Sooners have put Big 12 on notice

Spencer Rattler delivered a succinct message to his Sooner teammates Friday night.

“It's time for us to go out and embarrass somebody,” he told them.

Saturday night, they did.

OU 62, Texas Tech 28. On a day the Big 12 race broke as wide open as the West Texas sky, no team made a bigger statement than the Sooners. It's up for debate as to whether they really embarrassed the Red Raiders, but they sure as heck

dominated them. And dominating like the Sooners did is what championship teams do.

The Sooners don't control their own destiny — not yet anyway — and will need help to get into the conference championship game. As for the College Football Playoff, that seems nearly impossible for any Big 12 team this season.

But this is 2020. Anything could happen.

And the way the Sooners are playing, no team in the league looks more dangerous.

“We're just trying to get better,” OU coach Lincoln Riley said. “And if you do that, things work out the way they're supposed to.

“We're getting better as a team. I'm most excited about that.”

Anyone who loves the crimson and cream should be, too.

It was only a month ago that the Sooners were staggered after back-to-back losses, only three weeks ago that they were staring a third consecutive loss square between the eyes against Texas after blowing another fourth-quarter lead. They weren't playing great football, and worse, they didn't seem to be learning from their previous mistakes. Now?

“You can really mark several games in a row right now where there's been very, very clear steps taken in a positive direction,” Riley said.

That starts with how this team handles adversity.

In those losses to Kansas State and Iowa State, OU wasn't able to turn the tide when momentum began shifting and leads started dwindling. The Sooners let a blown assignment here or a poor decision there snowball. One or two bad mistakes turned into so many more.

They had a chance to let that happen Saturday night.

The Sooners opened the game with some poor play. The defense allowed the Red Raiders to motor down the field on the game's opening possession. Seven plays. Eighty yards. Touchdown. Bleck.

Then the offense went three and out. A holding penalty on the first snap put the Sooners in a hole, and even with a couple nice gainers by Seth McGowan, first a run, then a catch, they had to punt. Double bleck. Having a bad start on Halloween night in Lubbock seemed as dangerous as walking under a ladder while holding a broken mirror as a black cat crossed your path.

But the Sooners didn't panic. The defense went out and forced a punt, pushing the Red Raiders into a fourth-and-45 when all was said and done. Then the offense took advantage of good field position, going 56 yards in seven plays for a touchdown.

Even though Rhamondre Stevenson, just back from an NCAA suspension, scored the touchdown on his first carry of the season, the story of that drive was Rattler. He was 4 of 5 for 43 yards, including completions on both of the third downs the Sooners faced.

The second of the third-down conversions was a highlight-reel special. Rattler bobbled the snap, actually putting it on the turf. Then, he nearly tripped over the feet of one of his own offensive lineman. He not only survived both maladies but also had the presence of mind to look downfield and see tight end Austin Stogner running wide open.

That series is a microcosm of the growth we've seen out of the Rattler. He didn't just have one or two good plays. He strung a bunch of them together. And when things were going haywire, he kept his head.

It launched Rattler into his best game as a Sooner.

Kicked the Sooners into a gear we haven't seen, too. Over the next 18 snaps, OU turned a competitive game into a rout. The Sooners forced two interceptions and a turnover on downs while also scoring three touchdowns.

“You know, we've been having these games where we're getting up and getting comfortable,” Rattler said. “Tonight, we didn't get comfortable.

“We kept running it up.”

Riley said, “For us to be able to sustain it as long as we did was maybe the best part of this to me. You got on a run, things are going well, and we were able to keep our foot on the gas.”

Riley and his Sooners know they're not a finished product, know they still have work to do and improvements to make. But they are starting to see the fruits of their labors.

“We're just kind of a young team kind of growing up and getting better,” Riley said. “We've still got a lot to figure out. But you can see the personality of us and the maturity of us headed in a good direction.” Good for the Sooners. Bad for the rest of the Big 12.