Shocker: Kansas State Drops Oklahoma

The Sooners were rocked at the start and couldn't contain the Wildcats' rushing attack before coming up short with a rally at the end.

NORMAN — Oklahoma’s defense couldn’t stop a one-dimensional Kansas State, the Sooner offense chugged through a night of dysfunction, and new head coach Brent Venables took his first career loss.

The No. 6-ranked Sooners fell into a quick hole, compounded a multitude of mistakes by not tackling Kansas State’s Deuce Vaughn and Adrian Martinez, and lost their Big 12 Conference opener 41-34 on Saturday night at Memorial Stadium.

Martinez threw for 234 yards and a touchdown and ran for 148 yards and four TDs, while Vaughn carried 25 times for 116 yards.

“Atrocious tackling,” Venables said.

It was Martinez’ third-and-16 scramble in the final two minutes — a 55-yard gain to set up his clinching TD with 1:58 to play — that iced the Sooners’ demise.

“That was a backbreaker,” said Oklahoma defensive coordinator Ted Roof.

The Wildcats have now beaten the Sooners three times in coach Chris Klieman’s four seasons in Manhattan.

“We’ve got work to do, obviously,” Venables said. “Pressure exposes you. Reveals who you are both good and bad. And we certainly got exposed tonight.”

Venables’ first setback as a head coach came at the hands of his alma mater, a Wildcats team that suffered an inexplicable non-conference defeat last week but still appeared to be the more prepared, more confident, more explosive team on Saturday night.

“We're not gonna be defined by this loss moving forward,” Venables said. “We will, however, be defined by how we respond to this loss moving forward.”

OU (3-1 overall, 0-1 Big 12) gave up its first third-quarter points of the season (just a field goal), but then yielded two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

The majority of damage to the Sooner defense came from the legs of Vaughn, the elusive, diminutive running back and Martinez, the Nebraska transfer quarterback who put together a nice night throwing (21-of-34) but did most of his best work on the ground.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel had his first 300-yard game as a Sooner (330 on 26-of-39 passing) to go with four passing touchdowns, including two TDs in the fourth quarter to Brayden Willis, the final one with 35 seconds to play — but Gabriel will lament too many missed throws throughout the night.

“Bunch of throws,” Gabriel said. “Fourth down, be little more accurate on that. Felt like we were really close on some third downs.

“Little high here, outside there. Just want to put it where I want to put it. At the end of the day, I didn’t.”

“He played good enough to win the game,” Venables said. “But we need to be a little more efficient at critical times.

“He gave us a chance to win the game, and we didn’t do our job as a football team to help him. Penalties and poor defense, no doubt about it.”

Eric Gray rushed for 106 yards and led the Sooners with six receptions, but OU was stricken with penalties (11 for 87 yards).

And the Oklahoma defense, which came in leading the nation in tackles for loss and ranked in the top 10 in quarterback sacks, never dropped Martinez for a sack once, and only compiled four TFLs (two by noseguard Isaiah Coe).

“We did a horrendous job of caging him,” Venables said. “You got a certain technique you gotta do against a quarterback like that, and we did a horrendous job.”

In the end, the Sooners’ shocking undoing — they were a 12.5-point betting favorite — was missed tackles.

“I’m pissed about all those things that happened out there,” Venables said.

Vaughn has tormented the Sooners twice before with a pair of 100-yard receiving games, but this time did them in on the ground.

The first half was hardly a work of art for Oklahoma.

The Wildcats scored on their first two drives, took a 14-0 lead and had the football for more than 21 of the 30 minutes.

Kansas State — coming off a 17-10 home loss last week to Tulane, in which they 336 total yards and converted 3-of-20 third and fourth downs — compiled 279 yards against the Sooners in the first half and made 6-of-12 third and fourth downs.

Oklahoma’s defense, meanwhile, had given up just 312.7 yards per game against UTEP, Kent State and Nebraska, but couldn’t get off the field against the Wildcats.

For the game, K-State finished with 509 total yards and 28 first downs, converting 10-of-19 total chances. Oklahoma amassed 550 yards but couldn’t overcome the mountain of errors.

Martinez ran for two short touchdowns in the first half, and threw a 6-yard TD pass to Malik Knowles.

Gabriel had 185 yards passing at the half, with touchdowns of 56 yards to Theo Wease and 50 yards on a deep ball to Marvin Mims. But Gabriel also missed some open receivers, including a bad overthrow of Drake Stoops on what would have likely been an easy 55-yard touchdown. In the second half, Gabriel misfired on a third-down throw to Stoops that could have kept a drive alive.

“You gotta take advantage of those opportunities,” Gabriel said. “It can be tough not overthinking those (throws).”

Oklahoma’s coaching staff had done some of its best work in the third quarter this season, outscoring their first three opponents 52-0 in the third period, and the Sooners opened this one with a solid offensive drive and a field goal.

But K-State rallied with its own field goal, setting up a frenetic fourth quarter.

The Sooners tried to rally with a couple of touchdowns in the final period, but the big run and touchdown by Martinez put it out of reach — and gave Oklahoma a whole new perspective.

“We’re down in the mud right now,” Venables said. “Ain’t no doubt about it.”