Oklahoma Football Recap: Sooners survive Golden Knights, 31-29

Two weeks after dominating their foes south of the Red River, the Oklahoma Sooners returned to action at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium Saturday to face off against University of Central Florida in a Big 12 battle.

Despite some hangover following the bye week, OU found a way to win, 31-29, over a scrappy UCF team. The Sooners came out looking dominant defensively in the first quarter, but the offense’s inability to find a rhythm allowed UCF to hang around.

Dillon Gabriel, with Heisman talk surrounding him, continues to make plays when it matters most. When the Sooners needed two big drives in the fourth quarter, Gabriel stepped up and delivered. On the first of these, he led the Sooners on a nine-play, 65-yard drive that ended with a 11-yard touchdown pass to Drake Stoops to put OU up 24-23 with 9:16 left in the game. On the second drive, Gabriel drove the Sooners 80 yards on nine-plays, which was capped off by Gavin Sawchuck’s 30-yard rushing touchdown. This put OU in the lead, 31-23, with under four minutes left in the ballgame. The Sooners’ quarterback would end up 25 of 38 passing and 253 yards through the air and three passing touchdowns.

Nic Anderson has become one of college football’s top touchdown producers this year as it seems every time he touches the football he finds the end zone. Anderson added two more touchdowns and 105 yards receiving to his breakout year.

Oklahoma finally found some success in the run game throughout the fourth quarter with Gavin Sawchuck, and that proved to be the difference in the game. Jeff Lebby and the staff will hope this is a sign of things to come moving forward. Oklahoma fans have been frustrated at times this year with the lack of run

game, but with a healthy Sawchuck, things could be looking up for the Sooners.

This Oklahoma defense continues to look really solid, and has room to grow and become even more of a force as the season continues. For the first time this year, the defense did not force a turnover, but they still found enough plays to come up big when it mattered most.

Danny Stutsman is the unquestioned leader of the OU defense and led the team again with 12 total tackles and looked really solid today. Key Lawrence also had one of his better games as a Sooner and added 9 total tackles.

Despite some late-game heroics by Central Florida, the Oklahoma defense stopped UCF on a crucial 2-point conversion which put any hope of winning to a stop for the Golden Knights.

The Sooners found a way to win despite many errors on the field. OU will look to continue their win streak as they travel to Lawrence next week to take on the Kansas Jayhawks.