Weird Game Ends in Another Victory

NORMAN?? In his post-game opening remarks, Oklahoma football coach Lincoln Riley did his best to recap what had just transpired in the Sooners' 28-21 overtime survival against the gallant Black Knights of Army on Saturday night.

Riley's most appropriate observation was, "It was a weird game."

Weird indeed.

Perhaps football's greatest truism is this: The other team can't score if it doesn't have the ball.

Oklahoma barely had the ball against Army, and the No. 5-ranked Sooners barely won.

Ball control is the Black Knights' most lethal weapon, both offensively and defensively. The longer Army's triple-option offense marched down the field, the longer OU's quick-strike offense remained on the sideline.

The Black Knights dominated time of possession in regulation, 44:41 to 15:19. Army ran 47 more plays than OU. The Sooners' 40 offensive plays, including overtime, was the third-lowest total in recorded program history (since 1937). The Black Knights had 21 third downs and converted 13, while OU had just three third downs and converted one. Army was 4 for 5 on fourth-down conversions, the lone failure coming on the final play of the game.

"They're courageous. They're not scared of anything and they played that way tonight."
? Mike Stoops

"When you're sitting there and they're driving the whole length of the field, they've taken off 10 minutes and you're just sitting there waiting to get the ball back, it's definitely tough," said Sooners redshirt junior quarterback Kyler Murray, who averaged 10.1 yards per rush (71 yards on seven carries and one touchdown) and also completed 11 of 15 passes for 165 yards and three touchdowns. "I was not tired at all. We only had the ball like 16 minutes, or something like that. It felt like four."

While scouting the ball-hog Black Knights, OU sophomore middle linebacker Kenneth Murray knew his role would take on even greater importance. Murray, whose previous career high was 10 tackles, had his eyes on breaking the school's single-game record of 24 tackles, set by linebacker Carl McAdams against Navy in 1965 in Norman.

Mission accomplished. Murray registered 28 tackles, which is the most by an NCAA FBS player since at least 2000 (the furthest back the NCAA Records Book goes in the category). Fellow linebacker Curtis Bolton added 23 tackles himself for a combined total of 51.

"I told probably 10 of my teammates that I was going to break it this week," Murray proclaimed with a smile. "Me and Buzzy (Bolton) are always competing, trying to see who's going to make the most plays. I was saying, 'I'm going to get it.' (Bolton would respond) 'No, I'm going to get it.'"

Trouble is, when someone sets a single-game record for tackles, it usually means the defense was on the field far too long. The Black Knights amassed 26 first downs, rushed for 339 yards on 78 attempts (4.3 average) and had four drives of 16 plays or more that chewed up 39:18. OU's time of possession in the second quarter was 2:43. In the third quarter, it was 2:26. The Sooners' offense averaged 8.9 yards per play for the game (355 total yards on 40 plays), and barely survived.

"Everybody's going to have their own opinions," OU defensive coordinator Mike Stoops said. "We've got to continue to progress. It's hard to tell in this game. But again, we won again. We're moving on, and you could be a lot of other places where they didn't play nearly that good and lost. ... We've got to play better. We will play better."

OU used the same "50" defense that Army uses every day in practice, which gave the Black Knights some built-in preparation they weren't anticipating. Army was able to adjust and the Sooners weren't.

"For them, they played a defense that they haven't played all year and that's not what we practiced against all week," Army coach Jeff Monken said. "We were surprised they came out in that defense because that's the defense that our defense runs. We got a lot of reps banked against a 3-4 defense and I think that's why our guys were able to execute and do that effectively enough. ... People don't face this offense very often, and you can prepare for it, but frankly it's just a bugger sometimes to defend."

The fourth-largest crowd (87,177) in the history of Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium played a role in the victory.

"I would say it was an electric atmosphere," Riley said. "There was some built up frustration with three early kicks in a row, so the crowd was great and definitely had an impact on the game. I thought our team fed off the crowd and the crowd fed off the team, especially there at the end. That might be as loud as I've heard it here, so very, very appreciative of a great, great home crowd."

Had the Black Knights scored a touchdown in overtime, the conversion attempt presumably would have been the loudest moment of the night. "We would have gone for two," Monken revealed afterward. "I just think in this environment, and to be coming from behind the whole game, we would've given it a whirl."

The Black Knights haven't beaten a ranked team since 1972 (No. 19 Air Force) or a top-10 team since 1963 (at No. 9 Penn State). To paraphrase college football commentator/historian/SID Beano Cook's familiar punchline, Army nearly posted its biggest road win since World War II.

"Give Army an unbelievable amount of respect," Stoops said. "I do. They fought their butts off today, like I knew they would. ... They fought extremely hard. Think that shows you why we're in pretty good hands in the United States. They're courageous. They're not scared of anything and they played that way tonight."

When the Black Knights walked toward their tunnel afterward, the entire southwest corner of the stadium stood and applauded.

Riley added, "Give those guys credit. They're really well-coached and played the whole football game. Give our guys a lot of credit, too. Especially with the way regulation ended (with a missed 33-yard field goal). A lot of teams would've been down after that and we weren't."

The Sooners (4-0 overall, 1-0 in Big 12) host Baylor (3-1, 1-0) on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.