An amazing, crazy finish doesn't make the final result any better for Sooners
Author’s Note: Well, tonight was quite something. When Missouri scored to tie it with 1:03 remaining I called to ask Tarik Masri, sports editor of my newspaper client, The Norman Transcript, what were we going to do if they went overtime. He said he’d ask for extra time, but how much? Originally, my copy was supposed to be sent by 11 p.m. and if the Tigers and Sooners went OT, they might not finish until 11. Well, if you watched, you saw what happened, Missouri winning with a defensive touchdown with 22 seconds remaining. Still, as it was, the game kicked off at 6:55 p.m. and ended at 10:15 p.m. Somehow, I sent the following 850 words off at 11:01 p.m., absolutely using smoke and mirrors to finish when I finished, even giving myself time to read it twice looking for errors. Posting here, I will read it a third time and I hope to not find any mistakes (nor leave any mistakes). Anyway, crazy night of football. Enjoy …
Before it all happened and the craziness ensued; before Missouri missed an extra point and the Sooners dialed up a second huge trick play and Billy Bowman followed with his fourth defensive touchdown in two seasons, picking up a fumble caused by Sammy Omosigho that may well have been inadvertent rather than by design; and before Missouri went right down the field again, only to follow with its own defensive touchdown, well, I was pretty sure I had and handle on this game, thus producing the following flourish of words, because when games end the way this one did, a sportswriter has no choice but to begin writing while the two teams continue playing.
So, before the Tigers claimed it 30-23, I thought I was on to something and this was it and, just maybe, kind of, sort of, it still holds water.
• • •
Like so many other drives Oklahoma and Missouri turned in Saturday night atop Faurot Field, the Tigers appeared stuck.
Their second drive of the third quarter, begun at their own 41, spent nine snaps to reach the Sooner 10, but now faced third-and-goal from the 13.
Not quite ready to play-call with confidence — Missouri entered halftime having picked up less than 100 yards from scrimmage — the Tigers called for a simple screen pass to former Sooner Theo Wease.
From Missouri’s point of view, it made perfect sense.
Quarterback Drew Pyne had earned little confidence and dialing up an easy completion to a playmaker like Wease, though unlikely to yield six points, at least offered the Tigers a fighting chance.
Wease caught the ball, appeared bottled up, then, somehow, found a way to tiptoe through the very dense traffic of his own blockers and half the Sooner defense and wound up in the end zone …
• • •
And from there, I was going to make the point that, undoubtedly, it would be that touchdown, produced by a former Sooner, that would most stick in Sooner head coach Brent Venables' craw.
Given the play-call, the Tigers were content to kick a field goal, draw within 9-6 and live to win the game at a later juncture. And giving up the lead in that moment, in that way, was bound to drive Venables batty.
Far more batty than the fact his offense had gone almost nowhere the whole game, had only gained 122 yards and six first downs the entirety of the first half while appearing to operate out of a phone both, as though it was a pre 3-pointer NBA squad in the 70s, a time when the game frequently found all 10 players on the court within a couple feet of the paint.
Finally, the point would be made, that can’t be the way Venables sees things.
His defense giving up a single touchdown drive it thought it had stopped cannot offend him more than an offense mostly stuck in park for three quarters, not to mention an offense whose quarterback somehow managed to complete 15 passes over the course of all four quarters, yet pick up a mere 74 yards for all the trouble, because OU did that, too.
Of course, that was all before the two teams combined to pick up 224 fourth-quarter yards and score 34 fourth-quarter points, even score matching defensive touchdowns.
The first one, already mentioned, when Bowman picked up the fumble forced by Omosigho and dashing 43 yards to paydirt to put the Sooners on top 23-16 with two minutes remaining.
The second one, the game-winner, turned in by Missouri’s Zion Young, an 18-yard return following Triston Young’s sack and dislodgment of the ball out of the arms of Sooner quarterback Jackson Arnold, leaving just 19 seconds on the clock.
Of course, preceding that, Wease caught a 10-yard touchdown pass from Pyne with 1:03 remaining, meaning Missouri answered Bowman’s score, tying it up, with an eight-play, 75-yard drive that somehow took only 57 seconds to happen.
If you’re counting at home, that’s 21 combined points over the last two minutes and 27 over the last 3:18.
Probably Venables will still be furious with his defense, but maybe not for the drive and play that resulted in Wease’s first touchdown, but the drive and the play that resulted in his second.
Still, he’d be mostly misguided, because there’s still yet to be a game this season in which the Sooner offense hasn’t been a bigger issue than the Sooner defense.
OU’s biggest play of the game, after all, was a 43-yard fake punt, a jump pass from Luke Elzinga to Bauer Sharp, while Sooners’ other 61 snaps accounted for the grand sum of 214 yards, or 3.5 per play.
Oh, yeah, barring a Buster Douglas type upset over Alabama or LSU, OU will miss the bowl season for the first time since 1998, losing the extra practice time just a six-win season affords.
It wound up being a fantastic game with a crazy finish, the type to force cynical sportswriters to not only be gobsmacked by the proceedings, but to also become creative just to finish on time.
Also, it was no good for a proud program that never dreamed it might encounter two losing seasons in the span of three years right after hiring the coach everybody wanted to come home and save it.
OU football is a comedy of errors, a ship of fools captained by an inept HC. He has to go after the LSU game. Danny Stutsman is a true warrior. He was at the bottom of almost every tackle...along with Kip Lewis. But the secondary has sucked all season and they did again. Tell me how 6'2" Theo Weise gets to catch a TD in the corner of the end zone with diminutive Eli Bowen trying to cover by himself. What defensive mastermind called that matchup. zack alley needs to go also. Everything venables touches turns to shite, beginning with the much ballyhooed coronation of the biggest bust in college football, Jackson Arnold. This guy cannot hold onto the football. He's a fumble machine and gets worse as the season concludes. He cannot/will not throw the ball downfield. A typical stat line for him is 30 attempts for 28 yards. He's absolutely the worst college QB you will see this season. OU is a disaster and will have a hard time holding onto its recruits this off season. C'mon castiglione, make the changes that common sense screams out for!