WACO, Texas – For two weeks, the message has been clear for Oklahoma. It’s ‘Championship November,’ and it was time to shut up any remaining critics.

It was time to show why the No. 8 ranking in the college football playoff poll despite a 9-0 record was a sign of disrespect.

It was time to eliminate any excuses as the Sooners had a bunch of contributors returning to lineup.

That’s what it was supposed to be. What it turned into was No. 13 Baylor thoroughly outplaying the Sooners for 60 minutes in a 27-14 victory Saturday afternoon to give OU its first loss the of the season and first loss in November since 2014 (also against Baylor).

History has shown it’s too early to just cross off the Sooners for a berth in the four-team college football playoff, but no point in discussing where they stand at the moment if there are going to be any performances like Saturday again.

“In the grand scheme of things, we all know that it does hurt our national championship chances,” captain Jeremiah Hall said. “But at the same time, we've been in this position before. We've made it into those college football talks before so we'll see how that goes because we can't control it.

“But ultimately, we still have other goals in front of us. We are on a week-to-week basis but we still want to win these games out. We still want to make it to Big 12 Championship, win that game and see where everything else takes us.”

From the outset, OU’s offense and freshman quarterback Caleb Williams were never in a rhythm. The defense did its part to keep it 7-7 at halftime. Despite how poorly OU had executed, the Sooners had the second half to figure things out, to finish.

That had been the hallmark of the 9-0 start. Regardless of whether you believe OU ever should have been in those tight positions, the Sooners absolutely answered the bell in the moments it mattered most.

Not this time around. No Sooner Magic. No secret recipe to fix it. Just an afternoon of frustration and questions abound going forward.

“We just didn't play good,” head coach Lincoln Riley said. “I still felt like we have at several points this year whether they've been low-scoring or high-scoring games. I felt like we were right there on both sides of the ball.

“I'll have to go back and see the tape but the big things that show up to me is I think some frustration set in, we missed some assignments, we didn't tackle well and obviously didn't execute very consistently on offense the entire day. So I just think you get to that point, you've got to rise up and be your best, and we certainly did not do that.”

Williams completed just 10 of 19 passes for 146 yards with zero touchdowns and two interceptions. He also had his hand stepped on late in the first half although Riley said he wasn’t sure how much that affected Williams. Looking for a spark, Riley went back to Spencer Rattler with Baylor up 10-7, but that didn’t materialize into anything that generated points.

He threw for 46 yards, but he was sacked twice and his lack of being able to extend the play or make something happen running showed up repeatedly.

Eventually, the defense just wilted. After keeping the game close and earning two takeaways (interception by Delarrin Turner-Yell and forced fumble by Brian Asamoah/recovery by Nik Bonitto), Baylor exerted its will in a 17-point final quarter.

“I think we just got lazy with our communication,” Turner-Yell said. “Didn’t really have a respect for what finishing was. If you look at it, it seems as if Baylor had finishing on their minds. And it looks as if we didn’t. We can never fall into that trap where we get comfortable with our communication or fail to finish a football game.”

Bouncing back after a loss has been a strong point for Riley-led teams at OU. But never has it come this late in the season. Never has it come after a game where it’s hard to argue the Sooners were ever on the cusp of earning the victory.

The Big 12 championship is clearly still in play, and it’s something Riley reiterated after the game. What happens after that is not anything OU can control anymore, but it has to start next Saturday vs. Iowa State.

“Disappointing. Still a whole lot left for this football team,” Riley said. “That's the advantage of winning your first nine games is you do set yourself up to be able to overcome something like this, so disappointed obviously that we have to overcome it, but it is what it is. And so we'll bounce back like we always do and like we fully expect to.”