John Mateer survives a near disaster to send Oklahoma to the College Football Playoff

On Saturday, the task for the Oklahoma Sooners was simple: beat the LSU Tigers and you're in the College Football Playoff. The Sooners' task seemed rather easy; they got to face an LSU team that had already fired Brian Kelly and Offensive Coordinator Joe Sloan while having to play with its backup quarterback and an injured offensive line.

The issue for the Sooners was that the LSU defense is still fully intact, and they delivered an incredible performance on Saturday. The LSU Tigers proved to be a massive test for Oklahoma, and John Mateer specifically. Almost instantly the Oklahoma offense realized it was in trouble as Harold Perkins Jr picked off John Mateer and returned it 44 yards.

Luckily for Mateer and the Oklahoma offense, the Sooners' defense instantly took the ball back as Michael Van Buren threw a head-scratching interception when it looked like he could've run it in for a touchdown.

Both defenses traded blows in the first half, only allowing a field goal each to send this game to the locker room in a 3-3 tie. After halftime, it looked like Oklahoma's plan was to get John Mateer going, which turned out to be a problem.

On the first drive of the second half, John Mateer stared down his receiver, and elite safety AJ Haulcy read his eyes, jumping the route for an interception, setting the Tigers up to score a touchdown.

John Mateer came out firing on the very next drive, and once again, we saw Oklahoma get into LSU territory just for him to throw another interception this time to true freshman DJ Pickett.

Despite all of the interceptions, Oklahoma's defense stepped up, and gave Oklahoma life in the 4th quarter. Oklahoma looked like it finally hit on the big play and was set to get the win when John Mateer found Isaiah Sategna III for a 58-yard touchdown barring a touchdown drive from LSU.

The mistakes Oklahoma made the entire game instantly came back to haunt them as Barion Brown returned the kickoff across midfield, allowing the Tigers a much easier chance to go and win the game. One last time, the Sooners came up big on defense, stuffing LSU's 4th down try to send the Sooners to the Playoff.

This offseason, Brent Venables went all-in while on the hot seat, bringing in Offensive Coordinator Ben Arbuckle and John Mateer to revamp the offense. Even when the offense was a mess the entire game, Arbuckle schemed up the perfect play, and John Mateer delivered a strike to complete the Oklahoma turn around.