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Sooners must learn to overcome adversity

Oklahoma captains Pat Fields and Creed Humphrey had the mindset Saturday after the game, and head coach Lincoln Riley echoed the sentiments Monday morning.

Nothing else for the Sooners to do but get back to work. The program might still be in shock as to how it a blew a 21-point lead in the final 20 minutes to see a 35-14 advantage into an upset 38-35 loss to visiting Kansas State, but you just keep playing.

“I think it's a culture, I think it's a mentality, I think it's a mindset in how we all approach the game,” said Riley during the Big 12 teleconference call. “Just like you change anything else, you go to work, you bust your tail on it, you live it yourself and then you trust the players to follow suit.”

Riley said the Sooners have a strong track record of responding well to losses. This is true, of course, as OU was able to make the college football playoff despite regular season losses in the month of October in 2017 (Iowa State), 2018 (Texas) and 2019 (KSU).

But the problem most OU fans have right now is this is a problem occurring too much. If it’s not just a flat-out defeat, it’s seeing the Sooners build monstrous early leads only to fade away in all phases of the game and hold on and survive.

OU needed last-minute defensive saves to preserve victories at home against Iowa State and TCU last season, but there was no defensive (or offensive) hero to help the Sooners navigate their way to victory Saturday.

Common thread being early leads at home, and then something changes. Riley had his own line of thinking Monday.

“You get playing well against a team and you think you got a chance to separate,” Riley said. “And whether you put it on a cruise control, because you think you got the thing wrapped up or you start to panic the first sign of something not going right and not going to plan. I think we got a little bit of both.

“But either one, you're reacting to game situations as opposed to just reacting to your standard of play. And so, it's something we have to do a better job with. And listen, it's not ever easy to put people away. I mean, people think it's just easy that you've been rolling right along, why not just keep do it? These guys got scholarship players and coaches and all that too. But we expect to play a lot better."

Fourth down decision explained

It was easy to get lost in the OU collapse down the stretch and forget about some pivotal decisions in the game. One of them happened with 2:56 left in the fourth quarter.

With KSU up 38-35, OU faced a fourth-and-seven from its own 28 yard line. The Sooners had one timeout, and Riley opted to punt.

“I knew before the drive that if it was a really manageable situation and we were in good field position that we probably would go ahead and do it,” Riley said. “But I knew if the drive ended quickly, because we still had the timeout that if we were anything... kind of right about where the clock hit, that we consider punting it. And so, the way it happened felt like we could have a chance to pin 'em down there. Still had the timeout left. Knew we were going to have in the neighborhood of 50 seconds to a minute, depending on how the drive went. And they got the one extra play on the penalty or it would have been right there at a minute.

“So, you gotta take a chance and you either got a convert fourth and long, either that or you trust you defense to come up with a stop in that situation and get it back to you with a fresh set of downs. And with the time remaining, I felt like that was the right call.”

The decision paid off, sort of. OU was able to stop KSU on the ensuing possession but took over with 49 seconds left at its 24 yard line with zero timeouts. OU’s offense simply had zero rhythm throughout the fourth quarter so felt like a lot to ask for a redshirt freshman quarterback.

Spencer Rattler would throw his third interception of the game on the second play of the drive and that wrapped it up.

Stoops’ emergence

Nobody wants to talk silver linings or bright spots following a loss like that, but if you had to circle one, then what receiver Drake Stoops did would definitely qualify.

Stoops had three catches for 93 yards and scored his first-career touchdown on 32-yard grab from Rattler to begin the second quarter.

"He's been huge. It was important for us. It was definitely a spark to get him back,” Riley said. “Like you said, that's been one of the positions that we've been hit hardest. We're playing without a lot of people there. And he's done a great job. Stepped in, made some big plays for us, played a lot of snaps. No surprise, though.

“It's what he's done on the practice field. He's a tough player. Really good route runner. Great hands. Competitor. Definitely fun to see him have some success and I'm sure it's just the beginning."

He had to work for that touchdown, too. Although it was a great play by Rattler to extend the action and find Stoops, it was up to Stoops to battle defenders and turn upfield to earn those extra yards.

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