Every play matters in a college football game but some do a better job of explaining the story of the game than others. Here are the five plays to describe Oklahoma’s 34-16 Bedlam win at Oklahoma State.
OU 34, OSU 16
Play No. 1: Motley’s redemption
Start late in the first quarter with OU up 10-7 and neither defense forcing a stop of any kind. Were we headed to another 62-52-ish affair?
No. And Parnell Motley showed why things would be different. After a short completion, Motley ripped at the ball, and with help from Brendan Radley-Hiles, poked it free. That wasn’t enough as Motley recovered the fumble as well to give OU its first takeaway of the evening.
“It was great. It's all we preach on and all we do off practice is getting that ball out and it's natural to carry them habits to games,” Motley said. “It was just a natural feeling to get to that ball. I think I wrapped around him, got underneath the ball and it came perfectly out and got recovered. Great play.”
It would be the first of two forced fumbles for Motley and the first of his two takeaways.
Play No. 2: Basquine gets it right
Lincoln Riley has always had that faith in Nick Basquine, and he showed it again on Basquine’s four-yard touchdown pass to Hurts on the ensuing possession after Motley’s takeaway.
The very first play of the second quarter and Hurts, under center, flipped it to CeeDee Lamb, who then pitched it to Basquine.
Pressure was coming hard for Basquine, but all he needed was a sliver of an opening to find a wide open Hurts for the score.
“Man, just going through the week knowing we had that it in, seemed like that had been eluding me trying to throw a TD pass,” Basquine said. “Finally got to get one in. My main concern was just taking care of the football on the pitch and then letting it rip. That was pretty much my thought process.”
Play No. 3: Brooks carries the day
There is no great Kennedy Brooks run, but you cannot talk about OU’s dominance in the second half without mentioning the steadiness of Brooks.
He rushed for 160 yards on 22 carries with a touchdown, so we’ll give props to the short touchdown run because of how it turned the game.
OU, up 20-16 toward the midway point of the third quarter, went on an 11-play, 93-yard drive where Brooks had eight carries on the possession.
The Sooners took their first two-score advantage of the game and never looked back.
Play No. 4: Hello, Ugwoegbu
And they didn’t need to look back because of the play of a couple of freshmen on back-to-back fourth down stops.
OSU had been content to settle for field goals, but Mike Gundy knew it was time to strike. And facing a fourth-and-three at OU’s 27 yard line with less than two minutes left in the third quarter, he tried.
But it was Alex Grinch who had the call. Patrick Fields came on a blitz, got picked up, but the initial pressure sent Dru Brown toward the sideline. Caleb Kelly continued to pursue Brown, and David Ugwoegbu was in outstanding position for a pass breakup on the sideline.
OSU was 0-for-5 on third down in the second half and 0-for-3 on fourth down. That’s how you get the job done.
Play No. 5: Bonitto denies Chuba
But if you want one play to summarize this game, here it is. Sooners are now up 34-16 with 10:21 left in the game.
OSU has a third-and-two at its 33 yard line and a fourth-and-one on the next play. Chuba Hubbard, limited to 25 yards on eight carries in the second half, could not convert either attempt.
And on fourth down, it was redshirt freshman Nik Bonitto coming up huge to guarantee Hubbard didn’t reach the first down marker.
It was a mass exodus from Boone Pickens Stadium following that play as OU painted a defensive masterpiece in the second half to earn the Bedlam victory.
