PROVO, Utah — There was a lot that happened on Saturday at BYU.

Most importantly for the Sooners, they came away with a 31-24 win. But it was a massive struggle to put away the Cougars, who played as well as they have all season and had the Sooners on the ropes for much of the game.

Here's a look at the important notes from the Sooners' win:

— Jackson Arnold, obviously, was a big story of the day. The true freshman quarterback played the entire second half in relief of Dillon Gabriel, who exited late in the first half with an upper-body injury and didn't return.

The stats weren't gaudy for Arnold. He completed 5-of-9 passes for 33 yards, adding another 24 yards on the ground. But his biggest play came on the game-sealing drive, when he found Jalil Farooq for an eight-yard gain on third and 7.

OU offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby had talked with his quarterbacks all week about what to do if the BYU defense was running a cover zero. Arnold recognized the BYU defense in that coverage, saw that Farooq had one-on-one coverage and audibled to a slant route.

"That was the best part of his day," Lebby said, "was that everything that had happened, we'd talked non-stop about our zero checks all week, being able to get to certain things when we were in certain formations and sure enough, the play to win the game, for the first time all day we get (cover zero coverage) and he's gonna be hot and he gets to it. So just proud of him, the toughness and just the calmness to be able to get it done in the last minute was huge."

— While Arnold's poise was key, he is now ineligible for a redshirt since Saturday marked his fifth game appearance of the season. The coaches held Arnold out of last weekend's blowout win over West Virginia in hopes of giving him a redshirt, but the plans changed when Gabriel was injured.

— Speaking of Gabriel, his head appeared to hit the ground hard after being tackled late in the first quarter. OU coach Brent Venables called it an "upper-body" injury but said he thinks "(Gabriel will) be back and available pretty quick."

— Also of note: Gabriel moved up to ninth all time in career passing touchdowns, passing BYU’s Ty Detmer and Georgia’s Aaron Murray. Gabriel now has 122 touchdowns in his five-year career.

— There was skepticism that linebacker Danny Stutsman would even play against BYU after struggling with food poisoning during the week.

"He’s on IVs, literally," Venables said. "I didn’t think he was going to play, but he said he was going no matter what. I think he had a little bit of flu bug and was really sick all day yesterday, last night and this morning. You know, wasn’t able to join us for much of anything, but he’s like, ‘My butt’s playing.’ I’ve cleaned it up a little bit for him, but that’s what you love—and everybody loves—about Danny. This team likes to play. They like to compete."

The Sooners are fortunate he did. In addition to finishing with a game-high 10 tackles and two tackles for loss, he also forced a strip sack in the fourth quarter that led to a Gavin Sawchuk touchdown.

— Here's the reality: the Sooners' rushing defense was bad today. BYU gained a season-high 217 yards on 5.6 yards per carry. The Cougars averaged 90.3 yards per game, the fewest in the Big 12, and 3.2 yards per carry coming into the game. This is what Venables had to say.

"They did a little bit of everything," Venables said. They did inside zone, they were running mid zone, they ran a little bit of counter early and then they had the quarterback, had the triple option, some of the swap zone read keep game. We just didn't do a good job of getting these guys in position to fit the gaps. Really poor. Really, really poor. Uncharacteristic, some of the things.

"When you don’t, this game will punish you. We had several times we’re in position and don’t make the play. Just sloppy tackling, at times. Letting them chew up the time and the clock and the grass and the yardage. We made enough stops and forced a couple of punts – three punts in the second half – and the two turnovers. Obviously, they had the touchdown drive in the second half. A little better. It pains you as a defensive coach when teams are having success running the football and getting you in a lot of third-and-medium and third-and-short situations."

— Sophomore receiver Jayden Gibson hasn't played a ton this season but he's made big plays on the floor. That was particularly true against BYU. He had a 55-yard reception early in the fourth quarter that set up a Nic Anderson three-yard touchdown, then caught a 27-yard touchdown of his own in the second quarter.

— Billy Bowman's 100-yard pick-six touchdown in the third quarter completely turned the game around. It was the third such interception return in program history. It was also his fifth interception of the season and eighth of his career.

The Sooners now have 18 interceptions on this season, their most through 11 games since 2000 when they had 22.

— Nic Anderson's first-quarter touchdown gives him nine for the season, tying the program record for most touchdowns by a freshman. Marvin Mims had nine touchdowns as a freshman in the 2020 COVID-shortened season.