‘Still a whole lot left’: Oklahoma looks to recalibrate after Baylor loss

Even though the calendar is halfway home through the month of November, Saturday felt more like Halloween than it did Thanksgiving for Oklahoma.

The Sooners were haunted by Baylor’s high-powered rushing attack and fell victim to their own undoing as true freshman quarterback Caleb Williams threw a pair of interceptions.

It all added up to a 27-14 road loss for Oklahoma against Baylor. The Sooners now must turn the page on what had been a string of 23 consecutive November wins for the program and the nation’s longest active winning streak at 17 games.

Afterwards, Oklahoma head football coach Lincoln Riley voiced his frustration with OU’s performance but emphasized the importance of his team’s response.

“Disappointing. Still a whole lot left for this football team. That’s the advantage of winning your first nine games is you do set yourself up to be able to overcome something like this. Disappointed obviously that we have to overcome it, but it is what it is. We’ll bounce back like we always do and like we fully expect to,” Riley said.

Redshirt senior defensive lineman Isaiah Thomas described what the mood in the locker room was like after the Bears outscored the Sooners 20-7 in the second half to hand OU its first loss.

“You know, what you would expect. Guys quiet trying to wrap their head around a loss. It was the first time we felt this way this season. Second-handedly, coach Riley also uplifting us, also letting us know that we still are 9-1 and we still have the rest of the season in front of us. A lot of football to be played left. Opportunities to make a statement that this game isn’t who we are. Like I said, what you would expect for it to be kind of gloomy in there but also uplifting to see what the bright side is,” Thomas said.

Sophomore wide receiver Marvin Mims was asked what the frustration was like for he and his teammates after Oklahoma recorded its second-fewest total offensive yards in a game this season with the 260 it was held to by Baylor.

“I mean, I don’t think it really matters what point we are in the season. At the beginning of the season, we were kind of low, too, not playing up to our standard and how we like to play offense. We got two tough teams, two good defensive teams left to play. One at home, one in a hostile environment. We’re just trying to hit the nail on the head, go back in there Monday and just go back to work,” Mims said.

Oklahoma’s College Football Playoff hopes aren’t completely dead after this loss, but redshirt senior tight end and H-back Jeremiah Hall understood that it meant the Sooners no longer control their own destiny.

“In the grand scheme of things, we all know that it does hurt our national championship chances, but, at the same time, we’ve been in this position before. We’ve made it into those College Football [Playoff] talks before. We’ll see how that goes because we can’t control it. Ultimately, we still have other goals in front of us. We are on a week-to-week basis, but we still want to win these games out, we still want to make it to a Big 12 championship, win that game and see where everything else takes us,” Hall said.

Now, the question becomes which path does Oklahoma take.

Are the Sooners set to crumble with more good competition looming? Or, will Oklahoma rise up like Novembers’ past, win these next two games at home against Iowa State and at Oklahoma State and then have the chance to defend their status as six-time defending Big 12 champs?

Senior safety Delarrin Turner-Yell shared one final message Riley gave to the team.

“He told us that this game is either going to do two things to this team. Either it’s going to tear it apart or it’s going to bring us together. And also he told us we have a lot of football in front of us. We still have the things that we want to accomplish this year in front of us, so it’s very important that we put this game to bed and that we attack the practice field next week and just do the things that we need to do in order for us to finish out strong this season,” Turner-Yell said.

OU has the chance to reverse any negative narratives beginning on Saturday at 11 a.m. when the Sooners welcome in the Cyclones for a Big Noon Kickoff on FOX.

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Report Card: Oklahoma Sooners fail to make the grade vs. Baylor Bears