Oklahoma-Missouri Video Review: OU Kept Throwing Away Momentum for Four Quarters

The Sooners had four fumbles but seized the momentum with a handful of big plays against the Tigers, yet wasted it each time.

Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables at Missouri / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

Oklahoma absorbed a wild, almost unprecedented defeat on Saturday night at Missouri.

Almost.

The zany, even impossible late-game momentum swings, with both offenses cashing in long drives with wild touchdowns and both defenses providing a scoop-and-score touchdown all in the final three minutes, brought to mind the Sooners’ 2006 Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State.

There were no game-deciding trick plays this time as Mizzou won 30-23, but there were four Sooner fumbles, including quarterback Jackson Arnold’s second of the game — this time in the final 30 seconds that was returned for the game-winning TD by Zion Young.

Arnold’s game-tying touchdown catch and Billy Bowman’s own game-winning fumble return were both wasted when Mizzou backup Drew Pyne threw to former Sooner Theo Wease for his second TD of the night and Young won it at the end.

Now the Sooners are 5-5 overall and are 1-5 in Southeastern Conference play, and with red-hot and No. 9-ranked Alabama coming to Norman in two weeks and the Sooners finishing the regular season at No. 21 LSU on Nov. 30, they face the very real possibility that the program’s bowl streak is in danger.

It’s a 25-year streak that started in Bob Stoops’ first season, 1999. Brent Venables was the co-defensive coordinator then, and could very well end in Venables’ third season as head coach.

The Sooners have an open date this week to try to figure some things out first.

Here is the Sooners On SI video rewatch of Saturday’s game: 

FIRST QUARTER

Great instincts by Taylor Tatum to start the game with an 8-yard run up the middle. Jackson Arnold gets knocked down short on second down, but then plunges through a tackle on third-and-1 for a first down at the 35. Arnold has Brenen Thompson open on an RPO for a quick slant, but throws it too high. If Thompson had been hit in stride, he might have produced a huge play. A screen throw to Bauer Sharp gets blown up at the line of scrimmage, and now it’s third-and-long. It’s nearly a disaster as Arnold leaves the pocket and just drops the football unpressured. He pounces on it and it’s an OU punt.

Nate Noel gets things started for Missouri with a power run off right tackle for 3 yards, but what stands out on this play is a Tigers offensive lineman blocks R Mason Thomas 10 yards downfield, rolls him over and then stands over him flexing as Thomas asks for a penalty. On second-and-7, Thomas shoots past the right tackle and annihilates Noel for a 3-yard loss. On third down, Ethan Downs is waiting on a screen pass to Jamal Roberts and blows it up for a 6-yard loss. Lewis Carter nearly blocks the Missouri punt. 

Tatum can’t get wide on a hand sweep left on first down. The possession ends on second down, however, when Arnold keeps it up the middle and picks up a first down, but the ball comes out when Daylan Carnell punches the football out from the side. That’s two fumbles on eight plays for Arnold — and a sign of dark things to come.

Luther Burden takes a screen to the left and Eli Bowen strings him out, so Burden reverses back too the right for a gain of 3 yards. Noel hits the right edge of the OU defense — another recurring theme — on a stretch handoff and finds 6 easy yards. On third-and-1, Marcus Carroll plows forward for a yard. Billy Bowman smothers a wide screen to Burden for a loss of 1, and Noel tries the right side but gets taken down for a gain of 2 by Danny Stutsman and Caiden Woullard. On third down, Pyne can’t scramble away from Downs and Dasan McCullough, although he squirts forward for no gain — so officially no QB sack. From his own 39, Eli Drinkwitz elects to put the football away, and it lands 5 yards deep in the end zone.

Tatum shows nifty moves on a 4-yard run but dangerously gets upended for a gain of 4. Arnold flips a nice shovel pass to Tatum and he twirls through traffic for 8 yards and a first down. On first down, Arnold dumps over the middle to Thompson for a 2-yard gain — yet another recurring theme. A rollout by Arnold produces another short throw, this time to Jalil Farooq for 7 yards, and it’s third-and-1. Arnold keeps on a designed run up the middle and finds 2 yards and a first down. Arnold’s wide pass to Bauer Sharp falls short, and Samuel Franklin pounds pounds for 3 yards. Arnold gets pressure from the middle and escapes but has to fire to Farooq too quickly and it’s incomplete. On fourth-and-7, special teams coordinator Doug Deakin has a perfect call dialed up: punter Luke Elzinga catches the snap and takes a few steps forward like he’s going to run. That entices the defender assigned to Sharp to leave his man, and Sharp turns around and catches a jump pass from Elzinga with no one around him. He sprints upfield and leaps over a tackler before getting buried at the Mizzou 10-yard line. It’s a terrific play by Deakin and a bold call by Venables, who’s pumping his fists and smiling — and perfectly executed by Elzinga, Sharp and the entire punt team, and it’s a massive and sudden momentum shift — one that Oklahoma immediately wastes with a mindless delay-of-game penalty. Arnold is sacked for a loss or 4 by Johnny Walker and Zion Young, making it second-and-19. Drinkwitz calls timeout just as Arnold is about to get the snap, presumably to dial up a delayed blitz by linebacker Chuck Hicks, who sees the running back leave the backfield and triggers on a blitz to drop Arnold for a loss of 6. After getting to first-and-goal at the 10, the OU offense has given back 15 yards to the 25, forcing Arnold to scramble out a clean pocket — he had Deion Burks coming open at the goal line for what should have been an easy touchdown — and gets a meager 3 yards on third-and-25. It’s scoreless at the end of the first quarter as Venables prepares to send out the field goal unit. Notable: frontline wide receivers Farooq and Burks are back in the starting lineup, and they have seen a combined two targets as the OU defense has allowed just five total yards.

SECOND QUARTER

Zach Schmit opens the period with a 40-yard field goal from the right hash to give the Sooners a 3-0 lead.

Burks and Arnold are discussing the missed opportunity on the sideline as Schmit knocks the kick out of the end zone. Carroll hits the right edge for 5 yards but gets stoned for a gain of 1 by Stutsman and Jayden Jackson on second down. On third-and-4, Jamal Roberts hits the right edge again and shoves forward for a first down. Mizzou continues to drink the play clock as Roberts hits the right edge again, this time for 3 yards. Pyne throws wide right to Marquis Johnson as Dez Malone slings him down for a gain of 5. On third-and-2, Pyne fakes a pitch and keeps straight ahead for a gain of 1 as Gracen Halton hammers him down short of the first down. On fourth-and-1, Luther Burden takes a jet sweep handoff to the left, where he meets Eli Bowen in the backfield and bounces it deep and wide. Burden finally gets to the sideline and tries to turn it up, but Billy Bowman hits him like a missile and drives Burden out of bounds short of the first down for no gain. It’s another huge stop for the OU defense as the Sooners take over at the Missouri 44-yard line with 10:47 to play until halftime.

OU tries to get Farooq involved as he motions across and Arnold slips him a quick throw, but the throw is off target and Farooq catches it off balance for a modest gain of 4 yards. Farooq gets shoved out of bounds and then hit again well past the white area on the sideline, but officials decline to throw a flag. On second-and-6, Arnold keeps on a read option to the right side and there’s nobody within five yards of him as he speeds ahead for a 20-yard gain. (This play will come up again later in the game, and Arnold will make the wrong read.) If Farooq had held his block a little longer on the perimeter, it might have gone for a touchdown. Instead, the Sooners have the football on the Mizzou 20, and on first down, Arnold scrambles away from pressure around right tackle Spencer Brown and runs out of bounds for no gain. On second-and-10, Joe Jon Finley calls maybe the single worst play of the Oklahoma season (and that’s saying something): a jet sweep to motion man Bauer Sharp, a tight end. Sharp predictably and easily gets taken down for a loss of 4, and the Sooners’ surge of momentum is slipping away again. Sharp is agitated and shoves a Missouri defender, though nothing comes of it. On third-and-14, Arnold throws a quick slant to Burks, who makes his first catch in almost two months — a gain of 7, and he absorbs a bit hit from Carnell. Schmit’s 35-yard field goal from the left hash is right down the middle and OU leads it 6-0 with 8:24 to halftime.

Burden is back from Bowman’s big hit, and he takes a jet sweep around the right side of 10 yards as Lewis Carter finishes the play with a big hit. Woodi Washington is momentarily down as he appears to have injured his shoulder on Carter’s collision. Pyne’s play-action rollout throw to Brett Norfleet goes for 3 yards as Carter comes up to upend the big tight end. Noel gets 2 yards as Stutsman and Downs bring him down, and Pyne’s throw over the middle to Norfleet is incomplete. OU declines an offensive holding penalty against Thomas to force the Tigers into another punt. It’s clear now that Mizzou’s offense is going to get nothing tonight against the Oklahoma defense.

That is, until Luke Bauer’s punt is fumbled by Peyton Bowen, giving yet another surge of momentum back to the Tigers — this time just outside the red zone. Pyne makes the Oklahoma defense pay on the sudden change by connecting with former Sooner Theo Wease on a corner route to the right sideline for 19 yards. Mizzou calls timeout as the play clock is winding down, and when they come back, Noel is blasted by McCullough for a 3-yard loss. Pyne scrambles but gets chopped down from behind by Trace Ford. On third-and-8, Pyne can’t find a receiver and throws it away to bring on Blake Craig for a 25-yard field goal that cuts Oklahoma’s lead to 6-3 with 3:26 to go until half. It’s the first time Mizzou has put points on the scoreboard in five quarters — the Tigers’ second-longest scoring drought in 20 years.

Tatum squeezes behind Brown for 3 yards and then Arnold swings a throw to Tatum for 2 yards. On third-and-5, Arnold looks for Burks, motioning out of a bunch formation, across the middle, but Arnold can’t fit it in before Carnell reaches in and prevents the completion. Burden fair catches the punt, steps into Robert Spears-Jennings path and tries to pull off a LeBron-level flop, but gets no call. The Tigers are flagged for holding, however, pushing them back to their own 15.

A false-start penalty pushes Mizzou back to the 10, but Noel gets that back with a hard 5-yards through the heart of the OU defense. After the two-minute timeout, Carroll hits the OU defense up the middle for 4 yards. Sensing an opportunity to get a stop and seize more momentum, Venables calls timeout with 1:51 to play. But on third-and-6, Roberts again slices off the left edge of the OU defense for an authoritative 8-yard run out of bounds. Pyne’s first down throw sails right past an open receiver, Roberts gets 8 more yards off the same edge. Carroll slams through contact from Stutsman for a first down, and Missouri tries to pick up the tempo. Norfleet drops Pyne’s throw wide to the right side as Eli Bowen cuts him down. On second-and-10, Pyne’s throw to Norfleet sails high and out of bounds, stopping the clock with 28 seconds left. The conservative handoff to Carroll goes for a gain of 1 as Stutsman and Spears-Jennings bring him down — and also draws boos from the Mizzou fans as Venables calls timeout and gets the clock stopped with 22 seconds to play.

Bowen nearly redeems himself for fumble on the last punt with a 13-yard return. Mizzou’s Will Norris gets tagged for a late-hit penalty on Bowen, giving OU the football at their own 49. Arnold drops to throw but has to check down to Sharp on the sideline for a loss of 1. With 6 seconds left, Arnold drops to pass and finds Burks over the middle for a 13-yard pickup. The game clock expires, but referee Daniel Gautreaux adds one second to the clock as Venables, sprinting behind the side judge, calls his final timeout. It’s a big break for OU, and after Drinkwitz calls another timeout, Schmit — whose career long is just 46 yards — hammers the 56-yard field goal from the right hash with plenty of room to spare as OU takes a 9-3 lead into halftime. On his way in, Venables tells ESPN’s Cole Cubelic, “Just fighting for every patch of grass, man. Ain’t nothing easy about tonight. So no frustration. How ‘bout that kick?”

THIRD QUARTER

Missouri starts the second half with 19 consecutive drives without a touchdown, tied for the longest such drought in FBS. Pyne’s throw to Noel is hurried by Downs and incomplete. Noel gets 4 yards, but Pyne’s throw to Wease on the left side is broken up by blitzing Kip Lewis at the line of scrimmage. Bauer’s punt heads toward Bowen, but another 15-yard penalty on the Mizzou punt team — this time for fair catch interference against Ja’Marion Wayne, who pastes Bowen before the ball arrives — sets the Sooners up at the Mizzou 49. 

Sharp gets defeated at the line of scrimmage and Tatum gets dropped for no gain, but on second down, Tatum slices through for 5 yards. Tatum picks up 4 behind blocks from Troy Everett and Febechi Nwaiwu. Then on fourth-and-1, OU goes fast and Arnold hands off to Tatum for a stunning loss of 1. It’s a replay of an earlier read-option, on which Arnold kept around the right side for a 20-yard gain. The defensive end crashed down on Tatum again, but this time Arnold read it wrong. If he had kept the football, the entire right side of the field was wide open and he’d have gained at least 20 yards. Instead, for the fourth time, Oklahoma has wadded up a big surge of positive momentum and threw it in the trash. 

Pyne appears to be slowly gaining confidence as he rolls out and hits Norfleet on the sideline for a gain of 11 just before Ford sacks him. Carroll picks up 2 off the right edge, then hammers the middle for 4. On third-and-4, Roberts punches away again at the middle of the OU defense, this time for 5 yards and a first down. Pyne overshoots Burden in the back of the end zone as Bowman is on the coverage. On second-and-10, Carroll again chugs for 4 yards off the right edge. On third-and-6, this time against a heavier box, Pyne steps up in the pocket and drops a dart to Burden open over the middle for 13 yards. Carroll gets 3 on a handoff up the middle, but Pyne steps into a hard blitz by Stutsman and completes a pass out wide to Burden on the left sideline for a gain of 7, giving Mizzou a first-and-goal at the 10. OU’s defense slams the door on firs down (no gain by Carroll off the left side, followed by a fumble by Carroll, ripped out by Damonic Williams, off the left side. But Pyne is able to pounce on the football, saving the possession and points for Mizzou. On third-and-13, Pyne fakes a wide throw and throws a short screen instead to Wease at the 10-yard line. Wease follows two blockers and cuts inside almost uncontested through traffic for a 13-yard touchdown — and certainly a taste of redemption for scoring against his old team. Craig’s PAT gives Missouri its first lead of the night with 5:43 on the clock.

Arnold runs a keeper right up the middle for 6 yards, but his second-down throw to former Tiger J.J. Hester down the right sideline is overthrown. On third-and-4, Arnold can’t find a receiver and scrambles up the middle for 3 yards. On fourth-and-1, the Sooners turn things over to their other freshman running back, Xavier Robinson, who blew up late against Maine but hasn’t played much this season. Robinson pounds ahead for for 3 yards and a first down. The good vibes don’t last long, however, as Arnold tries to throw a quick slant to Burks on the left side but Carnell jumps the route and seems to be headed for a pick-six. Instead, the ball goes through Carnell’s hands and Burks brings it down and scrambles ahead for a gain of 4. On second-and-6, Arnold gets immediate heat off the right edge and throws it away. Arnold throws over the middle complete to Jacob Jordan right at the third-down marker, and at first it’s ruled a catch for a first down. But the play is reviewed and its determined that Jordan didn’t complete the catch, making OU 2-of-11 on third down and bringing on Elzinga for the punt on fourth-and-6. 

Mizzou takes over at its own 5 and Roberts gets the drive started with a 7-yard gain and a 5-yard run both right up the middle, pushing through three tacklers himself for the final 3 yards. Pyne gets pressure from Downs and escapes, then throws it away before Damonic Williams smashes him. Roberts picks up 3 yards after contact running up the middle, but Pyne gets sacked for a loss of 1 by Kobie McKinzie and Cayden Woullard — another punt for the Tigers.

Bauer’s punt hits at the 41 and dribbles past Bowen for another 20 yards to the OU 21. OU compounds it with two fouls — an illegal block by Jaren Kanak (declined) and a holding by Lewis Carter (accepted), giving OU the ball at its own 11 — a field flip of almost 85 yards.

FOURTH QUARTER

Arnold has 50 yards passing to start the fourth quarter, and his counterpart, Pyne has 67. Arnold starts the final period with a rollout left but runs right into pressure, then cuts up for a gain of 4 yards. Arnold hits Sharp in the sideline flat for 3 yards. After a late personnel change, Missouri subs late (and purposely slow), forcing Oklahoma to burn a timeout with 14:43 to play. It feels like the millionth time this season the Sooners are late with a sub and end up being forced to call timeout (it’s probably the fourth or fifth). But on third-and-3, more disaster strikes the Oklahoma offense: Arnold throws over the middle to Burks, who absorbs another big hit from Carnell and fumbles. Tre’Vez Johnson recovers for Mizzou (and takes a wicked hit from OU’s Robinson) and the Tigers are in business at the OU 30.

Pyne rolls right looking for a screen pass, but Downs forces him to keep it for a loss of 1 as Jayden Jackson drops Pyne. Roberts slips a tackle for 4 yards before Stutsman brings him down for a gain of 4. Pyne then scrambles out of pressure and crucially slips under a Stutsman tackle to pick up 8 yards and a first down. Roberts runs up the middle for 1 and Pyne throws incomplete to Wease, setting up another third-and-long. Again, it’s the gritty Pyne with the unlikely heroics as he sprints up the middle for 10 yards on a QB draw as Oklahoma’s linebackers open things up for him with a double stunt to the outside. It’s Missouri’s longest run of the night and sets the Tigers up with a first-and-goal from the 8. Roberts gets no gain on first down as he’s dropped by Williams, and he only gets 3 off the left side as he’s brought down by Sammy Omosigho and Stutsman. On third down, Pyne play-action fakes to the right, then throws back to Norfleet toward the left in the back of the end zone as the Tigers take a 16-9 lead with 8:47 to play. Mizzou’s PAT team false starts, however, and Craig’s extra point is wide left — his first PAT miss of the season — leaving the door cracked for a Sooner comeback. Don’t go anywhere. It’s about to get wild.

Robinson, who came into Saturday with just six carries for 29 yards, takes over. He opens the drive by slicing through the defense with a couple of cuts and drags a tackler for 10 yards and a first down. OU goes tempo and Robinson follows a pulling block from Nwaiwu and jumps through a hole for 9 yards. Arnold fakes a setup and takes off on a draw that picks up 2 yards and a first down. But Arnold’s first-down throw to Sharp on a screen in the backfield goes for a 2-yard loss. On second-and-12, Robinson bursts through the middle for 6 more yards, dragging a tackler for 3 extra yards. On third-and-6, Arnold throws a swing pass to Robinson out of the backfield, and he bumps through contact for 6 yards and a first down. Robinson pinballs off defenders up the middle for an 8-yard gain. Robinson smashes through a wall for 1 yard, and on third-and-1, Robinson bangs off three defenders and spins ahed for 10 yards and another first down. Arnold spins away from pressure and gets a couple of yards, then hands off to Robinson one more time for a physical 4-yard gain. Robinson, who averaged more than 10 yards per carry as a senior at Carl Albert last year, now has seven carries for 48 yards plus a 6-yard reception on the drive, causing Sooner Nation to ask where he’s been as the OU running back room has been largely ineffective for most of the season. It’s now third-and-4 from the Mizzou 18 as Tatum comes back into the game. Tatum comes in motion from left to right, takes the handoff from Arnold and gives ground, then stops, looks downfield for a second and then whirls and slings a pass to Arnold, who reaches to make the catch, jets past a block from Logan Howland and sprints upfield. He cuts back inside at the 4, runs over a man at the 1 and gets into the end zone, then flexes for the Missouri fans. Schmit’s extra point ties it up at 16-16 with 3:18 to play.

Noel gets 5 yards right up the middle on first down, then slices 10 yards off the left edge. But on first down from the 40, Roberts gets 3 yards before Omosigho punches the football out. The ball is on the field for nearly two seconds before Billy Bowman races in and scoops it up, and is untouched for a 43-yard touchdown. It’s Auburn all over again, Sooner Magic in the fourth quarter as a lifeless OU offense comes to life and gets a scoring kick from the defense.

But the momentum is again wasted. Mizzou gets the ball back with 2 minutes to play and Pyne starts it with a quick slant to Wease, who beats Jacobe Johnson for the catch, then defeats tackle attempts by Spears-Jennings, Bowman and Omosigho before Stutsman brings him down for a 28-yard gain. The next play is at first ruled a Pyne fumble as R Mason Thomas wrapped him up as the ball came out. Instead, video review shows Pyne’s arm was going forward and the play is an incomplete pass. On third-and-10, Pyne is pressured by David Stone and McCullough and throws incomplete — and it appears OU is one defensive play away from winning the game. Instead, OU’s Woodi Washington is flagged for defensive holding, an automatic first down and a 10-yard penalty. ESPN’s replay shows Washington contacted Wease, but an actual hold appears in question. With a new set of downs, Pyne is sacked for a loss of 6 by Thomas on first down, forcing Mizzou to call its first timeout with 1:26 left. Pyne then throws out of bounds to Wease on a second-down deep ball, bringing up another third-and-long. On third-and-16, however, Washington loses track of Burden in the slot on the right side, and Jacobe Johnson inexplicably falls down trying to recover, leaving Burden all alone on the sideline. Burden reaches and spins and makes a great catch before stepping out of bounds at the 10 with 1:16 to play. Carroll goes for no gain as Lewis and Stutsman brings him down with 1:09 left. On second down, Wease lines up against Eli Bowen — five inches shorter — and reaches into the sky for a dramatic, Randy Moss-type catch and single toe-tap in the back right corner of the end zone. With the extra point good this time, the Tigers go 75 yards in eight plays, needing just 57 seconds to tie it at 23 and and leaving OU just 63 seconds to get the winning score.

That, of course, doesn’t happen. Trying to get Schmit in position for a game-winning field goal rather than playing it safe and taking it to overtime. Arnold throws over the middle to Burks, who draws interference from Kristian Williams. After another strange call — a handoff up the middle to gain 5 yards from Robinson; the Sooners only have two timeouts left because they had to burn one earlier, and the clock is running — Arnold drops back to pass. He steps up in the pocket, but Triston Newson slams into him as he’s cocking his arm to throw, and the ball shoots out of his hand and bounces backward. Defensive end Zion Young rumbles in and scoops it up at the 17 and rolls untouched into the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown with just 30 seconds left. After Craig’s PAT makes it 30-23, the Sooners barely have a blip of life.

Arnold hits Burks over the middle for 5 yards, but Burks, who’s missed the last five games with an injury, takes a big hit from Sidney Williams and will need to be evaluated for a concussion. Venables says the officials told him there was no targeting on the play even though Williams appears to crouch and launch himself into Burks’ head/neck area. Burks was not in a defenseless position however, so after Burks lays on the turf for several minutes, the game continues. OU immediately calls its second timeout even though no time has come off the clock. Arnold’s deep ball to Thompson is late and underthrown and Joseph Charleston knocks it down. Arnold’s throw wide left to Sharp goes for no gain as there’s now just 8 seconds left on the clock. The Sooners’ prayers go unanswered as Arnold escapes the pocket and sprints downfield for 26 yards, then flips to Sharp, who runs downfield, then flips the ball behind him and out of bounds for a loss of 3 yards as the clock — as well as probably OU’s bowl hopes — expire.