Oklahoma Sooners Football: OU beats Kansas in a lackluster performance

The Oklahoma Sooners hung on, 55-40, against the Kansas Jayhawks in a game that was a lot more of a hassle than expected. Rather than an aerial assault, the Kansas offense attacked Oklahoma on the ground all game long. Freshman phenom RB Pooka Williams ran for 252 yards while Kansas piled up a total of 348 yards on the ground. Although it was too little, too late, Kansas ran at will against a porous Oklahoma defense in the fourth quarter.

Luckily, Kyler Murray had another brilliant performance in this one, as he threw for 272 yards and accounted for five total touchdowns (two passing, three rushing). Aside from missing on a couple deep throws and throwing an ill-advised interception, it was just another day at the office for Kyler Murray. Complementing Murray on the ground was redshirt freshman RB Kennedy Brooks, who ran for 171 yards and 2 touchdowns on 25 carries. Brooks is now the only healthy scholarship RB on the Oklahoma roster after the Trey Sermon injury. Sermon went down early in the game and was seen wearing a walking boot in the second half.

To start the game, Oklahoma looked sloppy; Kennedy Brooks fumbled in the red zone and then Kansas followed it up with a touchdown drive. Kyler Murray answered back with a touchdown run of his own for 7 yards to tie up the game at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Oklahoma defense held Kansas to a field goal after getting gashed a few times in the running game. Murray then put together two impressive touchdown drives to give Oklahoma a 21-10 lead going into the half. Murray hit Carson Meier on an impressive 20 yard touchdown pass in the second quarter. Meier is being utilized like Dimitri Flowers was the last few seasons, which definitely helps open up the offense even more.

To start the second half, Kyler Murray forced a pass to WR Ceedee Lamb that was intercepted by KU CB Shakial Taylor. Kansas was able to capitalize on the pick and score on a 7 play, 45 yard drive to get the game to 21-17. In typical Murray fashion, he bounced right back after the interception and led two more touchdown drives to give the Sooners a 35-17 lead. Kennedy Brooks capped off the second touchdown drive with another rushing TD.

To start the fourth quarter, Kansas RB Pooka Williams Jr. threw a TD pass to Jeremiah Booker. This series exposed an Oklahoma defense that is in total disarray right now. At this point in the game, the Oklahoma defense quit. They allowed Kansas to run all over them and didn't seem very bothered about it.

Even with a defense that had checked out, Murray answered the call once again. He had a 75 yard run that was reminiscent of his run against Texas.

After the Murray run, Oklahoma freshman TE Brayden Willis blocked a punt that led to a Curtis Bolton recovery and touchdown. Since the Oklahoma defense wasn't playing well, it was nice to get a touchdown from the special teams unit. This score helped give Oklahoma a 48-24 lead that they wouldn't relinquish for the rest of the game.

Instead of rallying the defense, this blocked punt was followed by another easy Kansas touchdown drive. At long last, Kyler Murray was able to finally put the game out of reach with an 11 yard touchdown pass to TE Grant Calcaterra.

This put Oklahoma up 55-32 with just over 5 minutes to play in the game. Even though the Sooners gave up another touchdown after that, they had the game in hand. The final score was 55-40, which marked the third game in a row where the Oklahoma defense has given up more than 40 points.

Up next 10-1 Oklahoma faces off against 9-2 West Virginia in Morgantown. West Virginia lost an absolute heartbreaker to Oklahoma State earlier today so they will definitely be reeling. If Oklahoma wins and Texas beats Kansas, they will face off on December 1 for the Big 12 Championship at Jerry World. A revenge game would be awfully sweet for Kyler Murray and co.