Mayfield set his second OU all-time record in as many home starts today in the Sooners’ 52-38 win over Tulsa. This time, it was the school’s all-time total offense record, as he accounted for 572 yards of total offense. 487 of that was through the air, on an incredible 32 of 38, with four TDs to go along with 85 yards rushing and two TDs there. For those of you scoring at home, that’s slightly over an 84% completion rate. Samaje Perine finally got untracked, rumbling for 152 yards, mostly in the fourth quarter.
It was a good thing the Sooner offense was humming from the beginning of the game for once, because the Sooner defense was having its troubles with Tulsa’s offense. New TU coach Philip Montgomery was the offensive coordinator on the Baylor team that shredded the Sooners last season, and his Tulsa team did their level best to duplicate that performance.
In fairness, the game was much closer than it should have been. The Sooner offense coughed up a pair of fumbles in the red zone that would probably have added 14 points to the Sooners’ total. And, a bizarre sequence at the end of the first half where TU recovered a squib kickoff that bounced off a Sooner player with 9 seconds left gave them the opportunity to lob up a Hail Mary which, of course, was caught to close the halftime gap to only 31-24. Bad Hail Mary defense is an epidemic in college football this season.
The Sooner defense was much better in the second half, giving up only a pair of touchdowns. It will be beneficial later in the season in Waco for the Sooner defenders to have seen this offense already. Much work remains to be done between now and then.
Until then, however, it’s on to West Virginia in two weeks. They want us to stripe the stadium, which, ugh. See you there.
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