3 Sooner Takeaways: Oklahoma Knocks Off 19th-Ranked Kansas, 3-Game Losing Streak Ends

Is it safe to wake up?

It is safe to say the last three weeks have felt like the worst football dream any Sooner fan could have imagined, but it was all too real.

The scary night now appears to be over. The sun is starting to rise over the horizon.

Quarterback Dillon Gabriel returned to the field, and it wasn’t hard to notice how different the offense looked with him standing in the shotgun. The defense had some singular moments worth remembering but is still a work in progress.

Altogether, the Sooners returned to Norman and defeated a ranked Kansas team 52-42 for their first Big 12 victory of 2022.

First Takeaway: The Comforts Of Home

OU’s Homecoming game could not have come at a better time.

The Sooners (4-3) played their last two games in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and had to have been itching to run out onto Owen Field on Saturday morning.

When they did, they looked a little different.

The team donned anthracite “Unity” uniforms inspired by a group of former Sooner football players. “Unity Week” was the brainchild of linebacker Caleb Kelly, offensive lineman Creed Humphrey, defensive backs Pat Fields and Chance Sylvie as well as halfback/tight end Jeremiah Hall.

Two years ago, the five of them marched on campus against social and racial injustice, helped people register to vote and originated the idea for these uniforms.

The Sooners wore the uniforms to honor Dr. Prentice Gautt, the football program’s first Black scholarship athlete.

Related: OU Football To Don Special ‘Unity’ Uniform This Weekend Against Kansas

The new threads coincided with Gabriel’s return. They were a perfect match.

While he accounted for three turnovers, including his first interception of the season, Saturday’s game was the sharpest Gabriel had been throwing the football since he arrived in Norman.

A lot of Gabriel’s passes had an extra zip to them. Maybe it had to do with being sidelined after suffering a head injury Oct. 1 at TCU.

For example, Gabriel zipped a first quarter pass to tight end Daniel Parker, Jr. It him Parker right on the button, but he dropped it. It’s possible he wasn’t expecting that Gabriel pass to arrive as quickly as it did.

Gabriel’s 403 passing yards was pretty prolific, but when you add 298 yards worth on the ground, no amount of turnovers was stopping this offensive train from arriving at its destination.

Which, more times than not, was the end zone.

Second Takeaway: Found A Pulse

The Jayhawks (5-2) were without starting quarterback and trendy Heisman Trophy candidate Jalon Daniels (11 touchdown passes, one interception in 2022) after he suffered a shoulder injury last week against TCU, but the man replacing him is far from a typical backup quarterback.

Jason Bean has seen plenty of the field during his Kansas career. Last year, he was the starter when the Sooners made the trip up to Lawrence. Bean played admirably (17-for-23, 246 passing yards, one touchdown pass) in a game that was an OU win but was also too close for comfort.

Bean, who is more of a freewheeler compared to the composed Daniels, threw three touchdown passes (good!) Saturday but is also responsible for two interceptions (not so good!). One of his INTs had to be seen to be believed.

Kansas is in Oklahoma territory in the second quarter. Bean, who was sacked once but spent most of the game upright, decided to roll out to his left and attempt a Patrick Mahomes-like throw.

Sooner defensive back C.J. Coldon is glad Bean thought he was Patrick Mahomes.

Another defensive back, Key Lawrence, had a stalwart performance of his own. He had six tackles, credited with 0.5 tackle for a loss (remember those?) in addition to batting down two passes. One of those pass breakups would have been a touchdown pass in the first half. 

However, on the play following Lawrence’s deflected pass, Kansas running back Devin Neal ran in for a touchdown from 11 yards out. There was another example of OU’s defensive struggles.

Facing a third down and six yards to go on KU’s opening drive, defensive lineman Jalen Redmond stepped offside. This made it a more manageable third down, which the Jayhawks converted. Thanks to the penalty, their drive found new life and were able to match the Sooners’ first opening-drive touchdown in what has felt like forever and a day.

The Sooner defense is still miles away from where they need to be, but Saturday was a step in the right direction.

Third Takeaway: A Way Out

If you’re a Sooner fan, the most important Big 12 game of the weekend not involving OU already happened.

Maybe you didn’t pay much attention to it if you were watching the NFL game, postseason baseball or catching up on “Young Sheldon.” It was Thursday night’s Baylor-West Virginia tilt in Morgantown.

The Bears had leads in the second, third and fourth quarters, but they lost it when it mattered most. A Mountaineer field goal lifted WVU to a 43-40 win with 33 seconds to play. 

With the Sooners improving to 1-3 in Big 12 play, the waters at the bottom of the conference standings are a bit murkier. Baylor, the preseason favorite to win the Big 12, now sits at 1-2. The Mountaineers, considered one of the Big 12’s worst with a head coach potentially on the hot seat, are also 1-2. Iowa State, like Oklahoma, entered Saturday in the Big 12 cellar at 0-3, but the Cyclones are now 0-4.

After the bye week, OU will face ISU, Baylor and West Virginia in back-to-back-to-back weeks. The path out of the cellar lays before them, but how far can the Sooners rise if they get on a roll?

Two years ago, OU famously went on one of those rolls after dropping its first two Big 12 games. Oklahoma won out in the regular season and captured a conference title.

A three-game losing streak makes such a turnaround less likely in 2022 but not impossible. Three of the Sooners’ five games will be road games. One of those two final home games will bring the eighth-ranked Cowboys to Norman. It won’t be an easy road out of the cellar.

If the Sooners reach back and find another gear, their defense will have to meet the offense at that group’s level.

Just like it did in 2020.