ARLINGTON, Texas — Oklahoma senior quarterback Baker Mayfield will be the first to tell you he wasn’t perfect in the Sooners' 41-17 win over No. 11 TCU.
“There were multiple throws I’d like to have back,” Mayfield said.
Mayfield didn’t appear comfortable for the Sooners (12-1, 8-1 Big 12) in the first quarter, failing to set his feet on some early throws as TCU (10-3, 7-2 Big 12) was able to pressure him in the pocket. He missed two deep passes and another throw on third down during the first drive, and the stalled Sooners had to take a field goal.
In Saturday’s Big 12 Championship, however, Mayfield didn’t need to be perfect. Two plays after Oklahoma settled for a field goal, the Sooner defense scored on a fumble recovery – and Mayfield’s team never trailed on its way to a conference title.
“The most important thing is about doing your job,” Mayfield said. “That’s where I’ve just settled in, doing my job. Whether that’s handing the ball off a hundred times like West Virginia last year in a blizzard, or just barely throwing it in a game. You know, just managing the clock, doing my job, putting us in the best position to win.”
Mayfield tossed four touchdowns on the day, including two to senior tight end Mark Andrews, but his receivers did a lot of work. Marquise Brown turned a short screen on 3rd and 12 into a 29-yard gain, slipping through the grasp of the Big 12’s best defense. Mykel Jones’ 55-yard score to open the first half was largely him, as he beat his defender on his route and then outraced everyone to the end zone.
“We take a lot of pride in it because that’s our job,” Jones said about picking up yards after the catch. “Obviously we have to block, but to make big plays, it gets a lot of momentum going, and I feel like those two plays ... really sparked us.”
Over the last three seasons, as the Sooners have collected three conference titles and piled up 34 wins, Mayfield has been the constant. Whether it was wriggling free of the Tennessee defense in Knoxville in 2015, out-dueling Patrick Mahomes and Texas Tech last season or shredding Ohio State earlier this year, Mayfield has made a habit of coming through when the Sooners needed him.
“He hasn’t just done it one year. He’s done it three years,” said TCU coach Gary Patterson.
But this team is striving for more than those previous two teams, and Patterson repeatedly compared this Oklahoma team to Sam Bradford’s 2008 team, which played for a national title. It was announced Sunday morning that the Sooners clinched a spot in the College Football Playoff field.
Senior safety Will Johnson, who had an interception in the win, said this year’s team is less reliant on individual stars than the playoff team two years ago.
“It’s more of a collective team on this team rather in 2015,” Johnson said. “I felt in 2015, I felt like in 2015 we cared more about individuals — like it was guaranteed to go to (receiver Sterling Shepard) when we needed it. Now it can go to Mykel Jones. It can go to Mark Andrews. It can go to anyone on third down.”
The OU defense has played well down the stretch this season, something sophomore defensive lineman Du’Vonta Lampkin credited to starting Friday night defensive meetings in early November. The growth of the defensive line, which allowed just 3.5 yards per carry on Saturday, has been a big part of that turnaround.
“Our coaches don’t even rotate us. We rotate ourselves,” Du’Vonta Lampkin said of the defensive line. “I feel like that’s a maturity thing. Not every team can do that.”
The Sooner defense wants to dominate on its own terms, not simply break serve once or twice and let Mayfield work his magic.
“We genuinely thought as a team that we could hold TCU under 20 points,” Johnson said. “We wasn’t thinking shootout out at all.”
Even with the heroics around him, Mayfield was there to plunge the knife, floating a beautiful deep pass to Brown for a 52-yard score that put the Sooners up 38-17. It was a team win, but Mayfield was, once again, the star — seemingly destined to grab the Heisman Trophy in a week.
“There’s not many people like him,” Andrews said. “He’s electrifying. He’s the best teammate you can imagine. He’s proved it day-in and day-out, and there’s no one else more deserving.”
