Sooners, later
Baker Mayfield won’t be returning, but what does next season hold for the Sooners?
CeeDee Lamb took a reverse pitch from fullback Dimitri Flowers and rolled to his right. Receivers rarely show patience and poise when blessed with the chance to give rather than to receive, but Lamb displayed both Monday as the sun began setting beyond the Arroyo Seco.
Lamb finally made Georgia defenders commit, leaving Baker Mayfield all alone to catch a 2-yard touchdown pass from the guy who’s usually on the receiving end. And with six seconds left in the Rose Bowl’s first half, the Sooners were in perfect position. They hadn’t played a perfect half, but they were in perfect position.
Up 31-14, six seconds before halftime, and OU was getting the second-half kickoff. This national semifinal seemed on the road of other historic blowouts — Nebraska 62, Florida 24 in the 1995 national title game; Southern Cal 55, OU 19 in the 2004
national title game; Oregon 59, Florida State 20 in the 2014 national semifinals.
But we had forgotten a telling trademark of Lincoln Riley’s first Oklahoma team. It blows big leads. An 18-point lead at Baylor became a threepoint deficit before OU rallied to win. A 14-point lead against Iowa State became a seven-point defeat. A 20-point lead against Texas became a one-point deficit before OU rallied to win. An 11-point lead in Stillwater evaporated before the Sooners rallied to win.
As you know, Oklahoma blew another one. In literally seven snaps, Georgia had whittled OU’s lead to 31-24. Soon enough, the Bulldogs caught and passed the Sooners, then won 54-48 in double overtime.
“We’d separated ourself a little bit there in the first half and weren’t able to maintain it,” Riley said. “We just didn’t put our best foot forward.”
The Bulldogs got a ridiculous field goal to end the first half, Nick Chubb rambled 50 yards for a touchdown on Georgia’s first snap of the second half and the OU offense went AWOL. The Sooners’ failure to stand prosperity bit them again, at the worst possible time.
A game that OU had dominated instead became a horse race, to be determined by a play or two. You know the plays that sunk the Sooners.
Austin Seibert’s squib kick that didn’t penetrate the Georgia front line and set up Rodrigo Blankenship’s 55-yard field goal. Baker Mayfield’s poor decision on a deep ball to Mark Andrews that sailed into the hands of safety Dominick Sanders, who returned the interception 38 yards to the OU 4-yard line, setting up the go-ahead touchdown.
Jake Fromm’s third-and-10 completion to Terry Godwin, good for 16 yards with a minute to go and Georgia down seven points. Jordan Smallwood’s sweep on third-and-2 in the first overtime, which was stuffed by Roquan Smith and Reggie Carter.
Change any of those plays, and OU almost surely wins.
But that’s the point. Ahead 31-14, a team should never have to worry about the game determined by a play or two.
“Let the game get back a little bit closer there in the third quarter, and at that point it was going to come down to one play here or there, and it did,” Riley said.
Everyone blames Mike Stoops’ defense. That’s evergreen. But now many blame Riley’s secondhalf conservatism, a vast switch from his fearless first half. But Riley wasn’t conservative. He was scared. He feared for Mayfield’s life.
The Georgia pass rush grew fangs and turned Mayfield into a fugitive in the second half, and the OU passing game had no time to do much of anything. Six times after halftime, Riley called a first-down pass. Only once was the play a success, a 12-yard completion to Marquise Brown off a screen. A shovel pass gained one yard. Three throws fell incomplete. Twice Mayfield was sacked.
The truth is, the same thing that afflicted OU in Waco and Dallas and Stillwater and Norman against Iowa State, struck the Sooners in the Rose Bowl. Complacency? A game plan that had no staying power? A lack of physical stamina? It’s a mystery.
There were no common denominators. It happened against an Air Raid team like OSU and a scrappy team like Iowa State and a no-identity team like Texas and a hapless team like Baylor and a pack-of-hungrywolves team like Georgia.
Then the Sooners in the Rose Bowl again went all Thunder and blew big leads, and a golden opportunity was lost.
Riley’s decisions, I have no problem with, save one. The decision to kick a field goal on 4thand-1 from the Georgia 16-yard line in the first overtime.
The Sooner defense had reared up and stopped the Bulldogs in the top of the first overtime. That’s manna from Heaven. Georgia is a team built for overtime. Rugged running game. Stiff defense that pressures the quarterback, and with the deep ball basically purged from the playbook, the Bulldogs can be even more aggressive.
That’s when this game was lost. When Georgia blinked and settled for a field goal, the Sooners needed to strike. I have no great ideas on what to call on fourth-and-1, but Riley is an offensive savant and OU had the nation’s best quarterback. Time to show it. Riley instead opted for a second overtime, and the Bulldogs were thrilled.
“I think you just try in each individual situation to do the best thing for your team to win that game,” Riley said. “We were still plenty aggressive at times when we thought it was appropriate. We’ve been able to win a lot of games around here, and hey, again, are there ones I wish I could have back? Sure. I’ve never had a game where there wasn’t. But there was never a time where we were thinking conservative. We were always thinking how are we going to win this thing, and felt like we would until the last snap.”
Here’s how you win. You don’t square dance with Georgia in overtime. You get an opening, you try to bust through.
The Sooners just wilted in the second half. It was disappointing but shouldn’t have been surprising. They’ve done it before.