Final Review: Last Look at Oklahoma's 38-33 Loss at Kansas

The Sooners did a lot of good things in their first defeat of the season, but lacked discipline in key situations and didn't deliver enough big plays down the stretch.

One last in-depth review, via the FOX-TV broadcast, at Oklahoma's 38-33 loss to Kansas on Saturday in Lawrence:

First quarter

Despite a ton of misdirection and shifts and several plays that had plenty of potential to pop, Trace Ford ends the Jayhawks’ opening drive by timing his leap and batting down a Jason Bean pass over the middle. Tremendous read and reaction by the veteran.

Gabriel’s first throw is way off, sailing high over the head of Austin Stogner in the wind. Gavin Sawchuk shows a nice burst cutting through the line and some power finishing an 8-yard run. But Gabriel’s next pass on third-and-2 is a disaster, a telegraphed throw to Jalil Farooq that’s also late. Mello Dotson gets an easy read and an easy pick six. Jeff Lebby later said he should have taken out the pass option of the RPO.

Despite Sawchuk’s promising start, the Sooners’ second possession opens up all Farooq: a lateral pass to the right, a toss sweep to the right and a lateral pass to the left, and the latter barely picks up a first down. Sawchuk is then stuffed on back-to-back runs up the middle on a pair of RPOs, despite KU having just six defenders in the box. After a pass interference penalty on third down extends the drive, we see the first of many jet sweeps to Gavin Freeman, a play that simply hasn’t been good in recent games. Gabriel is asked to roll out on third-and-3 and after Stogner was beaten on an inside pass rush, Gabriel goes down for no gain. Gabriel then had Freeman over the middle on fourth down, but didn’t have time to find him. Gabriel stepped up in the pocket to avoid pressure looking for Farooq or Anderson, but got taken down from behind for a sack.

Kansas is being tricky for tricky’s sake now, with Bean taking a reverse and throwing a short pass for the second time already — and both were either bad throws or dropped. But on third-and-8, Bean zips a high throw to Lawrence Arnold for 25 yards. Daniel Hishaw plows Key Lawrence like a Kansas cornfield for 9 yards, and now you’re starting to sense Kansas has every intent of winning this football game. That feeling continues as Devin Neal runs through two more tackle attempts by Lawrence and Billy Bowman on a 21-yard gain up the right sideline.

Oklahoma ends the quarter with five missed tackles and facing a likely 14-point deficit.

Second quarter

Jaren Kanak opens the period with another missed tackle despite hitting Neal at the line of scrimmage. On second-and-5, Hishaw adds to the Sooners’ defensive malaise with a juke and stiff-arm of Danny Stutsman as he dodges his way into the end zone, and it’s 14-0 Kansas. The missed tackle count has reached seven just two plays into the second quarter.

And there’s your first Tawee Walker sighting, back-to-back power runs for 9 and 5 yards. It’s the first time the Sooners have run the football with any authority. Drake Stoops injects a little life into the offense, making Kwinton Lassiter miss on a bubble screen and then drawing a penalty on the sideline for unnecessary roughness. After a sweep to Farooq, Walker thuds ahead for a 5-yard gain to set up a third-and-1. Now arrives the first of a string of undisciplined penalties, this one a false start by wide receiver Jayden Gibson — one of two inexcusable such infractions by Sooner wideouts. That makes it third-and-6, and after a 3-yard run by Walker, Gabriel converts a fourth-and-3 with a nice throw over the middle to Austin Stogner. Walker and the Sooners get a break on a 2-yard blast up the gut when officials rule his forward progress was stopped before the football was ripped out. Gabriel then delivers OU’s first touchdown with a nifty read option behind Jovantae Barnes’ block.

The points seem to give Oklahoma’s defense a boost as KU has its first three-and-out. It’s keyed by linebacker Kobie McKinzie’s appearance in relief of Kanak, who was inconsistent for much of the first quarter. McKinzie ends the drive as Bean throws across the middle to his tight end on third down, but McKinzie races over into coverage and reaches in to punch the football out.

The turnaround continues as Gabriel laterals a throw to Walker, who bounces off four KU defenders on his way to a 7-yard run, then knocks the defense aside like bowling pins on a 5-yard gain. On first down, Walker smashes ahead for 9 more, then blasts through for a 4-yard gain. Jeff Lebby is clearly feeling his team has a physical superiority over a KU defense that just lost its second defensive tackle to injury. The play count is now 20 runs and seven passes, and Lebby is imposing his will on the Jayhawks.

And now, with 7:50 left in the period, the game is halted because of lightning.

Gabriel resumes things nearly an hour later with another power run to the left side, then bursts up the left sideline for 24 yards. The play is wiped out by an illegal block in the back penalty against Walker. Walker makes up for it on the next play, however, following a crushing block by Tyler Guyton and busting up the right sideline for a 24-yard gain. Two plays later, Walker ties it at 14-14 with another sledgehammer run up the middle. The 5-foot-9, 219-pound Walker lowers his pad level and collides with KU’s Rich Miller just outside the goal line, but drives Miller two yards into the end zone. At this point, it feels like Oklahoma has completely turned this thing around -- the yardage total is now 186-124 in OU’s favor — and they’re just getting started.

That feeling continues on the ensuing kickoff as Kenny Logan fumbles the kickoff and Kip Lewis recovers. Smart play by Robert Spears-Jennings to blast Logan and keep him off the football.

Guess who gets the ball on first down? Tawee Walker, who plows ahead for 9 yards, then Walker again for 6. A holding penalty on Cayden Green pushes OU back 10 yards, but after a wide throw to Walker, Gabriel escapes the pocket and dances into the end zone for a 21-14 lead. It feels like the 2019 game here, where OU fell behind 7-0 in the first quarter, then lightning delayed the game, then the Sooners rolled 45-20.

A direct snap to Hishaw initially looks stuffed, but he escapes Kanak’s grasp and picks up 4 yards. That’s eight missed tackles for the OU defense. This time, Kanak stays in the game, however. Good work by Rondell Bothroyd on first down to pressure Bean and force him into a bad throw. The defense swarms Neal for a short gain to bring up third-and-8, and Bean converts a huge one with a 9-yard scramble. Kendel Dolby is assessed a questionable holding penalty to tack on another 10 yards. Bean throws a sideline pass to Quentin Skinner, and a lengthy review is coming. Skinner stepped out of bounds, but Trace Ford tips the pass, allowing him to come back inbounds to touch the ball. Fox’s Dean Blandino guesses it’s an incomplete pass, but Blandino says the college football rule says receivers don’t need two feet inbounds to reestablish their status inbounds. On multiple replays, Skinner’s right foot is clearly inbounds while his left foot was out of bounds and is hovering in the air. It’s a tricky call, but the officiating crew says they had enough to confirm the reception, which surprises the Fox broadcast crew. Devin Neal’s first-down run is a backbreaker for the Oklahoma defense: he bounces away from tackle attempts by Jordan Kelley and Ford, runs through a reach attempt by Stutsman, then jukes through an arm tackle by Billy Bowman — four missed tackles on one play. That raises OU’s running total to 12. On first and goal, Dasan McCullough torpedoes Neal off the edge for a 1-yard loss, and Bean’s throws incomplete on second and third down. Kani Walker lost coverage on the first but it was badly overthrown, and Bean threw a slant right to Stutsman on the second. Stutsman collides with McCullough in coverage, and his left foot/ankle seemed to roll off McCullough’s. That sets up Seth Keller’s 24-yard field goal and it’s 21-17 with 50 seconds left.

Lebby calls for a handoff to Sawchuk, and Oklahoma has now run the football 16 times in a row. The Sooners, who get the second-half kickoff, then take a knee to end the half. With Gabriel frequently struggling to throw in bad-weather games, it seems like a smart decision to take this one into the locker room with a four-point lead.

Third quarter

I asked Jeff Lebby and Brent Venables in postgame interviews about getting away from the power running game that pushed them into the lead. The first play to open the third quarter is a preview of that as Farooq takes a sweep wide. But three straight runs to Walker — 14 yards, 6 yards and 1 yard — show it’s still a priority. But on third-and-3, it’s another jet sweep pass to Freeman, who can’t outrun the KU pursuit. OU tries to draw KU offsides on fourth-and-3, but the Jayhawks don’t take the bait and the Sooners take the delay-of-game penalty. OU then shows more disorganization on special teams as Jacobe Johnson runs onto the field late and Brent Venables has to burn a crucial timeout that he’ll later wish he had back. That brings on punter Luke Elzinga for the first time today.

Key Lawrence and Ethan Downs shed their blocks and strap down Neal for a 1-yard loss, and Woodi Washington takes Neal down on second down. Washington’s corner blitz pressures Bean into a hurried throw on third down, forcing KU’s first punt of the day.

Walker and Gabriel run the ball to set up a third-and-5, but at the end of Gabriel’s draw play, Savion Byrd is flagged for unnecessary roughness for driving his defender out of bounds. Byrd and Troy Everett appear do the exact same thing and seem to be trying to finish blocks by being physical. But Byrd’s penalty pushes OU into a third-and-15. Gabriel can’t escape on third down, and on fourth down, Elzinga — who averaged 52 yards per punt last week while punting deep — tries a rugby-style punt (kicking on the move) which ends up a 31-yard disaster.

Bean and KU tight end Mason Fairchild then deliver a big pass play against the OU secondary to open the next drive. Kendel Dolby — splitting cheetah reps with McCullough — stares at Bean in the backfield instead of tracking Fairchild. Fairchild runs up the left hashmark, cuts past Dolby and catches a 39-yard pass uncontested. To add injury to the insult, Spears-Jennings ranges over to hit Fairchild, but seems to reinjure the shoulder he hurt in spring. Key Lawrence comes on a delayed safety blitz to drop Hishaw for a 3-yard loss, and Dolby cleans up McKinzie’s miss on a short throw to Neal for a 1-yard gain. On third-and-12, Bean throws short to Skinner, but Bowman takes him down short of the marker to bring on Keller for another short field goal that makes it 21-20.

OU opens the next drive as Freeman takes a swing pass wide right, but it only goes 5 yards. Freeman picks up the first down with a 6-yard gain on a short catch to the right — and that’s when the game changed.

Farooq takes a handoff up the middle and is sandwiched between KU linebackers Rich Miller and J.B. Brown. Brown’s big hit jars the football loose, KU recovers, and Bean sprints unimpeded 38 yards for a touchdown to put the Jayhawks back in front. Farooq’s best trait is his versatility, but it’s a curious decision to try a power run play to a wide receiver, especially with Tawee Walker stepping on KU defenders like bugs. On Bean’s TD, Kani Walker wasn’t paying attention to Bean and ran himself out of the play as Bean scored easily right behind him.

Walker opens the next drive with thundering runs of 9, 4 and 5 yards — Lebby is getting back to what works — but then Gabriel zips a dart on a quick slant to Drake Stoops, who breaks a tackle and picks up 39 yards. Walker’s 6-yard run comes with 1:30 left in the quarter, but he’s twisted down and his left ankle gets rolled over by two defenders. Walker taps out and leaves the game — a moment that changes the tenor of Oklahoma’s offense for the rest of the game. Gabriel sneaks out with a 9-yard keeper, and Sawchuk reaches the goal line with a 3-yard touchdown that puts OU up 28-27 and begins the crazy back and forth of the final 16 minutes — but not before another jet sweep pass to Freeman for the 2-point conversion. The play is getting redundant now and KU is blowing it up every time, but Lebby runs Freeman from the right hashmark into the boundary, and Freeman’s last hope is to try to leap in from the 5-yard line. Spoiler alert: It didn’t work.

Fourth quarter

The final period opens with more undisciplined actions from Oklahoma. Kendel Dolby, trying to make a one-on-one tackle and trying to be tough and physical, hip throws Luke Grimm, whose feet were out of bounds on the OU sideline. That draws a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty, and the Sooners are tagged for 15 more when an assistant coach gets penalized for “barking at the ref,” Venables said afterward, “and he didn’t like it.” Arnold beats Washington on a crossing route for a 17-yard pickup to the OU 6, and after McCullough nearly sacks Bean on second down, Bean explodes on a draw play to the goal line. Bean inexplicably tries to slide at the 2-yard line, but the Jayhawks are awarded a first down as Reggie Pearson hits him mid-slide. The officials determine replay confirms Pearson for targeting (it’s OU third personal foul on the drive) even though some angles seem to show Pearson’s contact is shoulder-to-shoulder. Pearson is ejected (he’ll miss the first half of next week’s game at Oklahoma State as well), and instead of facing a fourth-and-goal, KU cashes in the second chance with a 1-yard touchdown run by Daniel Hishaw to put KU up 32-27. McCullough does a nice job breaking up the 2-point conversion pass, although he created a lot of contact in the end zone.

Brilliant call by KU coach Lance Leipold to pop up the kickoff for a deep onside and kick it to a defensive end (Marcus Stripling) who doesn’t play much and has never handled the football — much less in the rain. Stripling signals fair catch but can’t corral the football, and KU recovers at the 20 for what feels like a monumental possession.

Hishaw goes 20 yards untouched into the end zone, but that’s called by a holding penalty. The Oklahoma defense then rises up and gets a stop — Kip Lewis’ solo tackle of Hishaw on third down at the 25 is the highlight — and Keller’s 42-yard field goal is wide right.

Gabriel opens the next possession with a 17-yard completion over the middle to Nic Anderson — his first touch of the day — and Tawee Walker carries off tackle for a 2-yard pickup. It’s Walker’s 23rd and final rushing attempt of the day as he can’t fight through the lower leg pain. That brings on Jovantae Barnes, who makes his Big 12 Conference debut with a 2-yard run. Then, in one of Lebby’s strangest calls of the day, Gabriel tries a quarterback draw on third-and-6 and gets pounded for a 2-yard gain to force an OU punt.

The Sooners are now stacking the line of scrimmage to stop the run, and it’s a smart gambit as Bean can’t beat the Sooners passing. His throw on a slant is deflected by Dolby, and Billy Bowman grabs the interception.

Barnes smashes ahead for runs of 6 and 5 yards, and two keepers by Gabriel, including a tackle-breaking, defender-pushing on second down, produce another touchdown as Oklahoma takes a 33-32 lead. The 2-point conversion throw from Gabriel was intended for Stoops, but he was covered and Gabriel had to try Anderson in the back of the end zone.

The missed tackles have returned: Bean steps up to find a check-down to Neal, and Neal dances through tackle attempts by Kanak and Kip Lewis for an 11-yard gain. That’s 14 for the game. Bean throws incomplete on third-and-4 as Kani Walker breaks up the pass, but KU’s fourth-down play is an elementary underneath outside crossing route to an inside receiver on the sideline in front of Dolby. Key Lawrence drops a sure interception on the next play, then overshoots a receiver deep across the middle. Then Bean make a critical error, trying to dump a screen pass to Neal, but Ethan Downs had sniffed out the play and steps in front of Neal for the interception. Downs bullrushes his way downfield for a 13-yard return with 2:29 to play, and it looks like Oklahoma will beat KU for the 19th time in a row.

Barnes is thrown for a 1-yard loss on a basic handoff up the middle as Kansas calls its first timeout with 2:23 on the clock. Gabriel leans in softly with a QB draw on second-and-11 for a 1-yard loss, and KU calls time with 2:19 left. Barnes goes up the middle on third-and-12 for five yards, and KU uses its final timeout with 2:15 to play. It’s too far for Venables to go for it on fourth down, and he clearly isn’t going to risk a 52-yard field goal from Zach Schmit. OU tries to draw KU offsides — probably the only real option left before a punt — but Nic Anderson inexplicably commits a false start penalty. Luke Elzinga tries a corner punt from the 40, but as Jacobe Johnson is unable to locate the football, it one-hops into the end zone to set up KU 80 yards from a stunning upset with 2:06 to play.

Bean scrambles to the right for 13 yards, then he finds Fairchild wide open behind Kanak and in front of the OU bench for a 17-yard gain. After an incompletion, a 2-yard run by Neal and a 2-yard run by Bean, Bean delivers a fourth-down strike to Arnold for a first down, and Arnold turns it into a 37-yard backbreaker. Venables said he wishes he’d called timeout before this play, and he absolutely should have as the OU defense didn’t get the call from the sideline and wasn’t even close to being lined up before the snap. As KU is in their stance and over the football, eight of Oklahoma’s 11 defenders are looking at the Sooner sideline. Arnold is lined up wide right, and he bends in a deep comeback in front of Kani Walker, who simply lost Arnold in coverage. Arnold gets out of bounds at the 9 yard line, and Neal scores with 58 seconds left to put the Jayhawks up 38-33.

McKade Mettauer is called for a holding penalty on the opening play of Oklahoma’s last, desperate drive. Gabriel throws incomplete on first and 20, but Gabriel finds Stoops over the middle for a 19-yard completion. But Stoops couldn’t pick up the first down, so Oklahoma has to call its second timeout with 24 seconds to play. On third-and-1, Gabriel finally uncorks a deep ball, and it’s to speedster wideout Brenen Thompson, 39 yards down the right sideline to the KU 27. Gabriel checks down to Barnes for 4 yards, but the clock is now at 8 seconds. Gabriel is hit as he throws but it’s incomplete to Farooq short of the end zone. Before the final play, Oklahoma uses its final timeout with 3 seconds to play. KU lines up four defenders on the 5-yard line and four in the end zone, and Gabriel has to step up to avoid pressure. OU lines up three receivers — Stoops, Stogner and Farooq — to the right, and Gabriel’s prayer into the back of the end zone against six KU defenders goes unanswered and out of bounds as fans rush the field and tear down the goalposts.

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