Sooners Lose to Alabama: Who's Up, Who's Down in the Oklahoma Stock Report?

NORMAN — Turnabout is fair play, and Alabama has eliminated Oklahoma from the College Football Playoff once again.

Dragged down by self-inflicted mistakes and backbreaking turnovers — including an interception return for a touchdown and a special teams turnover converted into points, just like how OU beat Bama in Tuscaloosa last month — the Sooners blew a 17-0 lead early in the second quarter by giving up 17 unanswered points before halftime, and Bama pulled away to a 34-24 playoff victory Friday night at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

Eager for OU’s first College Football Playoff appearance since 2019 — and the Sooners’ first-ever playoff game at home in the second year of the expanded 12-team CFP — Sooner Nation did its job. Highways into Norman were clogged in the morning with football patrons, the campus was buzzing with delirious tailgaters all afternoon, and the after-dark atmosphere inside the stadium was electric two hours before kickoff. The announced attendance was 83,550.

But the Sooners couldn’t fulfill all those wishes as Bama surged in the second quarter, then outscored the Sooners 10-0 in the third, pulling ahead 24-17 soon after halftime on Ty Simpson’s second touchdown pass to Lotzeir Brooks, then turning another OU three-and-out into a 45-yard Conor Talty field goal for a 27-17 lead.

After OU cut it to 27-24 early in the fourth quarter, Bama put it away with a short fourth-quarter TD drive.

Kicker Tate Sandell, the best kicker in the nation as the winner of the Lou Groza Award, finished off the Sooners' pain by missing a 36-yard field goal with 2:53 to play. Replays seemed to show the ball went straight over the left upright but was called no good. He had made a school- and SEC-record 24 in a row, including an NCAA-record tying eight straight from 50 yards or more. Sandell hadn't missed a kick since the season opener back on Aug. 30. Sandell then missed a 51-yard attempt with 1:13 to play.

While OU’s season ends at 10-3, the Crimson Tide improved to 11-3 and advance to the CFP quarterfinals, where they’ll face No. 1 seed and undefeated Big Ten champion Indiana in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA.

An OU offense that got two early touchdowns from quarterback John Mateer — an 8-yard run and a 7-yard throw to Isaiah Sategna — went backwards for most of the final three periods. Alabama outgained Oklahoma 106-27 in the third quarter alone.

OU produced just 2 rushing yards on seven carries in the second quarter, then picked up 10 yards on nine carries in the third.

Meanwhile, the fearsome Sooner defense started out in dominant fashion but simply couldn’t hold up against compounding mistakes from the offense, the special teams, and even itself.

Early in the second quarter, after four possessions for each team, the Sooners had amassed 181 yards total offense, compared to just 12 for the Crimson Tide.

But Mateer botched a potentially easy third down conversion by throwing the football instead of keeping it, and the ensuing punt was blocked and converted into a Bama field goal. On the next drive, Mateer threw a pick six that went 50 yards the other way and tied it at 17-17 and handed Alabama all the momentum.

In the end, Alabama tied Ole Miss for the most points scored against the Sooners this season.

The events — and the outcome — were somewhat of a mirror image of the Sooners’ 23-21 win at Bryant-Denny Stadium, in which Bama almost doubled OU in total offense but gave up a pick six, had a field goal blocked and scored after a special teams miscue.

The only other time these two college football blue bloods have played with so much at stake, Bama jumped out to a four-touchdown lead and beat the Sooners 45-34 in the 2018 CFP semifinals at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

Here’s the stock report for the Sooners’ season finale:

UP, then DOWN: QB John Mateer

The Sooner quarterback started out the first half just fine, completing 12-of-17 passes for 150 yards to start the game.

But then he made a mistake in judgment — on third-and-3, he escaped a sack and spun into the open field, where no one was in front of him, but instead of keeping it and picking up an easy first down on what would have been a 10-15-yard run — he pulled up and heaved an off-balance deep ball to Xavier Robinson, who tried to make a sliding catch but dropped the football.

Grayson Miller’s punt was blocked on the next play, and Bama turned that into a field goal to cut what had been a 17-point lead to just 17-10.

On the Sooners’ next drive, Mateer’s second-and-13 throw to Keontez Lewis went awry — Lewis ran a go route while Mateer throw a short out — and Zabien Brown easily caught the ball and sprinted untouched 50 yard for the tying touchdown.

Mateer finished the first half 16-of-24 for 186 yards with one TD, one INT and one touchdown run.

Mateer was struggling in the second half before engineering a touchdown drive that ended early in the fourth quarter with his throw over the middle to Deion Burks, who turned it into a 37-yard TD and cut Bama’s lead to 27-24.

His final stats were a mixed bag: 26-of-41, 307 yards, two passing TDs and one interception, and 15 rushing yards and a TD on 19 carries.

UP: LB Owen Heinecke

Trailing 27-24, the Sooners’ senior linebacker finished off a sack of Ty Simpson early in the fourth quarter on third down to give the ball back to the OU offense with 10:57 to play. It was Oklahoma’s first sack since the first quarter.

Simpson was initially hit from the left by R Mason Thomas, but as Thomas was blocked off at the last second, Heinecke came in from Simpson’s right and brought him down for a loss of 5, forcing a punt.

DOWN: OL Eddy Pierre-Louis

Oklahoma’s emotional redshirt freshman guard came in late at the end of a short run by Tory Blaylock and excessively hit his man on the OU sideline after the play.

Instead of a third-and-3, the Sooners faced a third-and-18, which went about as you’d expect — a 10-yard pass well short of the first down.

That brought on Tate Sandell for a 51-yard field goal, which he made to put the Sooners up 10-0 late in the first quarter. (That kick tied Tennessee's Fuad Reveiz for the most 50-yard kicks in NCAA history, with eight.)

But if OU picks up that third-and-short, the drive continues and maybe they turn that into a touchdown.

UP: R Mason Thomas

Thomas was back on the field for the first time since a quad injury took him out of the Tennessee game back on Nov. 1 — at the end of his game-changing scoop-and-score fumble return.

In addition to the fourth-quarter pressure of Simpson that resulted in a sack by Owen Heinecke and forced a punt, he also dropped Daniel Hill for a 1-yard gain on the Tide’s first offensive snap from their own 12-yard line.

UP: WR Deion Burks

Burks had a nice first half with five catches for 68 yards, including an 18-yard pickup on a slipscreen, a la the 45-yard TD he produced against LSU. He also made an incredible tip-toe catch on the sideline to keep a scoring drive alive.

But it was his 37-yard catch-and-run early in the fourth quarter that cut Alabama’s sudden 10-point lead to 27-24 with 14:45 to play.

Burks finished with 107 yards and TD on seven catches.

STATIC: Oklahoma’s Defensive Line

The Sooners’ fearsome front four got one of two sacks against Ty Simpson (Marvin Jones got that one; linebacker Kip Lewis got the other on a blitz). Those were OU’s only tackles for loss in the first half.

Simpson was under steady pressure throughout the first half, but Jones, R Mason Thomas, David Stone and Gracen Halton combined for just two tackles and four QB hurries in the first half.

Despite the lack of big negative plays, the OU defense limited Alabama to minus-3 rushing yards in the first half.

Oklahoma's Offensive Line

John Mateer was under pressure all night by the Crimson Tide front, and the OU running game went literally nowhere. Bama compiled four quarterback sacks, six tackles for loss and was officially credited with three QB hurries — a figure Mateer would no doubt disagree with.

UP: WR Trystan Haynes

Haynes covered a kickoff by drilling the Bama return man after a meager 13-yard pickup. On the next play, Kip Lewis sacked Ty Simpson back to the 6-yard line, and Bama ended up punting. The Tide’s first three offensive possessions failed to pick up a first down and netted just 12 yards as they started at their own 17, 14 and 32.

UP: CB Davon Jordan

Jordan played a limited role, but turned in a big play when he closed quickly and forced an incompletion on a third-down to start the third quarter, forcing Alabama to punt the football.

DOWN: DE Taylor Wein

While covering a punt to start the third quarter, Wein stood his ground and shouldered Bama return man Cole Adams on the sideline — after Adams had gone out of bounds. It wasn’t a vicious hit, but it was out of bounds and well after the play — and it resulted in a 15-yard personal foul penalty (almost exactly where Pierre-Louis’ late hit occurred in the first quarter.

Wein did sack Ty Simpson on third down with just over five minutes left in the game, forcing a punt and giving the Sooner offense one final shot.

UP then DOWN: CB Courtland Guillory

Down 24-17 midway through the third quarter, OU’s defense got a stop — but then Guillory was flagged for defensive holding, giving the Tide an automatic first down and keeping alive the drive.

In the first quarter, Guillory had a nice pass breakup on third down to end a drive and force a punt from deep in Bama territory.

DOWN: P Grayson Miller

Miller, a first-team All-SEC punter, had his first punt blocked all season in the second quarter, and Bama turned that into a field goal.

Then in the fourth quarter, as the Sooners were trying to mount a comeback, Miller got off a 32-yard punt that was returned to the OU 35 and launched a short touchdown drive that allowed Bama to extend its lead to 34-24 and essentially salt the game away.

DOWN: WR Isaiah Sategna

The Sooners' best offensive weapon all season needed 52 yards to surpass 1,000 for the season, but he finished with just 17 yards on two receptions (and a short TD grab) as Alabama focused its coverage efforts on him. That freed up Deion Burks and others, but with their top playmaker blanketed by Bama DBs, the Oklahoma offense was severely limited.