WACO, Texas – The game was over. The clock was ticking. There didn’t need to be another snap as Baylor had earned the victory against previously unbeaten Oklahoma.
But Baylor head coach Dave Aranda called timeout with 3 seconds left. What followed after was 10 minutes of trying to maintain some sort of player safety as Baylor students had rushed the field from all directions.
OU head coach Lincoln Riley was livid with how it all went down considered not bringing his team back onto the field.
He did. Baylor kicked the field goal and the final score was 27-14 for the Bears as No. 8 OU came crashing back down at McLane Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Aranda explained immediately after the game it was tie-breaker points if it comes to a three-way tie to play for the Big 12 championship, but you could tell Riley and the OU administration weren’t really having any of that.
"Well, it became a safety issue. I mean, that's ... I care about the safety of my players, and I watched David Ugwoegbu just get bum-rushed by three guys,” Riley said. “I'm pulling them off; he's pulling them off. I know why Dave tried to kick the field goal. I don't agree with it. I still think, above all else, there's a code of sportsmanship that I believe in. I wouldn't have done it. But that's his decision. That's his football team.
“How the officials don't enforce a 15-yard penalty when you've probably got 5,000 people on the field is unbelievable to me. It is what it is. That's his decision. That was the official's decision. Don't agree with it, but part of it.”
It’s pretty far down the tie-breaker list, but it is a thing. Or at least Aranda felt it could definitely be a thing.
Riley said he considered not bringing his team back onto the field before ultimately, having 11 guys line up.
“I did tell them that. Maybe I should’ve done it,” Riley said. “Again, I don’t believe that situation was handled well by a lot of people. But at the end of the day, doing it with class is important to me. At the end of the day, that’s why we decided to bring 11 guys out even though deep down, I damn sure didn’t want to.”
Williams, Rattler can’t find the answer
Everybody knew Baylor’s defense was going to play a lot better than it did vs. TCU and quarterback Chandler Morris, but few realized that no matter what Riley did at the position, it would never matter.
True freshman Caleb Williams missed some things, a lot more than what he had in the last month. Then he had his hand stepped on late in the first half. Second half, still no rhythm.
Riley rolled the dice and brought back Spencer Rattler. That went nowhere for a couple of drives, and a 10-7 deficit became 24-7 before Williams was brought back in to finish it.
“I don't how much that (the hand getting stepped on) affected his throwing or not. It probably affected it a little bit,” Riley said. “But yeah, we were a little stale, honestly, and had a little stretch there, end of the second quarter and kinda the beginning of the third quarter where we had a few things there that he missed that he just typically doesn't miss and so I was looking for a little bit of a spark.
“Spencer had had a good week. I've told you guys, I feel like I've got a tremendous room there and so I went with Spencer. And again, you've gotta make those decisions in the heat of the moment. At that point, I felt like it was the right decision.”
Williams was 10-of-19 passing for 146 yards without a touchdown and two interceptions. Rattler’s day finished 4 of 6 passing for 36 yards. The two were sacked five times as well.
There were plays to be made, but Williams just couldn’t unlock the rhythm of the group.
“He made a couple errors here and there. I think most of his frustration came from, we had a lot of plays there that we, for one reason or another, didn't make,” Riley said. “We kind of took turns offensively. We had just kind of key breakdowns at key times and just never really timed out much for us. I think we, a lot of guys fought their tail off but it just wasn't clean, lot of mistakes.”
Williams and Kennedy Brooks each rushed for a touchdown.
Asamoah brings the goods
Bright spots were tough to find, but it’s hard to fault the performance of linebacker Brian Asamoah. Without DaShaun White, who was out for an undisclosed reason, it was imperative for Asamoah to come up big.
He did. He was flying around, chasing guys down, making an impact. He finished with 10 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and a massive forced fumble to keep OU hanging around in the third quarter.
“Man, Brian played phenomenal,” captain Isaiah Thomas said. “He was all over the place. In the backfield, hits on the quarterback, TFLs. He was really productive. I think he caused that fumble. He was in that mix. Brian was all over the place.
“After every drive, I kept telling him, keep hunting. It's impressive to see. It kinda looked K9-esque. It looked like when Kenneth Murray used to fly from left to right, sideline to sideline.”
Bonitto recovered the Asamoah fumble. OU also had a takeaway via an interception by Delarrin Turner-Yell in the first half.
Kelly says farewell
With OU trailing 10-7 late in the third quarter, captain Caleb Kelly was injured covering a punt. From first glance, it didn’t look good for the sixth-year senior.
It wasn’t. Kelly tweeted after the game his OU career has come to an end.
Sources told SoonerScoop.com it is likely another ACL injury for Kelly. He had two tackles in the game prior to getting hurt.
