Every play matters in a college football game, but some do a better job of explaining the game than others. Here are the five plays that defined Oklahoma’s upset 48-41 loss at Kansas State.

KSU 48, OU 41

Play No. 1: Bag of tricks backfire

This is when everybody stood up and took notice. It was an off-kilter first half for the Sooners, but they still held a 20-17 lead with 1:21 left in the first half.

Head coach Lincoln Riley went into the bag of tricks, but it did not pan out. Wide receiver Nick Basquine was looking for Trey Sermon for a receiver pass down the sideline. It wasn’t there, so he tucked it and ran a bit before firing a bullet to Charleston Rambo.

It smacked Rambo in the chest, high up in the air and picked off by Bartlesville native A.J. Parker, who returned it to the OU 14 yard line.

“We obviously had a turnover there on a play where we thought we had a pretty good something happening there at the end of the half,” Riley said. “I mean, it was a monster, you look at that seven points now, it was huge.”

KSU scored three plays later and never relinquished the lead after that.

Play No. 2: It’s getting weird in Manhattan

The third quarter was a comedy of errors on offense and defense, and you have to include special teams, too.

It was now 34-23 KSU with 7:26 left in the third quarter. The Wildcats executed a pooch kick that made it a difficult catch for Austin Stogner, going back for it.

The ball was picked up by T.J. Pledger, only for him to fumble it and KSU recover. OU had 12 yards on six plays and was outscored 17-0 in that dreadful 15-minute frame.

Play No. 3: Thompson won’t be denied

Offense couldn’t pick up the defense. Defense couldn’t pick up the offense. A chop block penalty put KSU at a first-and-23 with the score 41-23.

It simply didn’t matter as KSU’s Skylar Thompson had the answer every single time, including on this third-and-13 conversion as KSU drove to make it 48-23 early in the fourth.

“And then we didn’t do a very good job when we got them into second and third and long and that’s been kind of our strength this year,” Riley said. “It wasn’t today.”

KSU converted 6 of 13 on third down and its only fourth down attempt, most of them being of the third-and-long variety.

Play No. 4: Lamb is still doing CeeDee things

The only reason OU had a chance was because of this one play by CeeDee Lamb. It woke up the entire team, probably the fan base, too.

After it was 48-23, Lamb took an incredibly short pass, made some moves, flipped it in reverse, broke tackles and went 70 yards for a one-play drive touchdown.

“It was almost like getting down the amount we did kind of freed us up and we just started playing and we quit worrying about the mistakes or things that didn’t go our way or calls that didn’t go our way or whatever,” Riley said. “Then we played the way we hoped we would the whole game.”

Lamb had five catches for 135 yards with that touchdown.

Play No. 5: The recovery that wasn’t

And shades of Oregon in 2006 dancing in OU fans’ heads. OK, maybe going a bit too far, but we all know the story now.

OU stormed back to make it 48-41 with 1:43 left in the game.

Gabe Brkic executed a nice onside kick. Brayden Willis appeared to have made the recovery, and OU looked like it had a chance for an all-time Sooner Magic moment.

Instead, it was ruled illegal touching by Trejan Bridges. OU had zero timeouts left, and KSU took three knees and fans stormed the field.

“So I don’t know. We’ll go back,” Riley said. “It was a 50/50 call and it didn’t go our way.”