The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Mayfield-Mahomes college shootout like a video game
There are shootouts, and then there is the time Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes played against each other in college.
Talk about a shootout for the ages.
Mayfield and Mahomes will face off Jan. 17 with much higher stakes on the line than the time Oklahoma and Texas Tech played in 2016. The AFC Divisional Playoff game between the Browns and Chiefs has a spot in the AFC Championship game on the line.
Mayfeld and Mahomes met in college on Oct. 22, 2016, in a regular-season game. Statisticians during that game probably needed a break afterward. Points and yards lit up the scoreboard as Mayfield’s Sooners outlasted Mahomes and Texas Tech, 66-59.
If the Browns-Chiefs game Jan. 17 is anything like that shootout in Lubbock, Texas, it will undoubtedly go down in the history books.
Fans of offense had to be salivating back in 2016. Here’s a look back: Texas Tech was 3-4 entering the game and unranked. Oklahoma was 5-2 and ranked No. 16. Mahomes and Mayfield were dominant passers that season.
Mahomes threw for 5,052 yards and 41 touchdowns in Coach Kiff Kingsbury’s spread offense. Mayfield — a year away from winning the Heisman — passed for 3,965 yards and 40 TDs.
On Oct. 22, 2016, Mayfield was 27 of 36 passing for 545 yards and seven touchdowns. The TD passes went for 56, 49, 23, 23, 43, 34 and 15 yards.
In the second half, Oklahoma scored TDs on five of six second-half possessions. The only time it did not was when it ran out the clock at the end of the game.
Said Mayfield about his message to the team in locker room before the third quarter: “I told the guys at halftime, ‘If you’re scared and you don’t want to score every drive, then
stay in here.’ ‘
On the other side, Mahomes threw it a jaw-dropping 88 times, completing 52 for 734 yards and five TDs. The 734 yards tied an NCAA record. Mahomes also rushed for 85 yards and two TDs, which gave him 819 total yards for the game.
The 1,708 combined yards by the teams set an FBS record. Each team had 854 yards of offense. The 125 combined points were the second most in a game involving a ranked team. In 2012, No. 7 West Virginia defeated No. 25 Baylor, 70-63.
Mahomes and Mayfield weren’t the only players to post video game-like stats.
Future Bengals running back Joe Mixon of the Sooners rushed for 263 yards
and scored three TDs, and also had 114 yards receiving and three more scores. His teammate Dede Westbrook — a future receiver for the Jaguars — had nine receptions for 202 yards and two TDs.
Mahomes’ favorite target that day was future Texans receiver Keke Coutee, who had 172 yards on 10 receptions and a TD. Despite his gaudy stats, Mahomes wasn’t in the mood afterward to celebrate tying the NCAA record for passing yards in a game.
“Someone told me about it in the locker room but like I said, we didn’t win the game so it really didn’t matter.”
The playoff game isn’t the first time the QBs have faced each other in the NFL. In Mayfield’s rookie year in 2018, the visiting Chiefs beat the Browns, 37-21. Mahomes threw for 375 yards in the game, and Mayfield nearly had 300.