to start the third quarter, the Cougars drove down the field with ease and seemed on the verge of scoring with six minutes left in the quarter.
With BYU on Oklahoma’s one-yard line, they opted to attempt a pass instead of just pounding the rock into the endzone. BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff tried to throw a slant pass into the endzone, but OU’s Billy Bowman read the play all the way. He picked it off and returned the interception 100 yards for a touchdown and a 24-17 advantage.
“I was supposed to blitz,” Bowman said. “Then, I saw a man wide-open for BYU. So I said ‘Forget it, I’m not going to blitz,’ and I went to cover him. I got my eyes back and the ball was right there. I feel like that’s preparation and our coaches doing a great job knowing what we’re going to get when we get down there into that goal line. There’s only a short list of plays that they can run.”
BYU rushed for 249 yards as they pounded the OU defense relentlessly. But the Sooners forced three turnovers on at crucial moments that helped them leave Provo with the win.
“Turnovers are a big key factor in winning games,” said OU linebacker Stutsman, who forced a fumble in the fourth quarter. “You have to create those plays, especially everything that happened with Dillon. We stuck in there and did what it took to get the (win).”
Oklahoma closes out its regular season schedule with a rare Friday afternoon home game against TCU. The game will kick off at 11 a.m. and be televised on ABC.
The Sooners will enter the game in a three-way tie with Oklahoma State and Kansas State for second place. Since they lost to OSU, OU will need some help in order to secure a spot in the Big 12 championship game. However, they can still take first with a win over TCU and losses by Texas and OSU. OU can also claim second in a couple of different scenarios. They can also find themselves out of the hunt altogether if they don’t win.
Texas is the only team that controls its own destiny.