Game for the ages

Columnist Berry Tramel revisits 2016 OU-Texas Tech game.

The second half began innocently enough. Patrick Mahomes threw three passes — two incomplete and a sixyard completion to Keke Coutee. So Texas Tech’s Michael Barden trotted out and punted 37 yards.

I remember the game, led 30-24 by the Sooners at halftime, might start turning normal.

Funny to think about now, two years later, with the Sooners headed back to Lubbock, Texas, for a football game for the first time since October 22, 2016.

There was nothing normal about what took place next. The dangdest explosion of offense, on both sides, ever seen in the history of Oklahoma or maybe anyone else.

Ten straight touchdown drives. Five by each team. A fireworks show worthy of New York Harbor on the Fourth of July. The Sooners won 66-59, and the Big 12’s arena-football reputation was sealed.

Now, of course, we know why. Quarterbacking of the highest order. The Sooners had Baker Mayfield. The Red Raiders had Mahomes. The former is a Cleveland Browns rookie who has brought hope to the hopeless. The

latter is an NFL Most Valuable Player candidate who has led the Kansas City Chiefs to a 7-1 record.

“I said it that night,” said Lincoln Riley, now OU’s head coach and then OU’s offensive coordinator. “Those two guys — and I think what they’ve done since then has helped support this — the way they were playing that night, there were a lot of defenses that would have gotten shredded including any team in any league.

“That was a different deal. That was one of those nights where you just say ... the quality of ball was really, really good. I remember sitting there kind of like — these two guys and two offenses are just playing out of their minds right now.”

Saturday night, two more high-powered offenses take the Jones Stadium field. The next day in Cleveland, the Browns play the Chiefs. Mayfield vs. Mahomes. Two of the biggest stories in NFL 2018. But no way can their showdown match what happened in Lubbock.

“Just two great competitors really going at it,” said Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury. “Then some of the other players on the field, too. Keke Coutee. Joe Mixon. Dede Westbrook. There were NFL guys all over the field. And everybody was on. There was no stopping offenses. Going at each other all night. A lot of fun to be a part of.”

Well, fun if you were on offense. Lubbock likely was the start of the end of Mike Stoops’ career as defensive coordinator. The Sooner defense had been the Big 12’s best in 2015. But it was shredded at times in 2016 and collapsed in Lubbock.

“We went man ... we went zone,” Stoops said that night. “They had guys running free all night ... it was unacceptable. We won. But it hurts when you don't hold up your end of the deal. Unacceptable on so many levels I can't even begin to define it."

Stoops lasted almost two more full seasons as coordinator, before another defensive debacle cost him his job. He was fired October 7 after a 48-45 loss to Texas. But Tech’s defensive coordinator that night, David Gibbs, has kept his job and turned the Red Raiders into a more competitive unit.

The numbers that night were out of a video game. The big plays came in flurries.

But there were differences. OU’s success came as scripted. Mayfield delivering the ball on time and on target, usually to Dede Westbrook. Joe Mixon running through huge holes. Tech’s success were more ad-lib. Mahomes doing in Lubbock what he’s done in Kansas City; scrambling, extending plays, making something out of nothing.

“Baker played really well,” Riley said. “A lot of our guys played really well. And they had a lot of plays on schedule. But (Mahomes) made a ton of just kind of improv plays in that game. I can’t tell you how many times we had him sacked and he just made something unbelievable happen. I left that game thinking both he and Baker could play for anybody in any league at any time.”

The game was reminiscent of West Virginia’s 70-63 home victory over Baylor in 2012, which featured 19 touchdown

drives, only one of which was less than 54 yards in length and nine of which were at least 75 yards.

But that shootout was staged by quarterbacks Geno Smith of West Virginia and Nick Florence of Baylor. Smith was an NFL bust and Florence never pursued an NFL career.

Mayfield seems to be a budding NFL quarterback. Mahomes is a fullbloomed star.

“You could tell the two trigger guys were pretty special,” Riley said. “It was a heck of a dual. Both guys just didn’t make mistakes. Just continued to make play after play for their team. You could tell those two guys, there wasn’t many people playing the position at a higher level than those two.”

Mayfield had finished fourth in the 2015 Heisman Trophy voting. He would finish third in 2016 and win it in 2017.