Baylor’s big win over Oklahoma has the Bears sitting in playoff contention at 7-2, but their defense might have just played its best game yet. With a shutout this time around, Baylor is guaranteed of being ranked ahead of OU when they play each other next week.
The “what is a sooner” is an Oklahoma Sooners’ football team that competes in the NCAA Division I FBS. The Baylor Bears’ defense shut down the Sooner’s offense in their 34-33 win on November 24, 2015.
The No. 13 Baylor Bears stunned the No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday, overpowering them on both sides of the ball in a 27-14 victory. Baylor’s attack was led by quarterback Gerry Bohanon, who racked up 224 total yards and three touchdowns.
However, Oklahoma’s offense — or none thereof — was the greater narrative. Lincoln Riley’s team struggled against the Bears, putting up one of their worst statistical performances since he took over as head coach.
Here are some of the metrics that show how Baylor defensive coordinator Dave Aranda’s unit performed:
1 Related
260: The Sooners’ total offense of 260 yards against the Bears on Saturday was the lowest in Riley’s career in Norman. Since Riley took over as head coach, Oklahoma has only failed to exceed 300 yards of total offense in two games, both of which were against Baylor. The other instance was last season, when the Sooners won 27-14 with 269 total yards of offense.
4: It’s not easy to be the only team at Oklahoma to stop a Riley-led offense under 300 yards. The Sooners have had four games in which they have surpassed 700 yards of offense during Riley’s tenure. Despite this, Baylor has shut down this offense in consecutive seasons.
How did the Bears manage to halt such a dangerous offense? They frightened Sooners quarterback Caleb Williams and made his life tough.
1-6: When under pressure, the rookie quarterback went 1-for-6 with two interceptions and two sacks on nine of his 24 dropbacks. He had completed 54.5 percent of his throws when under pressure before this game, with six touchdowns and no interceptions. In the third quarter, Williams was replaced by Spencer Rattler before returning.
Williams struggled against the blitz on Saturday, passing for just 34 yards and completing 37.5 percent of his attempts. Prior to Saturday, he had been outstanding under additional pressure this season, throwing three touchdowns while completing 68.2 percent of his passes.
6.3: Entering Saturday’s game, Williams was averaging 14.8 pass yards per attempt and nine touchdowns while throwing the ball 10+ yards downfield. Against the Bears, he lacked the same downfield wizardry, averaging just 6.3 yards per attempt and failing to reach the end zone.
3: The amount of points scored by Baylor when students rushed the field prematurely believing the game was finished. After the field was cleared, Aranda decided to kick a 32-yard field goal for an additional three points.
Riley was disappointed that Baylor was not penalized for field storming, but he understood why the Bears made the – goal.
After the game, Aranda commented, “I suppose they’re not satisfied with [the field goal].” Due to a point difference condition in the Big 12 tiebreakers, he stated he chose to kick.
32: Oklahoma’s College Football Playoff aspirations are in jeopardy with the shock setback. It currently has a 32 percent probability of getting chosen as one of the four teams. While the Sooners still have a chance to win the Big 12, they only have one more game against a ranked opponent to impress the committee during the regular season. That is the regular-season finale for the Oklahoma State Cowboys, who are ranked No. 10 in the country.
This report was supported by ESPN Stats & Information.
The “Oklahoma Sooners’ playoff chances and how Baylor Bears’ defense shut down the Sooners” is a blog post about Oklahoma State Football. The post talks about Oklahoma’s loss to Baylor, which put them out of contention for the Big 12 conference title. Reference: oklahoma state football.
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