Missouri State: Q3 Report

NORMAN — With Spencer Rattler’s debut apparently in the books, Tanner Mordecai started behind center for the Sooners in the third quarter.

Mordecai’s first drive led to the Sooners’ first punt — a 43-yard boot by Reeves Mundschau that trickled into the end zone.

His second drive showed promise as Mordecai polished his stat line to a 7-of-7, 29-yard shine. But his eighth throw was an interception in the end zone, on which Mordecai stepped up into the pocket, slid to his left away from pressure and forced a soft toss into traffic and was intercepted by Jeremy Webb.

The Sooners’ top highlight of the quarter came with a minute to go in the third — and, it happened on defense.

Missouri State QB Jaden Johnson fired a long ball down the left sideline, but the pass was intercepted by safety Delarrin Turner-Yell, who returned the ball 42 yards up the OU sideline.

Oklahoma ranked 114th in the nation last year with just 11 takeaways, so Turner-Yell’s pick kicked off a celebration: virtually the entire defense raced into the south end zone for fake photo shoot-group picture in the end zone.

With OU up 41-0 at halftime, Rattler’s day likely concluded with eye-popping stats: 14-of-17 for 190 yards with four touchdowns, no interceptions and an efficiency rating of 303.3. That would rank third in school history behind Lincoln Riley’s two most recent QBs (Kyler Murray posted a 348.04 against Baylor in 2018, and Jalen Hurts posted a 308.49 against West Virginia in 2019. Jason White’s rating against Texas A&M in 2003 was a 303.29).

Even more enticing for Rattler fans: two of his three incompletions were dropped touchdown passes in the end zone.

Missouri State picked up its second first down of the game midway through the third quarter before settling for another quick punt.

To get the latest OU posts as they happen, join the SI Sooners Community by clicking “Follow” at the top right corner of the page (mobile users can click the notifications bell icon), and follow SI Sooners on Twitter @All_Sooners.

Add us as a preferred source on Google