Oklahoma Stuns Alabama: All You Need to Know

The Sooners put together a dominating defensive performance and a bone-crushing ground game on offense to finally get qualified for a bowl game.

Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold / William Purnell-Imagn Images

NORMAN — This is what Sooner Nation has been dreaming about for the last three years.

So much so, the fan base — serenaded by Toby Keith's "How Do You Like Me Now?" — stormed the field for the first time since the Nebraska game in 2000.

Oklahoma shocked the college football world on Saturday night, stunning No. 7-ranked Alabama 24-3 before a sold-out crowd of 84,053 at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

It wasn’t just that OU beat Bama. It wasn’t just that the Tide (8-3, 4-3) lost as a two-touchdown favorite. It wasn’t just that the Sooners (6-5, 2-5) ended a four-game SEC losing streak.

It was how the Sooners punished the mighty Crimson Tide, owning the line of scrimmage, rushing for 257 yards and holding Bama to just 70.

Quarterback Jackson Arnold cut out the turnovers and ran 25 times for 131 yards in addition to 9-of-11 passing for 68 yards. But the star of the game was true freshman tailback Xavier Robinson, the big-bodied, hard-running X-Man from Carl Albert High School just up Sooner Road in Midwest City.

In just his fifth college game, Robinson rushed for 107 yards and two touchdowns, overpowering the Tide at the line of scrimmage behind an offensive line that played its best, most complete, and simply first dominating game of the season.

Alabama had an eye on a spot in the SEC Championship Game and certainly a berth in the College Football Playoff. Now the Tide can refocus on next week’s Iron Bowl against Auburn.

Oklahoma fans, meanwhile, might have been content for their team to play a competitive game against Bama and then turn their attention to next week’s regular-season finale at LSU, where the Tigers went into Saturday’s action on a three-game losing streak.

But now Sooner Nation will have to start making postseason plans for a bowl game — it was the Sooners’ sixth win of the season, finally qualifying them for a bowl game in their first year in Southeastern Conference play.

The team played with more passion and precision against Alabama than it had all season — perhaps in part an emotional response to head coach Brent Venables’ revelation last week that his wife Julie has suffered a relapse of the breast cancer she’s been battling for almost two years.

This one had to have come from somewhere.

OU led 10-3 at halftime after Robinson slid inside the pylon on an 18-yard touchdown, but it should have been more: Taylor Tatum lost a fumble after Robinson’s 40-yard run into the Bama red zone, and Zach Schmit missed a field goal in the first quarter before his 29-yarder in the second.

Robinson cashed in his second touchdown run early in the third quarter after Eli Bowen intercepted Tide QB Jalen Milroe on the second play of the third quarter, giving the Sooners a 17-3 lead with just under 27 minutes left.

Bowen’s pick was hardly the Sooners’ only defensive success. OU had five tackles for loss in the first half alone and limited the Tide to 114 total yards at halftime, including just 35 on the ground. 

OU averaged 7.1 yards per rush in the first half, while Alabama averaged just 2.2.

Kip Lewis, who had the game-winning interception earlier this season at Auburn, virtually sealed it with another pick six in the third quarter, coming just on the heels of Bowen's INT and Robinson's second TD.

The game became all but final when Milroe threw a 36-yard touchdown to Ryan Williams on fourth-and-3 with 14:07 to play and Williams made an acrobatic catch to barely got one shoe inbounds — but then was called for illegal touching of the ball after officials determined he went out of bounds, even though replays showed Williams never came close to the sideline. The penalty, which is not reviewable, carried a loss of down, and the Sooners drove methodically downfield and took nearly three minutes off the clock. 

Woodi Washington officially sealed it with a third interception of Milroe with seven minutes left, and the OU offense ground out the remainder of the game clock as the fans began to pour onto the field, a $100,000 fine by the SEC, but well worth it in OU's book.

Here’s all you need to know about the Sooners’ big win over the Crimson Tide.

Tonight’s Star

Xavier Robinson: Robinson opened the game with a 40-yard run, then needed just 16 more carries to reach 105 yards. He also added 20 yards receiving. His 18-yard touchdown run at the end of the first half put OU up 10-3, and his 3-yard smash after an INT in the third quarter made it 17-3.

Play of the Game

Robinson’s touchdowns at the end of the second quarter and start of the third quarter were sandwiched around a clean interception by Eli Bowen, who stepped in front of a bubble pass by Jalen Milroe and returned it 25 yards to the Bama 14. 

Then came the thunderbolt. Just like he did against the SEC’s other team from Alabama, Kip Lewis stepped in front of another Milroe throw and took it to the house. Lewis won the Auburn game with a late pick-six; this time he gave the Sooners a 24-3 lead with 8:05 to play in the third quarter.

Stock Report

Xavier Robinson — UP: Of course his stock was up. It was just offered. Robinson has almost overnight become Oklahoma’s best offensive player, and he was just that from his 40-yard carry early in the first quarter to his two touchdowns in the second and third quarters. He finished with 107 yards on the ground,.  

Jackson Arnold — UP: Smart game planning by the Oklahoma coaching staff: rather than forcing Arnold to throw against a talented Bama secondary, Joe Jon Finley turned him into a weapon in the ground game, and he responded with 131 yards rushing.

Danny Stutsman — UP: Stutsman took home the Don Key Award (along with Billy Bowman), and then set the tone for the game on the second play, stoning Alabama QB Jalen Milroe for a 1-yard gain and driving him back into the backfield. Stutsman led the OU charge from that point on, and the Bama offense was largely lifeless — especially on the ground.

The OU Offensive Line — UP: The fearsome Crimson Tide had zero sacks and zero tackles for loss in the first half, and finished the game with four TFLs.

Kip Lewis — UP: Maybe he just really loves playing against teams from the state of Alabama. Lewis’ pick six midway through the third quarter gave the Sooners a 24-3 lead. His other interception this season was the game-winning pick six at Auburn.

Injury Report

WR Brenen Thompson went down with a right ankle injury after Xavier Robinson ran into the back of him on a carry around the left edge. Thompson had just caught a 15-yard pass for a first down. An injury to another wideout is the last this thing offense needs.

RB Jovantae Barnes suited up and went through pregame warmups, but didn’t play.

RB Gavin Sawchuk came back from his quad injury, but his contributions were limited.

DE Caiden Woullard went down in the fourth quarter with an undisclosed injury.

DT Da'Jon Terry went down early in the fourth with a leg injury but seemed ready to go back in.

Crazy Stat

Oklahoma had 205 yards rushing in the first half alone against an Alabama run defense that was giving up just 132 per game.