Oklahoma's Defense Intercepts Five Passes in Rout of Tulsa

TULSA — Oklahoma's offense did its thing Saturday, scoring on nine of 11 possessions against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane.

But it was the No. 19-ranked Sooners' defense that put up some big numbers, intercepting five passes for the first time in two decades and returning one for a touchdown in a 66-17 win.

OU last accomplished the feat in 2003 in a 56-25 win over Texas Tech, when Brent Venables was OU's co-defensive coordinator. Through three games in 2023, Oklahoma's defense has forced eight turnovers heading into Big 12 Conference play next Saturday at Cincinnati.

"A year ago, we dropped eight dead-in-our-hands interceptions," he said after the game. "Had we just made those layups — I'm not talking about a great play. I'm talking about the play that was there, that hit us in our hands. Eight of them. We would've led the country in turnovers and interceptions and been a helluva lot better, I believe, than our 6-7 record."

The interceptions by cornerback Gentry Williams, linebacker Danny Stutsman, cornerback Kendel Dolby, safety Key Lawrence and defensive end Trace Ford were converted into 35 points.

“It’s awesome when guys make plays on the ball," defensive coordinator Ted Roof said following the game. "A lot of good things happened. One of those resulted in a touchdown, another one we went down at the four-yard line. Proud of that, and certainly those were a big factor in winning like we did."

Williams, a Tulsa native with 30 friends and family members on hand, got things started, intercepting starting quarterback Roman Fuller on Tulsa's first possession of the game and returning the ball 11 yards to the OU 31-yard line. An unsportsmanlike penalty moved the ball back to the 16-yard line.

From there, quarterback Dillon Gabriel completed two long throws, one to Andrel Anthony for 55 yards and the second to Jalil Farooq for 34 yards and the Sooners' first touchdown of the game.

“I think that was a good confidence booster," Willams said of the takeaways. "We did what we needed to do which was give the ball back to the offense. We see what they do when they get the ball and make plays. We’re just trying to help them out.”

Stutsman, coming off a 17-tackle performance against SMU that included a sack and a fumble recovery, picked off Fuller on Tulsa's third possession and returned the ball 30 yards for a touchdown to put OU up by three touchdowns late in the first quarter.

"I was the QB spy player just kind of reading the eyes and they had that curl route get open," Stutsman said. "I was just right there for it."

Less than a minute later, Dolby, a reserve who was in the game after Williams got banged up, intercepted Fuller with 2:51 left in the first quarter and returned the ball 13 yards to the Oklahoma 37-yard line.

Dillon capped off a 63-yard drive with a 4-yard TD pass to Drake Stoops to make it 28-0.

That would do it for Fuller, who was replaced by Cardell Williams. Williams had some some success against the Sooners, throwing a pair of second-quarter touchdowns, but he was picked off twice in the second half.

Oklahoma's fourth interception, by Lawrence, came with 2:21 remaining in the third quarter and Oklahoma leading 35-14. One play later, Gabriel, who threw five touchdown passes in the game, connected with redshirt freshman Nic Anderson on a 42-yard touchdown pass.

Ford, the Oklahoma State transfer, got into the act early in the fourth quarter, picking off Williams and returning the ball 26 yards to the Tulsa 4-yard line. Two plays later, redshirt freshman running back Gavin Sawchuk scored from 1-yard out to put the finishing touches on an offensive outburst ignited by an opportunistic defense.

"I think we're just really playing together, we're really playing for each other," Stutsman said. "We talk about in the locker room, you're playing for the man to your left and to your right and we did a tremendous job just doing that today."

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