Keep Finding a Way

Oklahoma's football team will have a chance to win its fifth straight Big 12 championship on Dec. 7, and the victory that sealed this opportunity came in the most complementary of ways.

Heading into this season, many times since head coach Lincoln Riley joined the Sooners' staff as offensive coordinator in 2015, the offense had come to the rescue of the defense.

Those roles were reversed in OU's 28-24 survival mission against TCU on Saturday night before an anxious sellout crowd at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

With the Horned Frogs down four and driving at the Sooners' 40-yard line, OU sophomore cornerback Brendan Radley-Hiles made a diving interception of a Max Duggan pass with 1:41 remaining. The Sooners were able to get a first down and run out the clock to clinch their third straight trip to the Big 12 Championship since the game was reinstated in 2017.

"At the end of the day you have to find a way to win and we did it."
- Lincoln Riley

OU had dominated the game statistically, but was a minus-3 in the critical turnover department until Radley-Hiles' crucial pick.

"Well, we're very proud. That's the word," Sooners first-year defensive coordinator Alex Grinch said afterward. "When you're called upon – and there are times we call upon the offense to come save our tail – that's when we talk about complementary football maybe a week ago or over the last couple weeks. It goes both ways."

Radley-Hiles said turnovers are always the objective during preparation each week. "We emphasize it so much," he said. "(When) we get them in practice, the energy is there as well. So when you get them in a stadium of great fans, their energy, our energy, they just combine together and you have an awesome feeling."

"We talk about takeaways equal victory," Grinch said. "In my head, we're going to get five of them and it'll be a great day and Saturday's going to be easy, but it doesn't work that way all the time. It's proof of how critical those things are."

The Sooners' 20th consecutive win in November keeps alive their College Football Playoff hopes and ninth-ranked OU figures to move up two spots this week with No. 6 Oregon and No. 8 Penn State both suffering defeats Saturday.

OU (10-1 overall, 7-1 Big 12) closes out the regular season with a 7 p.m. Bedlam showdown next Saturday at Oklahoma State (8-3, 5-3). The Sooners will then face Baylor (10-1, 7-1) for the Big 12 title at 11 a.m. the following week at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

The TCU defense entered Saturday's game allowing 328.8 total yards, 119.5 rushing yards and 15.2 first downs per game. The OU offense amassed 511 total yards, 366 rushing yards and 30 first downs.

"They made some awesome, competitive plays," Riley said of the Horned Frogs (5-6, 3-5), who have lost five games by a touchdown or less this season. "They are a good team. Look and see how people moved the ball against them this year. They are always hard to do it against and this was no different. At the end of the day you have to find a way to win and we did it."

The Sooners' defense allowed just 204 total yards Saturday and now leads the Big 12 in average yards allowed (336.2) for the season. The Sooners also lead the conference in total offensive yards (574.7), scoring (45.3), rushing (257.9), first downs (26.3), third-down conversions (51.7 percent) and fourth-down conversions (66.7 percent).

"I thought that we really dominated the football game. Stats would say that," Riley said. "Really, I was proud of the way we played defensively. Allowing anybody in this league to have 200 yards of offense and making the clutch stops that we make time after time there in the second half was awesome."

But it was overshadowed by the turnovers.

"The one kind of negative point of an otherwise pretty dominant performance," Riley said. "Some mistakes that we've got to continue to clean up."

Quarterback Jalen Hurts had two red-zone turnovers on back-to-back fourth-quarter possessions, getting intercepted at the 2-yard line and stripped of the ball at the 7-yard line. He also fumbled in the end zone midway through the third quarter, but not until after he had broken the plane of the goal line for OU's final touchdown of the game.

"Defense played great all night," Hurts said. "They made plays in critical times all night."

The Sooners' other turnover came on a Jadon Haselwood fumble midway through the second quarter with OU on another march. "Obviously, we need to do a better job in the turnover department," Riley said. "I think that goes without saying. All three of the turnovers were positive drives. You have to do better with those. That is part of the game. It is an equalizer and something that we need to find a way to do a better job of."

Hurts rushed a season-high 28 times for a career-high 173 yards and two touchdowns and increased his season rushing total to 1,156 yards, the second-most ever by an OU quarterback (Jack Mildren ran for 1,289 yards in 1971).

Redshirt sophomore running back Kennedy Brooks added 149 yards rushing on 25 carries. "O-line played great, controlled the line of scrimmage," Hurts said.

With the Sooners' success running the ball, Hurts had his most modest passing outing of the year, completing 11 of 21 throws for 145 yards, two touchdowns and one interception that was returned 98 yards for a touchdown. On several occasions, Hurt was unable to connect with All-America candidate CeeDee Lamb, who had two receptions for 16 yards and a touchdown after missing last week's record-setting comeback victory over unbeaten Baylor with a medical issue.

"One of the first games where he just missed a few throws down the field that could have really busted the thing open," Riley said. "And they were all just long by just a tad bit."