The play, the pop and the night the Sooners impossibly rolled the Tide

Oklahoma’s Xavier Robinson sails over the pylon to put the Sooners on top of Alabama near the end of the first half Saturday night at Owen Field. The Sooners topped the Tide 24-3. (OU Athletics Photo/Channing Holloway)

The play before the play, Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe hit Kobe Prentice for a gain of 14 yards.

Hardly a killer for the Sooner defense, it still set the Crimson Tide up 8 yards short of midfield and felt like a harbinger of things to come.

Sure enough, Oklahoma had taken a 10-3 lead into the half thanks to a time warp of a drive: 12 plays, 67 yards; 11 of the snaps runs and the lone pass a shovel to tight end Jake Roberts for a mere 3 yards.

Nonetheless, after a 12-yard tote from Jackson Arnold and an 18-yard dash of beauty Xavier Robinson finished with a dive out of bounds and his outstretched left arm, the one with the ball in it, over the pylon, the Sooners entered the locker room with an improbable halftime edge.

Still, you could see it.

Here would be ’Bama’s tying march, the Tide’s arrest of momentum, the end of what might have been and the beginning of what we all knew would be.

Instead, THE PLAY.

Milroe, first-and-10 at his own 42, took the next snap, turned and looked right, perpendicular to the line of scrimmage, and threw the ball directly into the hands of OU cornerback Eli Bowen.

It was the worst kind of Landry Jones special, the type of interception the old Sooner quarterback would occasionally throw when his brain failed to catch up to his eyes because, had it, he never would have thrown it.

But Milroe threw it and Bowen caught it, yielding a crowd pop that even cynical scribes behind thick glass in the press box high atop Owen Field had to jump back and notice; a pop so loud, moments later somebody had the good sense to play House of Pain’s “Jump Around” over the stadium’s loudspeakers, no doubt an homage to the “Jump Around Game,” the November 2008 night OU blew out No. 2 Texas Tech 42-7.

Seriously.

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When had a Sooner crowd last popped like that? 

Great question. 

Hell, when had enough fans even remained in the stadium post halftime to pop like that?

It was, forgive the word, bedlam. 

The stadium popped again when five plays later OU said no to ’Bama’s goal-line stand aspirations, Robinson going in from a yard, making it 17-3.

At that point, though 11:37 remained in the quarter with a whole other quarter still to play, you could absolutely feel it.

The Sooners were going to win this game, the season was finally going to turn, not only in time to get bowl eligible, but maybe to even go 8-5, slay this nightmare of a campaign and make it, could it possibly be, promising instead.

OU indeed prevailed, 24-3, an outcome forged only 3:32 later when Kip Lewis, snaring another Milroe toss, raced 49 yards to paydirt, sending the crowd into still more delirium.

In the week to come, Lewis’ heroics may be remembered more fondly than Bowen’s. 

He returned it for more yards, finished in the end zone and it was his second pick six of the season, the first one a Sooner Magic special at Auburn.

But it was gravy.

The Sooners had already made their point, one that two or three hours earlier would have been deemed impossible by any reasonable person.

At the moment Robinson scored his and the Sooners’ second touchdown, OU had gained 256 yards from scrimmage and ’Bama only 114.

’Bama, you may have noticed, had not yet scored a touchdown and finished without scoring a touchdown, something that hadn’t happened to the Tide since a 9-6 overtime loss to LSU on Nov. 5, 2011.

’Bama (8-3, 4-3 SEC) won the national championship that season, something it may have no chance to do this season, OU (6-5, 2-5) having handed it its third conference loss.

Of course, none of it makes Brent Venables the guy. What it does do, though, is make it much easier to believe he might become him.

Defense was stellar.

Just 234 yards allowed from scrimmage, yielding only three points, three turnovers secured, nine tackles for loss.

The offense, but for a lost first-quarter fumble from Taylor Tatum and a trick-play drop at the goal line from Bauer Sharp, did nothing horribly wrong.

Because Arnold hardly threw the ball — 11 attempts, 9 catches, 68 yards — he was sacked only once.

Instead, he was OU’s biggest ground threat, gaining 131 yards on 25 attempts, while Robinson, clearly the Sooners’ best running back, went for 107 on 18.

Clichés abound.

It’s not over till it’s over. 

That’s why you play the games. 

Don’t blink, you might miss something. 

Hope springs eternal, even in the fall.

It was an exorcism.

This was Alabama.

This was a bad OU team.

Until Saturday, at least.

Perhaps it will be no longer.

“The harder it is," Venables told ABC’s Holly Rowe on his way off the field, “the more epic the story.”

Can he make it last longer than a night?

Now he’s got a chance.

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