OU-Texas Tech: Q4 Report

LUBBOCK, TX — No. 24-ranked Oklahoma is finally back in Oklahoma next week with a home game against Kansas.

Maybe the Sooners can petition to play the Jayhawks south of the Red River.

For the third straight week, OU crossed into the Lone Star State on Saturday night and left with an impressive victory, this time a wall-to-wall 62-28 domination of Texas Tech.

A full moon on Halloween night didn’t scare the Sooners, who had their highest-scoring first half in 12 years and coasted with backups and freshman throughout the second half.

After a 1-2 start, OU has defeated Texas, TCU and Tech in improving to 4-2 overall and 3-2 in Big 12 Conference play. Tech fell to 2-4 and 1-4.

Spencer Rattler played one series of the third quarter before giving way to Tanner Mordecai (Rattler finished 21-of-30 for 288 yards with two touchdowns), and Theo Wease posted a career-high 105 receiving yards, and freshman Mikey Henderson scored his first career touchdown.

But the night really belonged to running back Rhamondre Stevenson and defensive end Ronnie Perkins, who returned from their six-game NCAA suspensions with a vengeance.

Stevenson looked like the new RB1 with 87 yards and career-best three touchdowns on 13 carries, while Perkins picked up where he left off last year with three tackles, two tackles for loss and a quarterback hurry.

They and wide receiver Trejan Bridges were suspended before the Sooners’ College Football Playoff loss to LSU. They also served five games this season. Bridges’ suspension, however, apparently continues as he didn’t make the trip for undisclosed reasons.

The game also included the absence (because of COVID protocols, per a source) of two starters: Safety Delarrin Turner-Yell and wide receiver Charleston Rambo.

In Turner-Yell’s absence, junior Tre Norwood got his second and third career interceptions — his first since 2018, and the first time OU has had two in a game since the UCLA game last season. Norwood became the first Sooner with two picks in a game since 2016, when linebacker Jordan Evans got two.

OU finished the first half with 48 points — its most at halftime since scoring 49 against Nebraska in 2008 (one week after scoring 55 at Kansas State).

The Oklahoma defense also recovered a fumble in the first half (by Isaiah Thomas).

Texas Tech easily went 75 yards for a touchdown on its first possession, then hit the Sooners for a 75-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter — but it wasn’t nearly enough against an Oklahoma team that seems to have recovered from a 1-2 start.

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