By: Hunter Cornejo
Who would’ve thought that the first 13 points of the game from Oklahoma would’ve come from kicker Zach Schmit? The Oklahoma defense started off strong as Woodi Washington came up with an interception. However, the Oklahoma offense was not able to put points on the board as the stellar Iowa State defense forced Eric Gray to fumble. That did not kill momentum for the Sooners as Justin Broiles came up with a 4th down stop. Iowa State proved why they are a top defense in the Big 12 as the Sooners had to settle for 3 from Zach Schmit. Iowa State quarterback Hunter Dekkers led the Cyclone offense down the field, however the Oklahoma defense came up with a goal line stop on 3rd down to force Iowa State to take the 3 points. Oklahoma scored their first touchdown of the game on a risky 4th down play call. Oklahoma holder Michael Turk completed a shuffle pass to kicker Zach Schmit for a Sooner touchdown. With Zach Schmit’s touchdown, he became the first Sooner kicker to score a touchdown since Michael Honeycutt did so in Bedlam in 2013. After exchanging field goals, the half time score was 13-6. Midway through the 3rd quarter, Oklahoma quarterback Dillion Gabriel found Jalil Farooq wide open on a wheel route for a 41 yard score. Iowa State wasn’t going to go down without a fight as Hunter Dekkers connected with Jaylin Noel for a 15 yard touchdown, putting the Cyclones within a score. Oklahoma wasn’t able to get anything going offensively on the next drive as they went 3 and out. Michael Turk however had another phenomenal punt, this time a 61 yarder. Justin Broiles added on to the game of his career, making a diving interception. Hunter Dekkers had a big scramble, picking up 28 yards. After that scramble it surely looked like Iowa State was going to make it interesting. Danny Stutsman however had other plans in mind as he picked off Dekkers and returned it all the way to the 2 yard line. Eric Gray gave the Sooners a 2 score lead as he ran the Wildcat formation for the score. Oklahoma sealed the game on a goal line stop as Woodi Washington made a great play on the ball.
Oklahoma is now only one win away from clinching bowl eligibility after today’s win over Iowa State. The Oklahoma offense took care of business against the best defense they will face all year. The Oklahoma defense looked much better than the past few weeks as they held the Cyclones to only 13 points. The Sooners defense had 8 tackles for loss as well as 3 interceptions. Jeff Lebby had some really good plays drawn up today, however the execution was awful as the offense wasn’t able to capitalize. Marvin Mims had a rare off performance today, dropping 3 passes. This is unfortunate as this was the first time all year that Gabriel was putting the ball in great position for Mims. Although Eric Gray had a fumble, he once again had 100 yards rushing while finding the end zone once again. Justin Broiles had the performance of his life, coming up with a significant 4th down tackle at the line of scrimmage as well as the impressive diving interception. DaShaun White led the Sooners in tackles with 14. Danny Stutsman had a bounce back performance tallying the first of hopefully many interceptions during his time in Norman, nearly taking it all the way to the house. Punter Michael Turk had another impressive performance as the Sooners called his name 6 times on 4th down, punting for a total of 296 yards which is an average of 49.3 yards per punt. Turk had 2 punts downed within the 20 yard line, with his best punt of the day being for 61 yards. Turk still has yet to throw an incomplete pass as he improved to 2/2 for 5 yards and a touchdown on the season.
Oklahoma is back in action next Saturday when they take on Baylor in Norman. Kickoff is 2:00 CT on ESPN+.
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