Oklahoma Sooners Football: OU clinches Big 12 title game berth with 27-14 win over Baylor

It wasn’t pretty (AT ALL), but the No. 11 Oklahoma Sooners disposed of the Baylor Bears (2-6), 27-14. With the win, OU improves to 7-2 on the season, 6-2 in Big 12 play, and officially clinches a spot in the conference championship game for a chance to play for a sixth consecutive league title.

Throughout the night, Charlie Brewer was able to find open Baylor receivers for solid gains, but overall, OU kept Baylor’s offense from generating too many explosive plays despite being inconsistent with collapsing the pocket. While defending the passing game proved a challenge at times, the Sooners were outstanding against the run, limiting the Bears to just 25 rushing yards on 26 attempts.

Oklahoma’s 60-game streak of scoring at least 28 points was snapped on Saturday night, which was the longest of its kind in the FBS coming into the evening. Even though Lincoln Riley’s team was unable to continue its record mark, Spencer Rattler and company found enough offense to keep this game just outside of BU’s reach for the majority of the contest.

Speaking of which, the redshirt freshman gun slinger from Phoenix turned in a respectable yet unspectacular performance by his standards, completing 20 of 28 passes for 193 yards, two touchdowns and one interception (which wasn’t his fault).

In the Sooners’ home game finale inside the Palace on the Prairie, Alex Grinch’s ‘Speed D’ came up with two huge takeaways. The first of which came in the second quarter, when Tre Norwood picked off Brewer on fourth down and returned the INT 34 yards. The second also came on fourth down, this time from true freshman D.J. Graham in the third frame.

Part of the offense’s struggles stemmed from the offensive line’s inability to push the Baylor front off the line of scrimmage. Rhamondre Stevenson finally looked mortal, only rushing for 49 yards and one TD on 15 carries. Considering the next two defenses Oklahoma will face (West Virginia, Iowa State), OU will need to quickly return to the form that boosted them throughout the majority of this now six-game winning streak.

Up next, Oklahoma hits the country road to battle West Virginia (5-4, 4-4) in Morgantown for the regular season finale on Dec. 12. The Sooners have won each of their eight meetings with WVU since the Mountaineers joined the Big 12 Conference in 2012, including a 52-14 blowout in Norman last year. Kick-off time will either come at 11 a.m. CT and will be televised on ABC.

One final bit of news that broke during the game — Oklahoma assistant Shane Beamer is reportedly expected to be hired as the next head coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks. Beamer has done a solid job with the TE/H-back group since his arrival in 2018, and his impact in the realm of special teams will be missed. Add in the man’s coaching pedigree and the fact that he was raised by one of the all-time greats, and I think South Carolina did pretty well here.

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