Fight Over Fright

NORMAN ? Surviving a Big 12 Conference road game in November can be a downright scary proposition, particularly in front of the usual gathering of Lubbock crazies.

Three nights after Halloween, Oklahoma managed to survive the haunts of Jones AT&T Stadium with a 51-46 victory Saturday evening despite nearly being buried alive in an early two-touchdown deficit against a pesky and chippy Texas Tech team.

OU head coach Lincoln Riley is quite familiar with the eerie environment, growing up 70 miles away in Muleshoe, Texas, and having been a walk-on quarterback and assistant coach for the Red Raiders from 2003-2009.

"Really proud of the way that we handled all the adversity," a relieved Riley said afterward. "That place was rocking. Give Texas Tech credit, give Lubbock credit, give their fan base (credit). It was an excellent atmosphere. And so for our guys to come back, get that done was big. Also for us to handle some of the adversity."

"We kind of continually put ourselves in a hole, but we just found a way and the team kind of willed themselves to it."
- Lincoln Riley

Despite the perils, the Sooners have now won 14 straight November games (dating back to Nov. 15, 2014, against Texas Tech). OU also has won 19 consecutive true road games, the longest active streak in the country (dating back to Nov. 1, 2014, at Iowa State), and has won 30 of its last 32 Big 12 games (dating back to the 2015 season).

In a nationally televised prime-time game played before a "black-out" sellout crowd of 60,454, the No. 7-ranked Sooners (8-1 overall, 5-1 Big 12) trailed 14-0 just eight minutes into the contest after some uncharacteristically careless play from redshirt junior quarterback Kyler Murray.

The Heisman Trophy contender entered the contest having thrown just three interceptions in 183 pass attempts this season, but threw two picks in his first four pass attempts deep in his own territory that resulted in tap-in touchdown drives requiring just 28 total yards for Texas Tech (5-4, 3-3).

"After the first one, (I was thinking), ?Just don't do it again.' And then I did it again," Murray said of the interceptions. "I mean, you have kind of got to know me. I'm cool, calm and that's the only way to be after you do something like that. You make two mistakes like that, especially in a hostile environment like this, they're going to feed off of what had happened."

Instead, it was Murray and his teammates who fed off the adversity, outscoring the Red Raiders 51-32 and outgaining them 660 yards to 417 yards over the next 52 minutes to keep alive OU's hopes for a third College Football Playoff appearance in the last four seasons.

Riley said he was partially to blame for the early problems. "We spot them two quick early ones with the two turnovers that were bad calls on my part," Riley said. "Kyler and I (have) got to be better there early."

The sometimes sloppy Sooners also had to overcome 10 penalties for 113 yards.

"We had some tough calls that didn't go our way," Riley said. "We also had some dumb, dumb penalties on our side that we (have) got to do a lot better with. So we kind of continually put ourselves in a hole, but we just found a way and the team kind of willed themselves to it... We'll go back and watch them. It was a chippy game. I thought it was fairly chippy on both sides. I just think that a few got called on us. That's part of the game. We play on the edge and that's important. If you come into these road environments, you come into an environment like we did tonight tentative, then you're going to get your brains beat in."

Asked what he did to get Murray back on track, Riley said, "I didn't have to do anything... I mean, I just I knew he would. I could tell the look in his eye. He wasn't fazed a bit and I didn't have to say anything to him. I didn't help him much there early, either. But I think he did a tremendous job, he fought for our team. Sometimes a guy can get a little gun shy when you have a start like that and he wasn't."

Murray became the first player in the program's storied history to throw for 300 yards and rush for 100 in the same game. "I mean, he was awesome," Riley said of Murray, who threw for 360 yards on 20 completions (18.0 average) and three touchdowns and also rushed for an OU-career-high 100 yards on 11 attempts (9.1 average) and one score.

In addition to Murray's 300/100 combination, the Sooners had a 200-yard rusher in sophomore Trey Sermon, who had a career-high 206 yards and three touchdowns on 26 carries (7.9 average), plus a 100-yard receiver in redshirt junior Lee Morris, who had a career-high 101 yards and two touchdowns on four receptions.

"The O-line played great," said Murray, who set school and Big 12 records with his eighth straight game of at least three touchdown passes. "They blocked great, took over in the second half. Trey ran well. I think it's the best he ran all season. He was dominant all night."

Scoring 50-plus points for the fifth time this season and at least 38 points against Texas Tech for the ninth straight time, the Sooners amassed 683 total yards and averaged 8.6 yards-per-play with a balanced attack of 360 yards passing and 323 yards rushing. They also tied a season high with 32 first downs for the second straight week.

Earlier in the week, OU permanently lost two running backs in injured redshirt junior Rodney Anderson (who declared for next year's NFL Draft) and senior Marcelias Sutton (who suffered a broken leg in Wednesday's practice).

"He's great kid," Riley said of Sutton. "It killed the team. I mean it just, it was tough. You see a guy go down like that and it just guts you, man. So we're certainly disappointed, but he was on our minds before, during, and then even after there in the post-game locker room."

Next up for the Sooners is Oklahoma State (5-4, 2-4), with a 2:30 p.m. kickoff at Gaylord Family ? Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, followed by the season home finale against Kansas on Nov. 17.