Instant Analysis: OU Beats Texas Tech 63-27

The Sooners walked away with a 63-27 win over Texas Tech on Saturday. Here’s the instant analysis of what happened.

How the Sooners won

OU was ready to play from the kickoff of this conference matchup, and OU scored on three of its first four drives. They could’ve made it four out of the first five if it weren’t for a Jarvis Baxter fumble in Texas Tech territory. The fumble came at an inopportune time because the OU offense was clicking on all cylinders.

The Sooners ran the ball well from the start, and racked up 104 rushing yards in the first quarter and finished with 405 in the game. Semaje Perine was a monster on the ground, and his multiple broken tackles were adding fuel to the whole offense. Joe Mixon was also a force and brought a great change of pace. It was good to see the Sooners so successful on the ground since they hadn’t had that break out rushing game this season.  

What they could’ve done better

Everything was rolling along for OU in the first half, but the Sooners’ offense began to get sloppy. The Sooners had a chance to extend their lead to 28-3, but Baxter’s fumble was recovered by Tech and gave the Red Raider offense a short field to work with before they scored their first TD.

Then on the next drive, Mayfield threw an interception that was returned by Tech to give them solid field position yet again. The Red Raiders capitalized on both OU turnovers and got back within four points in the second quarter when the game could’ve easily been a blowout at that point.

Game ball

It’s hard to choose just one player, so the game ball has to go to both Perine and Mixon. The offensive line could also make a case for them to get the game ball, but regardless they all did their job and were able to punch the Red Raider defense in the mouth throughout the entire game.

It’ll be interesting to see how much the running backs are utilized moving forward in Lincoln Riley’s offense.

What’s next?

The Sooners will travel to Lawrence to play a winless Kansas team on Saturday. Kickoff time hasn’t been announced yet.