Pirate King
Berry Tramel says Baker Mayfield is the Long John Silver of quarterbacks.
Elizabeth Swann hops aboard the Black Pearl’s railing, grabs a rope of the massive sail and delivers the stirring speech.
“They will hear the ring of our swords, and they will know what we can do. By the sweat of our brows and the strength of our backs, and the courage of our hearts! Gentlemen, hoist the colors.”
Yes, Keira Knightley is quite fetching in “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Of course, with that accent, she’d be quite fetching reading the Muskogee phone book. But elect her Pirate King, and you’re ready to grab a sword.
Sort of like that other Pirate King. Baker Mayfield.
Mayfield, who quarterbacks the way Long John Silver sailed the seas, celebrated OU’s 31-16 upset of Ohio State by hoisting colors himself. Mayfield grabbed a Sooner flag, waved it while dashing around Ohio Stadium and finally tried to plant it in the big O logo at midfield.
You can’t really grow anything in fake grass, so Mayfield’s efforts at planting failed. Forgive him. He’s a city boy. But Mayfield’s efforts offended the sensibilities of some precincts, though I don’t really know why. All that pregame talk, much of it from me, about Ohio Stadium being a hallowed site, its grass a sacred ground?
Figure of speech, folks. Ohio Stadium is not literally a house of worship. It’s not the Holy of Holies. Neither the Lord God Jehovah nor the ghost of Woody Hayes will strike you dead if you desecrate the grass.
All offended by Mayfield’s antics are looking to be offended. You know, people like Mayfield himself, who took umbrage at Ohio State singing the Buckeye alma mater on Owen Field after its 45-24 rout of the Sooners last September. Lots of teams sing the alma mater on the field after games, win or lose. Mayfield said he was embarrassed at such a sight.
But that’s just Mayfield sharpening that chip on his shoulder. If the Buckeyes had stayed silent that night in Norman, Mayfield would have found something else to fuel his mission. Same
with hoisting the colors. Mayfield running around crazy with the flag is just Baker being Baker.
Which, by the way, is how the Sooners came to dominate the Buckeyes.
OU and Ohio State were incredibly even. Good players on both sides. The Sooners countered Ohio State’s strength – deep and talented defensive line – with a deep and talented offensive line. Ohio State played OK with a retooled secondary; OU played OK with a retooled receiving corps. Both teams found some solid production from true freshmen tailbacks.
But one team had a good and veteran quarterback, in J.T. Barrett. The other team had a quarterback for the ages. Advantage Sooners. Big advantage Sooners.
Mayfield was as good as we’ve ever seen him. From the pocket, Mayfield completed 21 of 27 passes for 287 yards and a touchdown. On the run, either scrambling or designed rollouts, Mayfield completed six of eight for 99 yards and two touchdowns.
Mayfield completed his final 14 passes, for 201 yards. His three touchdown passes went to a fullback (Dimitri Flowers), a walk-on (Lee Morris) and a true freshman (Trey Sermon).
The Sooners got the ball 11 times. They either scored a touchdown or made multiple first downs on 10 of those possessions. They took over in Buckeye territory only once all game, yet reached Buckeye territory on 10 of those 11 possessions.
“We got beat by a very good team and a quarterback that was dynamic,” Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said. “I thought our defense hung in there against, like I said, a very good player. And I told him afterwards. Got a lot of respect. I love his competitiveness and energy. We had him wrapped up, I want to say, eight times and he came out of that thing.”
Lots of players are competitive and energetic. Most of them turn it off after the game, particularly well after the game. But not Mayfield. He doesn’t have an off switch.
So when he says, “we should have won by a lot more,” you can either label him charming or a scoundrel, your choice, but you can’t argue that it’s sound football analysis. The Sooners dominated the first half yet had to settle for a 3-3 tie. Then OU dominated the second half and won going away.
And coming off that discouraging loss to Ohio State last September, you can see why Mayfield would be excited.
“It was emotional,” Lincoln Riley said. “We’d been looking forward to this game, there’s no question about it.”
So when it was over, and pleasantries exchanged, Mayfield went looking for a release for all that energy.
He says the flag was not part of the gameplan. It was an audible. What Mayfield called a “last-minute decision.” A teammate or two suggested the idea, and soon enough Mayfield was hoisting the colors like this was the Cotton Bowl and Texas had just been vanquished.
But Dallas is neutral ground, and Ohio State is most definitely not. Thus the wrath of the literalists.
“It was a combination of things,” Mayfield said. It was the memory of that Ohio State alma mater on Owen Field. The memory that nobody on ESPN’s GameDay crew picked the Sooners.
In other words. Stuff that doesn’t matter. Slights that are slight, if they exist at all. But Mayfield feeds them to his psyche and uses them as fuel.
And when the final gun sounds, and the game is over, he’s still burning that fuel. Still trying to evade the Ohio State rush and hit a home run.
So he grabbed a flag and hoisted the colors, because if he didn’t, he wouldn’t be Baker Mayfield.