Three Quick Takeaways From Oklahoma's Loss to Kansas

No. 6 Oklahoma's final visit to Lawrence ended in disaster, as the Jayhawks snapped an 18-game losing streak in their final Big 12 meeting with the Sooners.

Author:
Ryan Chapman
Publish date:
Oct 28, 2023 4:47 PM EDT

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Oklahoma Sooners

LAWRENCE, KS — Trips to Lawrence have been far from straightforward for Oklahoma as of late.

Two years ago, Caleb Williams needed to strip running back Kennedy Brooks of the ball on fourth down to survive a Kansas scare.

In 2019, Jalen Hurts’ Sooners had to endure a rain delay to overrun the Jayhawks.

Brent Venables’ first and only trip to David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium as head coach failed to conjure the Sooner Magic necessary to avoid the upset.

No. 6 Oklahoma couldn’t withstand three turnovers, including an early Dillon Gabriel pick-six, and a 58-minute weather delay.

Devin Neal’s late touchdown lifted Kansas over the Sooners 38-33, handing the Sooners (7-1, 4-1) their first loss of the year ahead of next week’s emotionally charged Bedlam battle in Stillwater.

Mistakes Too Frequent, Too Costly

Through seven games, the Sooners have done an excellent job taking care of the football, but OU was unable to continue the trend on Saturday.

Gabriel started the game with a pick six, and then a pair of fumbles made life hard in the second half.

Wide receiver Jalil Farooq was called upon at running back in the third quarter, but he fumbled to set the Jayhawks up with prime field position on Oklahoma’s 36-yard line.

One play later, Jason Bean took advantage of defensive miscommunication, sprinting down the sideline to cash in for another score.

Then Kansas actually let OU off the hook in the fourth quarter.

Following Daniel Hishaw Jr.’s 1-yard score to put KU back up 32-27, Leipold elected for a pooch kick on the ensuing kickoff.

Defensive end Marcus Stripling, usually utilized as a blocker on kickoff returns, was unable to cleanly field the ball. The Jayhawks recovered the muffed kickoff, and again took over deep into Oklahoma territory.

But OU’s defense rallied to force Kansas into a 42-yard field goal into the wind, which kicker Seth Keller left short to keep the deficit at five points.

Finally, the turnover luck swung back Oklahoma’s favor.

In a reverse of the Sooners’ second interception against Texas, Kendel Dolby tipped Bean’s pass into the air for Billy Bowman to intercept.

It only took OU’s offense to pick up the final 14 yards, putting Oklahoma back in front 33-32 with 5:22 left in the game after a failed two-point conversion attempt.

Key Lawrence dropped an interception with 2:45 left in the game, but two plays later Downs dropped into coverage and caught Bean’s pass with 2:29 left.

The Sooners couldn’t pick up a single first down, however, giving the ball back to Kansas.

A coverage bust set the Jayhawks up in the red zone, OU’s offense couldn’t respond to Neal’s touchdown needing six points of its own in only 47 seconds.

Ground Game Not Enough

Oklahoma finally found consistency on the ground, until the Sooners needed it most.

Tawee Walker returned to the lineup after missing last week’s win over UCF with an internal suspension and cemented himself as the Sooners’ top running back.

His introduction to the game, paired with Cayden Green and Jacob Sexton replacing Savion Byrd and Walter Rouse on the left side of the line, coincided with OU turning its fortunes around.

Walker put his head down and ran north and south, totaling 146 yards for one touchdown while averaging 6.3 yards per carry.

His success also helped open up the running game for Gabriel.

The Sooner quarterback picked up a first down on a 24-yard run (which was brought back 10 yards for block in the back past the first down marker) on OU’s first drive out of the rain delay, and then Gabriel put his team in front for the first time with a 9-yard touchdown run after Kip Lewis’ fumble recovery on Zach Schmit’s kickoff.

Gabriel finished the game with 64 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 14 carries.

A week ago, it took until the fourth quarter for Oklahoma to really assert itself against a UCF defense that ranked in the bottom 10 in college football defending the run.

Kansas’ defense isn’t much better, entering the weekend ranked No. 93-nationally in rushing defense, and the Sooners made the Jayhawks pay.

But as the game descended into chaos, Oklahoma couldn’t pick up a first down after Downs’ interception, ultimately giving Kansas’ explosive offense one last chance to win the game.

Late Luck Runs Out

Gabriel was OU’s smooth operator to beat Texas.

But 47 seconds wasn’t enough for Oklahoma to escape Lawrence with the win.

With two timeouts in hand, the Sooners couldn’t march the 75 yards necessary to come away with another late win.

Gabriel connected with Brenen Thompson for 39 yards, but OU’s pair of shots to the end zone came up short with less than 20 seconds left.

The final pass was pushed out the back of the end zone, sending Jayhawk fans pouring onto the field and snapping Oklahoma’s 18-game winning streak against Kansas that stretched back to 1997.