Oklahoma football hosted the Army in a non-conference home game. Lincoln Riley and the Sooners thought they were ready for the triple option…they weren’t.
Prior to the Week 4 game against the Army West Point Black Knights, the Oklahoma Sooners were 29 point favorites. On the first drive of the game, the Sooners took just under three minutes and only six plays to go up 7-0 against the Black Knights.
Army took the opposite approach on the subsequent drive and took nine and a half minutes to respond with a touchdown of their own. Service academy football teams often keep games close by managing the clock and keeping the ball out of the opposing team’s hand. Additionally, this method wears down defenses who are often conditioned to going three and out.
Oklahoma has had questions on defense this year and it showed in this week’s game against Army. The two teams went back and forth for the next three possessions, scoring touchdowns on all three drives. Oklahoma responded to Army’s long drive with another drive under three minutes, but Army responded similarly to their first possession with a drive of just under nine minutes.
The next touchdown by Oklahoma came in four plays and brought the score to 21-14. That was the last score of the game until Army went on a 10 minute and 47-second drive with 1:51 left in the third quarter.
Oklahoma drove straight down the field on nine plays down to the Army one yard line. Eight of these nine plays came on rushes by Oklahoma’s Trey Sermon. However, on fourth-and-goal from the Army 1-yard line, the Black Knights stop Sermon from scoring.
The Black Knights turned around and took the ball down the field just how they had been doing all game, slow and steady. After 17 plays and just over 10 minutes, Army attempted to do something they aren’t very good at…pass the ball. On the Oklahoma 32 yard line and less than three minutes to play, Army quarterback, Kevin Hopkins Jr had his pass deflected and intercepted by Oklahoma’s Kenneth Mann.
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Kyler Murray and the Sooner offense was not going to let this opportunity slip through the cracks. After losing all ability to pass the ball, Oklahoma ended up running on every single play on their potential game winning drive. The Sooners took ball all the way down to the Army 16-yard line with only two seconds left in the game to set kicker, Austin Seibert, up for an easy 33-yard field goal attempt from the middle of the field. He missed wide left.
Overtime we go at 21-21.
At the end of regulation, Kyler Murray was only 9-for-13 on passing for 135 yards. Murray did throw one interception during regulation but also had two touchdowns. Interestingly enough, Army really wasn’t able to stop the Oklahoma offense, but the Sooners kept hurting themselves. Trey Sermon was the only Sooner player to carry to that point picking up 18 carries for 119 yards.
Oklahoma started the overtime period with a false start. On the next two plays the Sooners kept the ball in Kyler Murray’s hands as they should have the entire game. Murray completed two passes, with the second to CeeDee Lamb for the 10-yard score.
The Sooners scored touchdowns on half of their offensive possessions. The only problem was, they only had eight possessions. Army’s time of possession was 44:19 where Oklahoma’s was only 15:19. The Sooner’s defense gave up 339 rushing yards to the Army Black Knights. Undoubtedly this 28-21 near upset win for Oklahoma will hurt them in next week’s rankings, but also in future College Football Playoff consideration.