Matteer engineers late 4th quarter drive in comeback
Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer resurrected a floundering offense for a late fourth quarter come-from-behind 75-yard touchdown drive and a tenacious Sooner defense scored a safety on its school record 10th quarterback sack of the game in Oklahoma’s 24-17 slugfest win over Auburn.
The Sooners go 4-0 for the season, likely meaning they will be undefeated in early October entering the Red River Shootout against Texas.
Mateer completed 24 of 36 passes for 271 yards for one touchdown and he ran for one touchdown. He completed 16 of his last 17 passes in the game.
“That’s what you dream about. Doing it in the first SEC game is pretty cool, ” Mateer said of his game-winning drive. “When the pressure rises, that’s when you find out what kind of man you are.”
His 9-yard go ahead touchdown run with 4:54 left in the game turned out to be the winning score, but it was the OU defense’s control of Auburn QB Jackson Arnold, who was pitted against his former team, that was the story for most of the game.
Pass rusher R Mason Thomas, who had to sit out the first half because of a targeting infraction the week before, sacked Arnold to sealed it. He also sacked Arnold in his first play of the second half.
“It wasn’t always pretty, that’s football when you play good people,” OU Coach Brent Venables said.
Oklahoma’s defense held Auburn to 287 total yards, 88 of them coming Arnold’s six pass completions to touted Tiger receiver Cam Coleman, whose significant height advantage over Sooner defender Courtland Guillory, allowed for a 2 yard touchdown catch to tie the game before the first half.
A Malcolm Simmons 2 yard run, which followed a pass interference penalty on Guillory defending Coleman, gave Auburn a 17-16 lead with 7:08 left in the game, after Guillory was flagged for a pass interference when defending Coleman on the previous play.
“All the great ones will have a day that you wanna have back, that you just wanna go somewhere and hide… This’ll really help him. He’s a really tough kid… He’ll be all right,” Venables said of Guillory’s play.
But Arnold’s effectiveness was stymied most of the night because of the Sooner defense that sacked him a school record 10 times.
“We talked about going into the game, the only non-negotiable that has to happen for us to win this game is when the storyline has to say y’all (defensive linemen) played your butt off,” Venables said.
Meanwhile, Isaiah Sategna had a career nine receptions for 127 yards, including a 24-yard touchdown grab on a play that caught the Tiger defense off guard.
It was the second win over a ranked team in as many weeks.
The crowd was loud, leading to several false start penalties against the visiting Tigers. Venables gave a game ball to the crowd.
Oklahoma has a bye week next, then plays Kent State at home on October 4, before crossing the Red River for the match against Texas on October 11.
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