Game Book: Oklahoma 53, Texas 45 (4OT)

DALLAS — A notebook-style breakdown of Oklahoma’s 53-45 overtime victory over Texas on Saturday in the Cotton Bowl:

More of the same … but a win

This time, Oklahoma’s defensive dominance looked for real.

Through three quarters, the Sooners held Texas — the No. 1 scoring offense in the nation through three games — to just 174 total yards. Meanwhile, OU had doubled the Longhorns’ output with 340 total yards.

But just like each of the last two games, OU’s lead was a mirage, a tenuous, even gossamer grip held together with sweat and hope as the Sooners held on through four overtimes to a 53-45 thriller.

“We had conversations this week, you know, you pause video at the end of the third quarter and you see numbers on the scoreboard that you like as a defense,” said defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, “and then the fourth quarter comes to a close and you say, ‘How did we let that happen?’ ”

Texas outgained Oklahoma 179-43 in the fourth quarter as the Sooners once again couldn’t get a crucial first down and couldn’t come up with a stop.

With five minutes left, the Sooners held a 31-17 lead after Woodi Washington’s end zone interception. But the Sooners went three-and-out on back-to-back possessions, and just like it did two weeks ago against Texas Tech, Texas stormed back with two late scores.

This time, OU’s 14-point lead at least carried into overtime, where the Sooners needed (and survived) a handful of craziness.

“I think one thing we’re learning, and we obviously aren’t learning as fast as we need to, is there’s nothing more irrelevant than the score at halftime — even less relevant is the score at end of the third quarter,” Grinch said. “And I need to stop talking to these guys maybe a little bit, because a lot of the things that we talk about end up coming to pass.”

Through three quarters, OU had given up just nine first downs, forced six punts and five three-and-outs. They also had collected seven tackles for loss and four quarterback sacks to go with one blocked punt and one forced fumble.

“When we got that takeaway with five minutes to go in the game, the great lesson there is the game’s not over,” Grinch said. “You can’t assume that it is and it’s not appropriate to do so. I thought our focus up to that point was really, really good, and I think it broke there.”

Pledger breaks out

T.J. Pledger came into 2020 with a grand total of 40 career carries. Through OU’s first three games (he had played only in the last two), he had 24 carries for 88 yards and a pedestrian per-carry average of 3.7.

But with leading rusher Seth McGowan (181 yards, two touchdowns, 5.3 yards per carry) out with a concussion suffered last week at Iowa State, Pledger got the call-up and turned in the performance of a lifetime.

The 5-foot-9, 195-pound junior delivered 22 carries and 131 yards (a robust 6 yards per carry) and scored twice as the Sooners won the line of scrimmage and turned in their best performance of the season in the ground game.

Marcus Major finished with career highs of 43 yards on 12 carries.

“They hung in there,” Riley said. “They were tough for us. They really were. They did some really nice things. They got better, which we’re going to have to continue to do in that room and every room. They had some really tough runs. They both made some big-time plays.

“They are two young guys who are going to continue to grow and get better and better. Obviously we took some big steps in the run game and still feel like we left a little bit out there. I’m proud of their fight. It was a little bit of a light room this week. But they attacked it and made some big-time plays.”

OU had its best day on the ground so far this season, with 208 rushing yards, but still only averaged 3.8 yards per carry. Still, every one was critical.

“We didn’t let any of the excuses hold us down,” Riley said. “We just found a way. I knew we’d be ready for the fight by the way we prepared. You never know if you are going to win a game or not. That’s not reality. But it was great to see the team fight and find a way.

“I learned a lot about this team this week before we ever even stepped foot on this field.”

Rattler’s reset

After committing his second turnover of the day in the first half, OU quarterback Spencer Rattler was benched and replaced with backup Tanner Mordecai.

“I thought Spencer did some good things early,” Riley said, “and then had a couple plays I didn’t like.”

Rattler threw an interception straight to a Texas defender, and he lost a fumble on a sack by not being aware in the pocket. It was his third straight game with a turnover, and his sixth in a stretch of 10 quarters.

That brought on Mordecai, calmly closed out the first half by going 5-of-7 for 52 yards (he was bailed out by a couple of great catches).

“Tanner had been practicing well and so I felt like, one, kind of give us a new face in there and two, I felt like Tanner would go play well. And I also felt like it would help Spencer take a step back for a minute and kind of see the whole thing and settle down. And I think that happened.

“Tanner was stabilizing for us offensively and made some really nice throws for key conversions, had a scoring drive.

Rather than assume Rattler might be too mentally or emotionally frazzled to return effectively, Riley turned the game back over to Rattler, but with the recognition that he might need to go back to Mordecai.

Instead, Rattler’s reset allowed him to refocus and he “got hot,” Riley said.

“I had confidence in him and decided at halftime to go ahead and ... start with Spencer. And he got hot and we started playing pretty well, so I stuck with him the rest of the way.”

“It was a good learning experience,” Rattler said. “I got a chance to sit back for a second catch my breath and get back into the game. I knew I was gonna get back. I just wanted to sit back, kind of get a fresh breath of air, see everything and that definitely helped, I think.”

In the overtimes, Rattler completed 4-of-7 throws for 67 yards with two touchdowns and a 2-point conversion, and also ran five times for 15 yards and a touchdown.

Said Riley, “He just trusted it. He was better here at the end of the game than he was the previous couple of weeks simply because he trusted it. He trusted his teammates, he stayed really true to his reads. I thought his mentality and mindset and confidence was really good. Again, he’s a guy that’s going to take any setbacks or any failures and he’s going to learn from them. He’s not going to let them discourage him. He has that way about him.”

Coaching decisions

Riley got questions on three crucial game-situation decisions he made — two of which didn’t go in his favor, the third of which was bailed out by a Texas timeout.

First, as the Sooners were trying to hang on in regulation, Riley called a third-and-9 pass, and Rattler delivered over the middle to Austin Stogner, who couldn’t hang onto the football. The incomplete pass stopped the clock and Texas, which had called its three timeouts on the Sooners’ previous possessions, was getting the football back with 1:52 to play.

Riley said throwing there and not running — to burn another 40 seconds off the game clock — was the right call and said he’d do it again.

“I would. You had an opportunity there,” Riley said. “You complete one pass, you win the game. I felt like where we were at, we’d gotten some good field position there. Even if you don’t, you have a chance to pin them and they have to drive the whole way. Honestly, I didn’t want to put it back in Sam (Ehlinger)’s hands, to be completely honest. He’s just been a part of so many of these and we saw what they did in Lubbock just a few weeks ago. You have a chance to win the game. It was a play that we’re confident in. I’m disappointed that we didn’t execute it. Those guys came back, both of them made some pretty big ones there after that.”

Then, facing a fourth-and-goal from inside the Texas 1-yard line at the end of OU’s half of the first overtime, Riley had Rattler in a formation with two tight ends and two backs. But instead of running a power running play, Rattler dropped back to pass — only to have the play blown dead as Texas coaches called a last second timeout.

Rattler came out in a similar formation after the timeout and sneaked behind All-American center Creed Humphrey, giving the Sooners a 45-38 lead.

Then in the third overtime, after Perrion Winfrey gave the Sooners a chance by blocking Cameron Dicker’s 33-yard field goal attempt, Riley opted to bring his own kicker, Gabe Brkic, out on second down. The Sooners picked up a first down to start the possession on a Rattler throw to Jeremiah Hall and Marcus Major’s 2-yard plunge, and Rattler kneeled on the ball in the middle of the field.

But instead of a walk-off field goal, Brkic missed for the second time in his career, wide left, and the game went to a fourth overtime.

“Honestly, it was a pretty easy decision,” Riley said. “We were able to get the ball exactly where Gabe likes it. But we still had a timeout, I believe at the time. And so, didn't think we would, but if you do have a bad snap, anything like that, you can obviously use that timeout, resettle everybody and kick it again.

“Gabe makes that 99 times out of 100, and that was one he didn't make. But we feel like we've got one of the best kickers in America. And if I, for some reason, had that decision to do over tomorrow, I'm going to do exactly the same thing.”

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