LAWRENCE, Kan. – Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts has brought the “rat poison” line to Norman after his time at Alabama. You can’t believe all the hype, all the good things being said because it can play games with you.
The first half of the Sooners 45-20 victory at Kansas on Saturday afternoon was full of those moments that can occur after ingesting some poison before OU righted its ship and took care of business at David Booth Memorial Stadium.
The natural assumption is OU (5-0, 2-0 Big 12) was caught peeking ahead a bit on the schedule with the mega-matchup vs. Texas in the Red River Showdown next weekend, but head coach Lincoln Riley was adamant that wasn’t the case.
Whatever it was, though, it sure made the initial 30 minutes in Lawrence as weird as any OU game has been in a long time.
“There's a bunch,” said Riley about plays that went wrong. “I mean, it just ... I don't like to give too much in about what we're thinking about play calls, but just, if I'm gonna ask these guys to do it at a high level, if their head coach isn't doing it at a high level, then I didn't set a very good standard.
“I deserve a lot of the blame on that. Staff had a good plan together. It's my job in those moments to make sure we get the right things and we didn't several times and that's on me and I've gotta do a lot better, just like the whole team does.”
Hurts ended up with four total touchdowns, but even he wasn’t immune to the wackiness of the first half. He threw a guaranteed pick-six, but KU drop the ball.
The Sooners defense allowed their initial points in the first quarter on a 98-yard drive, and OU trailed for the first time this season at 7-0 in the first quarter.
No example was more glaring than when a first-and-goal at the KU 7 yard line turned into third-and-goal at the 48 and fourth-and-goal at the 44.
“No, that was kind of weird. That was a debacle from … everyone can be involved,” Riley said. “We should’ve had a pretty easy touchdown there and we jacked that up, me being the person who jacked it up the most.”
All that being said, it was OU 21-7 at halftime, and then the Sooners found their groove in scoring the first 21 points of the second half to set the stage for the showdown in Dallas.
Hurts completed 16 of 24 passes for 228 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. He also rushed for 56 yards and two more scores.
After having just 24 rushing yards in the first half, the Sooners closed the game with 268 yards on the ground and touchdown runs from Trey Sermon and Rhamondre Stevenson.
Riley elected to sit out Kennedy Brooks for pure precautionary reasons, but it didn’t matter with Stevenson rushing for 109 yards, including a 61-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
The defense, after allowing the 98-yard drive in the first quarter, rebounded to only allow a combined 98 yards in the second and third quarters.
An uneven start mixed in with some quality play, and now it’s time for the Longhorns.
“I know it's one of the greatest rivalries in the sport. I do,” first-year defensive coordinator Alex Grinch said. “It's something that there's not a college football fan – which I think all of us coaches, there's some level to that – that doesn't know about that and have the respect factor between both schools and both football programs.
“You know it's a war each year and you have to respect it that way. We know it's game six, but you can't go down that road and say it's just game six. It's not just anything. I know enough about that to suggest that.”
