Three Quick Takeaways From Oklahoma's Loss to Kansas State

NORMAN — Oklahoma’s problems with the Kansas State Wildcats extended into the Brent Venables era on Saturday.

The Sooners’ first Big 12 contest under their new head coach got spoiled by Chris Klieman’s crew, as the Wildcats upset No. 6-ranked OU 41-34 at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

Despite a shaky start to the season, Kansas State (3-1) quarterback Adrian Martinez gave the OU defense fits.

Martinez completed 21-of-34 passes for 234 yards and a touchdown, adding 148 rushing yards and four scores on the ground in the winning effort.

The result was the first setback of the year for Oklahoma (3-1), and the Sooners have plenty to clean up on both sides of the ball before heading to Ft. Worth next Saturday.

Gabriel Misses Too Many Plays

The Sooners haven’t needed Dillon Gabriel to be perfect this year, but he needed to be better on Saturday night.

Oklahoma’s transfer quarterback missed a few key plays that could have turned the tide of the game.

On what should have been the final play of the first quarter, Gabriel had Drake Stoops streaking behind the Wildcat defense, but the Hawaiian overthrew Stoops and the Sooners had to punt.

With the Sooners still in a touchdown hole in the third quarter, Gabriel again was unable to find Stoops. Gabriel was unable to link up with Stoops on fourth-and-3, handing the ball back to the Wildcat offense.

One drive later, Gabriel overthrew Marvin Mims on a crucial third down, and Martinez led Kansas State on an 80-yard touchdown drive to ice the game in the fourth quarter.

Perfection from Gabriel is an unrealistic expectation, but there were plenty of plays the UCF transfer could have hit to turn the tide.

Third Down Woes

Last week, the Kansas State offense had virtually no success on third downs.

Tulane held the Wildcats to 2-of-15 on the crucial down, a key to the Green Wave’s 17-10 upset in Manhattan.

Oklahoma had no such success on Saturday night, rehashing old scars for the OU defense.

The Wildcats converted 4-of-10 third downs in the first half alone, and Martinez did an excellent job of extending drives with his legs.

OU’s halftime adjustments held things together briefly for the defense, but the Wildcats finished strong in the fourth quarter.

Still, the Sooners had a chance to get off the field on third-and-16 and give the ball back to the Oklahoma offense with a little over two minutes left in the game.

Martinez won the battle again, however, busting out a 55-yard run to send the Sooner fans to the exits.

In all, Kansas State converted 8-of-17 third downs to pull off yet another upset in Norman.

Costly Miscues Insurmountable

On top of the missed plays in the passing game, the Sooners had a number of procedural errors that killed drives.

Venables was prepared to leave his offense on the field in the first half on fourth-and-1 down a touchdown, but back-to-back false starts forced OU into a field goal.

Then a holding penalty on Chris Murray killed Oklahoma’s promising drive out of halftime, putting Gabriel’s unit behind the chains.

Justin Broiles was also called for pass interference in the fourth quarter, helping the Wildcats go up 14 points with just eight minutes remaining.

The Sooners were called for 11 penalties Saturday, costing themselves 87 yards in key moments of the game.

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