Big Days From Shepard and Perine Lead Sooners Over Baylor

Five carries. That's all the carries that Samaje Perine got last year in a 48-14 blowout loss for the Sooners. This time around, Perine got the ball 28 times and Oklahoma rushed for 241 yards in a 44-34 win over the Baylor Bears. The offense scored a touchdown in every quarter and controlled the game behind Perine and the running game.

But the passing game came up with big plays at the right time as Baker Mayfield threw two touchdown passes to Sterling Shepard and another one to Dimitri Flowers. The 44 points scored against Baylor were the most points OU has put up against them since 2008.

In a collective effort by the Sooners, the offensive line made way for Perine and Joe Mixon and gave Baker Mayfield enough time to make the throws he needed. Samaje Perine and Mayfield each averaged more than five yards a carry, which means Oklahoma will be very hard to beat if they can keep it up. No team in the country has rushed for more yards than Oklahoma has in the past five games and their passing offense is one of the most efficient in the country. Seven different receivers caught passes this game too with Shepard leading the way with 177 yards receiving. The combined effort of all the different positions of the offense helped the Sooners solve their "Baylor problem".

The offense started with a three and out and Baylor scored on the ensuing possession, which added a lot of pressure to the Sooners offense early in the game. But Baker Mayfield drove the Sooners down the field and let Perine do the rest, as he punched it in from six yards out to go up 7-6.

They then failed to convert off a Baylor turnover early in the game, but the Sooners finally scored again in the second quarter off a 39 yard bomb from Mayfield to Shepard which included a pretty sweet dive in the endzone to get the touchdown.

When the Sooners got the ball back, Mayfield threw just his fifth interception all season and Baylor turned it into seven points to tie it up. But Oklahoma struck again before the half ended after Mayfield went 4/4 passing and then ran it in for a touchdown on a very important drive.

Oklahoma came out strong in the second half, scoring touchdowns on their first two possessions to go up 34-20. Baylor slowed them down after that, as they managed just three points in four possessions before Baylor scored a touchdown to make it a three point ball game in the fourth quarter. But the Sooners managed to put together a 10-play, 78 yard drive that ended in a touchdown to Flowers that put Oklahoma ahead by 10 points with less than five minutes to go in the game.

Ahmad Thomas picked off Jarrett Stidham on the next drive to seal the deal. Oklahoma then ran out the clock to win the game and come out of Waco at 9-1 on the year. TCU is on deck for Oklahoma, which should be a shootout between two great offenses.