Oklahoma's win at Baylor shows a team with answers, aspirations

WACO, Texas — Mike Stoops emerged from the locker room. He had showered up. He was wearing a sharp blue suit. But he was still sweating. And he had something to say.

“You can talk all the noise in the national media,” Oklahoma’s defensive coordinator said. “There’s a beauty in what we play, too.”

In what Oklahoma played Saturday, for sure. A 44-34 win against No. 3 Baylor (No. 6 in the CFP rankings) was as complete a performance as the No. 11 Sooners (CFP No. 12)  have put together in years. With a balanced offense and a surprisingly dominant defense, Oklahoma outslugged Baylor in the rain. And if the game was played fast and without huddles, it was also the kind of physical, chippy affair even an old football coach — Barry Alvarez, just to pick a name from the air — probably could appreciate.

Stoops, the Sooners' defensive coordinator, clearly was bothered by some of the talk recently about style of play, and specifically the musing that perhaps some members of the College Football Playoff selection committee weren’t enamored with how the Big 12 plays football. But did Oklahoma show them something?

“You go into the No. 6 team’s backyard and play this way, it says we’re one of those teams that has a chance at everything,” Sooners coach Bob Stoops said. “You beat a team ranked that high, waiting on you, and win by 10, that’s got to be a positive.”

It’s also just one night. There’s more to come. And nothing will erase that terrible loss last month to Texas, which lost again Saturday, this time at West Virginia, to fall to 4-6. That result in the Cotton Bowl is an ugly blemish, easily the worst loss of any Playoff contender.

But the rest of Oklahoma’s résumé, at least to this point, stacks up very well. The Sooners have won five consecutive games and looked very good doing it. Add that nonconference win in September at Tennessee, and if they can win out — and that’s still a fairly big “if,” considering they host an ailing TCU this week, then finish at No. 8 Oklahoma State on Nov. 28 — they’ll have made a very good case for the Playoff.

The reason it could happen is the way Oklahoma beat Baylor. Start with the defense, which was gashed on the first possession — Baylor had six runs for 61 yards while rolling for a too-easy touchdown — but then clamped down on the nation’s No. 1 offense.

Freshman quarterback Jarrett Stidham threw for 257 yards and two touchdowns but was intercepted twice. Afterward, Baylor coach Art Briles said Stidham was hampered after taking a shot in the back early in the game. Star receiver Corey Coleman managed only three catches for 51 yards. And after that hot start in the run game, the Bears managed 98 rushing yards on 38 carries (2.6-yard average); they finished with 416 yards, well under their 665.6-yard average).

“There’s a lot of stress,” Mike Stoops said. “I had to live it for 3 1/2 hours. That’s an unbelievable scheme, and the players they have offensively across the board are second to none. But we finally got to turn the heat up a little bit and force them to make some plays.”

It was more than enough to reverse what had become a trend. In winning three of its last four against Oklahoma — while displacing the Sooners from their accustomed perch atop the Big 12 — Baylor had routinely torched the Sooners’ defense. The last two seasons the combined score was 49-26. And while the defense received plenty of criticism for those losses, Oklahoma’s offense was culpable, too. In the Big 12’s fast-break style, an offense that sputters leads to a defense that eventually snaps; some nights, it’s either a shootout or a blowout.

But cranking up the offense is no longer an issue. Senior receiver Sterling Shepard had 14 catches for 177 yards and two touchdowns (including a spectacular 39-yard catch and plunge toward the pylon for a score). Sophomore running back Samaje Perine had 166 yards and two touchdowns (including a 55-yarder). But like all season, Oklahoma’s catalyst was quarterback Baker Mayfield, who has brought a scrambling, big-play ability and swagger to the Sooners.

“Baker’s energy affects us every day,” Bob Stoops said. “He revs everybody up.”

The junior transfer threw for 270 yards and three touchdowns and running for another and might have vaulted into Heisman Trophy contention. And for the essence of what Mayfield has brought to the Sooners, you probably only needed to see one play. Leading by three points in the fourth quarter, Oklahoma had moved from its 22 to Baylor’s 7. On third-and-goal, Mayfield dropped back, but no one was open. He darted forward, spun around, slid right and then found fullback Dimitri Flowers open. Touchdown.

“Nothing’s open, nothing’s open, and then he finds a way to make it happen,” senior center Ty Darlington said. “He takes shots, and he stays in there. We love that. That inspires us.”

To illustrate how the Sooners have grown used to Mayfield’s penchant for extending, then making plays, consider: The original play had two passing options: Shepard running a corner route and tight end Mark Andrews. Flowers’ assignment was to block. But when Mayfield scrambled, so did Flowers.

“He saw me scrambling, he’s a heads-up player,” Mayfield said. “He did a great job getting open. I just found him late.”

And Oklahoma may have found its stride late, which is when the Big 12’s backloaded schedule offers opportunity to make statements. Remember that time long ago — last week — when the Big 12 was roiling in crisis, looking at the College Football Playoff Top 25, parsing selection committee chairman Jeff Long’s words and finding reason for grave concern?

On Saturday, Stanford lost to Oregon and Utah lost in overtime to Arizona. Now it’s the Pac-12 on the outside looking in. But then, there are still several weeks of football left — which is why all of this angst, from anyone and everyone, was misplaced last week, and why the new working hypothesis might be all wrong next week.

Still, the Big 12 suddenly seems to have a much wider path into the Playoff. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State might be headed for a collision in Stillwater, Okla., to end the regular season. Bedlam could be for a Playoff berth.

An unbeaten Oklahoma State would be in, without question. And increasingly, it appears a one-loss Oklahoma would have made a very good case, too. Baylor’s not completely out of it, either, or TCU — though the Horned Frogs’ faint hopes might ride on the status of quarterback Trevone Boykin’s sprained ankle, and given that soft nonconference schedule, the Bears would need help in the form of all sorts of chaos in other leagues.

“There’s a few of us banging around with one loss, so you don’t know what’s gonna happen on that,” Briles said. “We’ll just see where it ends up.”

That last part is probably the best advice. Every time anybody tries to extrapolate meaning from on Saturday to the end of this crazy season, well, this crazy season happens. But Oklahoma fans can be forgiven if they’re feeling pretty good about their chances.

We’ve seen good showings from Oklahoma before, only to be see the Sooners crater soon after. If this feels different, it’s because it was as complete a performance as the Sooners have put together in “a loooong time,” Mike Stoops said.

In college football these days, that’s something to be savored. There’s a beauty in it.

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