Sooners avenge last season’s loss to Cyclones
The biggest takeaway from the Sooners’ 37-27 win at Iowa State might be that perhaps the early prognosis of an improved Oklahoma defense may have been premature.
But despite giving up 360 yards passing to the Cyclones, and two big touchdown plays, the Sooners managed to hang onto a 10 point win to go 1-0 in Big 12 Conference play and 2-0 overall.
“They’re going to give people fits.” Riley said the play of Cyclones’ QB Zeb Noland was “eerily similar” to Kyle Kempt’s performance in beating OU last year in Norman.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma’s offense had great success, despite last week’s loss of star RB Rodney Anderson to injury.
Kyler Murray threw for 348 yards and three touchdowns and the fifth-ranked Sooners held off Iowa State 37-27 on Saturday in the Big 12 opener for both teams.
Marquise Brown had 191 yards receiving and a TD for the Sooners (3-0, 1-0 Big 12), who extended the nation’s longest road winning streak to 17 games while avenging a stunning home loss to the Cyclones a year ago.
“This is one before the season you kind of circle a little bit,” Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley said. “Not because of what happened last year, but you just knew with the way the schedule fell this was going to be critical. Third game, lot of new guys, tough venue, tough opponent, first Big 12 game. There was just a lot riding on this game. Our guys rose up and made the big plays when it counted.”
Iowa State (0-2, 0-1) didn’t make it easy for the Sooners, rallying from a 14-point deficit to make it 34-27 late in the third quarter. But the Sooners killed nearly eight minutes on a drive that ended with a 42-yard field goal from Austin Seibert with 2:51 left, and Parnell Motley‘s interception with 1:11 to go sealed it.
Backup Noland threw for a career-high 360 yards and a pair of long touchdown passes to Hakeem Butler for the Cyclones (0-2, 0-1), who were without starting quarterback Kyle Kempt (knee).
“It gets hard to double team all the time with their ability to run the football with Montgomery,” OU Defensive Coordinator Mike Stoops said.
Stoops said the ISU game has always been difficult. Last year’s loss to Iowa State in Norman was the upset of the year.
This time the Sooners survived — thanks to an All-America-type performance from their new star quarterback.
All while the defense bent, it did not break.
“It’s going to be a good learning experience for us. We did what we had to do going on the road. We new this was going to be tough with a young group of secondary guys,” Stoops said.
Murray led the way with 15 carries and Trey Sermon gained 74 yards on 13 attempts, including a 22-yard TD run to put the Sooners up 31-17. Marcelias Sutton had 21 yards on nine carries, including an impressive leap over an Iowa State defender, but was shaken up in the second half on a hard tackle.
Iowa State woke up a near-sellout crowd when Butler broke four tackles on his way to a 51-yard TD reception early in the second quarter — one play after the Cyclones forced a fumble and recovered it. Oklahoma didn’t flinch, instead marching 75 yards in 10 plays in a drive capped when Murray found CeeDee Lamb for a 5-yard TD.
The Sooners did it again to close the half, going 74 yards in 10 plays to make it a 24-10 game at halftime on another TD pass from Murray. “He continues to have a good feel. He’s always looking to throw it. When he has to (run), he’s dynamic,” Riley said.
A difference maker in the game was kicker Austin Seibert, who hit three field goals and blasted two punts for an average of 48.5 yards.
The Sooners improved to 75-6-2 against the Cyclones in the most lopsided series in Division I.
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