Derailed | Oklahoma's Offense Gets Thrown Off Track In 48-14 Blowout Loss To Baylor

Oklahoma's offense was averaging 5.5 yards per carry and produced 130 total yards in the first quarter against Baylor. The Sooners held a 14-3 lead over the Bears and were on the doorstep of being right back in the thick of the conference race. It didn't take long for all of that to come unraveled though as Baylor made adjustments and OU made poor attempts at executing an offensive game plan. The end result was Oklahoma getting outscored 45-0 through the final three quarters and quarterback Trevor Knight leaving the field on a stretcher.

Knight's injury and nothing to do with the ineptness of the offense, the train was well off the tracks long before the Sooners reached that point of the game. Penalties, poor reads, dropped passes, and missed blocks contributed to OU being held to just 156 yards and goose eggs on the scoreboard the rest of the way. Oh yeah, and then there was also the Baylor defense.

"We played great of defense," Baylor head coach Art Briles said. "Anytime you hold them to 14 points on their home floor, particularly with what they have been doing the past two or three weeks, it is a very impressive feat."

An interception by linebacker Bryce Hagar, that was practically another Trevor Knight pick-six, and a key stop late in the second quarter that set up a Michael Hunnicutt miss were huge momentum swings that practically deflated the crowd and put the Sooners in a state of shell shock. OU never recovered from those two plays. I was almost as if you could see the, "here we go again" mentality take of the team.

A week after the Sooners set records in a blowout win at Iowa State they reached milestones of a different kind in their blowout loss to Baylor. Oklahoma had been competitive in their first two losses of the season but they were flat beaten to a pulp against the Bears. For the first time in his tenure at Oklahoma Bob Stoops dropped back-to-back home games and for the first time in ever Baylor won a football game in Norman. To pour some salt in the wound it was Oklahoma's worst home loss since dropping a 51-7 stinker to Texas A&M on November 15, 1997.

Position Grades

Quarterback - If Trevor Knight could have bottled what he had in the first quarter then he could have possibly received his highest position grade this season. As it is, this game turned on a dime on the Sooners' fifth play of the second quarter when Knight threw the ball directly into the gut of a Baylor linebacker. Knight finished the day 12/27 for 146 yards and two scores to the one interception. Overall Grade: C-

Offensive Line - By far the worst game of the season for the guys up front. Holding penalties erased far too many big gains, and quarterback protection was a bit suspect as well. Short yardage situations were a struggle for this unit as well and that has been an ongoing issue. The one saving grace is that they pave the way for OU averaged 5.2 yards per carry. Overall Grade: C+

Running Backs - Underused is how I would describe these guys. Alex Ross averaged 11.8 yards per carry but only got six touches, Keith Ford averaged 5 yards per carry on eight attempts, and Samaje Perine averaged 4.2 yards on just five carries. Overall Grade: B-

Receivers/TEs - First of all, the fact that Oklahoma hasn't found a way to use the tight end since Jermaine Gresham left is way beyond ridiculous. Secondly, how can you not be excited about the future of Michaiah Quick? That said, the absence of Sterling Shepard certainly hurt the Sooners as Quick and Durron Neal were forced with the task of taking up the slack. Each of them scored but they also represented 50% of the players who caught passes. Gotta have more than four guys catch passes...especially when one of them is a running back.