MANHATTAN, Kan. – All Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts could do is stand on the sidelines. There would be no dramatic comeback attempt.

The Sooners scored the final 18 points at Kansas State but dug too big of a hole in losing 48-41 to the Wildcats on Saturday afternoon.

OU was unsuccessful in its onside kick attempt with 1:43 left and never got a chance to complete what would have been a comeback for the ages.

The Sooners trailed 48-23 with 12:48 left in the fourth quarter before starting to play like they expected to the entire game.

“I knew we had a spark,” head coach Lincoln Riley said. “I just felt like the whole time we were going to make a run. It was just, ‘Can we make it early enough.’ And when we started to get on the run I knew we had enough time. So yeah, you’re mentally trying to keep your guys into it, you’re trying to call it the best you can and just letting them know that we’re going to get going. You’ve just got to hang in there.”

OU had 220 yards of offense in the final 12:48, after having only 12 yards of offense in the third quarter.

Hurts ended up with another ridiculous stat line. He completed 19 of 26 passes for 395 yards with a touchdown and ran for 96 yards and three more scores.

Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb had five catches for 135 yards and a touchdown that came during that 18-0 surge in the fourth quarter.

“I think there's always more obviously,” said Hurts about what else could have been done. “We lost. Shoulda, woulda, coulda. So what, now what? How do we respond as a team?”

About that onside kick…

OU fans were in a frenzy when it appeared sophomore Brayden Willis had recovered the onside kick with 1:43 left in the game to give Hurts and the offense one more chance.

The ruling on the field was initially in favor for the Sooners before a lengthy review by the referees determined Trejan Bridges had illegally touched the ball before going 10 yards.

It appeared Bridges touched the ball at nine yards, but OU’s claim was it shouldn’t have mattered because he was blocked and forced into the ball.

“So I don’t know. We’ll go back,” Riley said. “It was a 50/50 call and it didn’t go our way. He said that they didn’t block him. It was reviewed from our spot in Dallas by our people.”

In echoing that statement, here’s what referee Reggie Smith said to a pool reporter regarding the controversial call.

“We did consider all aspects of forced touching,” Smith said. “However, based on Rule 2-11-4-c, this is why we came to the decision that we came to. Rule 2-11-4-c was the primary determination for considering forced touching.”

The rule states:

Forced touching results when a player’s contact with the ball is due to (i) an opponent blocking him into it, or (ii) the ball being batted or illegally kicked into him by an opponent. If the touching is forced, the player in question, by rule, has not touched the ball (Rules 6-1-4 and 6-3-4).

Disastrous third quarter

Some OU fans won’t get over that onside kick call, but Riley and the team will point toward the third quarter as the real undoing of OU’s undefeated dreams.

The Sooners, down 24-23 at halftime, were outscored 17-0 and netted 12 yards on just six plays. The quarter ended with KSU driving to eventually take the 48-23 lead.

“We did not play well in the third quarter,” Riley said. “We felt like our guys were energized coming out, but then we just couldn’t get momentum back. Didn’t play very good on offense in the third quarter, which was the biggest negative there.”

OU also was unable to recover a kickoff and fumbled it away for another lost opportunity.

Where’s Brooks? Where’s Sermon?

Riley has preached about how hard it can be to get touches for guys as teams try to shrink the game. OU ran just 53 plays in Manhattan.

The amount of carries for Trey Sermon and Kennedy Brooks? Six combined attempts for 11 yards.

“Yea. It’s definitely – you know it got tough there at the end of the game just with the scenario of having to score a bunch and in a short amount of time, so that obviously was a factor,” Riley said. “But yea, we didn’t run the ball the way that we’re accustomed to running it from the tailback position.”

Secondary (lack of) depth shows well

The OU secondary had a couple of blows against KSU. One was of its own doing as Parnell Motley was ejected for kicking a KSU player early in the second quarter.

The Sooners only brought three scholarship cornerbacks to the game.

Then, starting safety Delarrin Turner-Yell left the game early in the third quarter and never returned.

“There’s no doubt about it. It limited some things we can do,” Riley said. “And they’ve been two solid players for us. Yeah, we’ll come back and reevaluate (DTY). He wasn’t able to come back. And then obviously Motley lost his composure there on the sideline and there’s no room for it. It hurt our team.”

It forced Tre Brown and Jaden Davis to play the rest of the way.

Brkic delivers

Not much more kicker Gabe Brkic could have done. He was perfect on four field goals, setting his career high twice at 44 yards and then 50 yards.

He nailed the onside kick even though the result wasn’t what the Sooners were hoping for. It was a down afternoon, but the Sooners know they’ve found their kicker.