Every play matters in a college football game but some do a better job of explaining the outcome than others. Here are the five plays that told the story of Oklahoma’s 35-23 win at Kansas.
No. 3 OU 35, KU 23
Play No. 1: Go West, young man
We begin this near-epic embarrassment with 1:30 left in the third quarter and somehow KU up 17-7 after another long scoring drive.
To this point, OU had zero plays of more than 20 yards. That changed in a hurry as the bag of tricks came out with a 66-yard run by Trevon West on the first play from scrimmage.
It was a weird personnel group with West and true freshman Jalil Farooq on the field in such a pivotal moment, but it all made sense after the play call that saw Caleb Williams give it to Eric Gray, who then gave it to West and let him use his speed.
OU would have four more plays of at least 20 yards in the fourth quarter and this felt like the one that sparked it all.
Play No. 2: Whitter shows life
We continue with the next drive, and the second play of the fourth quarter. After a nice, violent tackle by Shane Whitter on second down, he come back and does it again on third down to force the pressure and the incompletion.
“He’s a young guy that’s getting better, man,” head coach Lincoln Riley said. “He plays really fast, and he can really run but he’s starting to see things more and more. We had a couple errors with a few of our linebackers in some of their zone-read game, and Shane came in there and yeah, had some really big plays.
“He’s a young guy that’s getting better and better, kinda giving us more reasons to want to continue to put him in the game and get him involved.”
It was KU’s first and only punt of the game. Let’s repeat that. KU had one punt and 412 total yards of offense.
Play No. 3: Lawrence is Key
Despite all the absurdity and ineffectiveness, OU now has a 21-17 lead with around 10 minutes to play in the fourth quarter.
It’s a first-and-15 for KU at the OU 48 yard line when Key Lawrence blows up a short pass and keeps working to earn the forced fumble, and Justin Broiles is there for the recovery.
“Key stepped up,” defensive coordinator Alex Grinch said. “If I think about the guys that have stepped up over the recent weeks, that list is very short, which means we've gotta do a better job of preparing the guys. He'd be one of the guys at the top. He's stepped up in his role. We've had some guys out in the secondary and made a huge play in that game today and we need to make more of them.”
It was OU’s only takeaway of the game.
Play No. 4: Williams won’t be denied
The final play is gonna be talked about for a long time, but here’s the kudos to the drive before where Williams showed what type of a gamer he is.
OU now facing a fourth-and-three at the KU 40 yard line. And for the first time all game, Riley is dialing up Williams in the running game.
He is stopped, absolutely. But he wills himself forward to not only get the first down, but also the 40-yard touchdown.
“I think when you have a guy back there like that, one that you feel like is an accomplished runner or a runner who can make things happen, it gives you a little bit more versatility with your calls,” Riley said. “It’s kind of like having a really good tailback. You feel like he can handle at least one free guy.
“Caleb has shown that ability to be pretty hard to stop in short yardage. I have to go back and look at them. I know we busted one assignment on the first one that Caleb ended up popping.
Play No. 5: Is that legal? Yes, indeed it is
Where else could we go? If this play isn’t made, you could realistically say the Sooners, a 38-point favorite, could have (would have?) lost at KU.
Instead, it’s a true freshman making another Heisman-worthy type of play.
OU is up 28-23 with a fourth-and-one at the OU 46 yard line and around 3:30 to play. Kennedy Brooks is stopped and now being driven back. Brooks said Williams made eye contact with him, and Brooks handed the ball off to Williams behind the line of scrimmage.
Williams went for seven yards and the first down in one of the smartest plays I’ve seen on a football field ever.
“Honestly, I didn’t even see it in the moment,” captain Jeremiah Hall said. “I was out there blocking on the field. I looked at the replay and I was like, what? I didn’t even know if that was legal, No. 1. I asked Kennedy did he know that he gave the ball to Caleb? He said, yea, he made eye contact with him. I guess they got something going on, I don’t know.”
Replay confirmed the call. The Big 12 confirmed the play was legal even more following the game. As bizarre as it was, it was completely legal and OU is 8-0.
