Sooners roll over Tulsa Golden Hurricane

TULSA — Oklahoma’s performance in a 66-17 win over Tulsa on Saturday afternoon at Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium was just the kind the Sooner fans like seeing — high-scoring offense and dominating defense.

The Sooners passed for 476 yards with starter Dillon Gabriel accounting for 421 of it on 28-of-31 attempts with five touchdowns and only getting intercepted once. Back-up Jackson Arnold, a highlytouted recruit from the Class of 2023, had the other 55, including a 50-yard TD pass to Nic Anderson late in the third quarter.

Anderson scored the most TDs of the day out of all Sooner receivers with big games. He had three, all totaling 120 yards. Jalil Faroog caught the first touchdown, finishing with six catches and 126 yards. Drake Stoops caught the next two offensive TD passes, finishing with most receptions with eight for 53 yards. Andrel Anthony totaled four receptions for 112 yards.

The defense, led by Danny Stutsman’s nine tackles and a picksix return of 30-yards sandwiched by Stoops’ TD receptions, each of four yards, forced five interceptions on the day and limited the Golden Hurricane to 292 yards.

As in the Sooners’ four previous meetings in Tulsa since 1987, there were more red-cladded fans in the stadium than blue and gold in the sold out crowd of 30,855.

Tulsa (1-2) had its best moment in the second quarter when Cardell Williams threw two TD passes after entering the game in relief of Roman Fuller late in the first. OU was already up 28-0 by that point, had answered every Tulsa score, and was up 38-14 at halftime, so the Crimson and Cream faithful never seemed to be on the edge of their seats.

Despite the impressive outing from OU (3-0), a big question is now how will it fare in a big test next week when it meets Cincinnati on the road next week in its Big 12 opener. It will be the Bearcats’ debut in the conference while it will be the final league opener for OU before joining the Southeastern Conference next season. It should also be a hostile environment.

Yes, the Bearcats (2-1) lost last weekend to in-state foe Miami, Ohio, in overtime, but Kansas State also came in to Norman last year off the heels of an upset loss to Tulane and stunned OU, which began the Sooners’ drop to the lower-tier of the conference standings while the Wildcats went on to win the Big 12 championship and a berth in the Sugar Bowl. Tulane went on to win the American Athletic Conference, the Bearcats’ old league, and made the Cotton Bowl to stun a USC team coached by ex-Sooners’ coach Lincoln Riley.

That’s not to say Cincinnati could upset the Sooners and begin a run to win the Big 12, and definitely not that Miami, Ohio, could surprise some people. However, the point is clear. Cincinnati is OU’s biggest test before the Texas game Oct. 7 in Dallas.

As for Tulsa, although the two-game swing against Power-5 teams Washington and OU are behind, it still won’t be easy. The Golden Hurricane return to the road to meet a Northern Illinois (1-2) team it beat 38-35 at home last year and owns an overtime win against Boston College.

When Williamson played, he threw 196 yards on 11-of-17 attempts and two picks. He was later relieved by Fuller in the fourth quarter.

OU received the opening kickoff and Farooq returned it 62 yards before Jaise Oliver forced him to fumble it at midfield, with Donte Burton recovering at the Tulsa 36-yard line. It looked as if there would be some drama.

However, OU’s Gentry Willaims intercepted Fuller on the fifth play, setting up OU from its 16yard line.

Gabriel hit Anthony for 55 yards. After a holding call on the Sooners moved the ball back five yards, Gabriel hit Farooq with a 34-yard pass with 12:31 left in the opening quarter. That allowed Farooq to redeem himself from the fumble on the opening kickoff.

OU scored again as Gabriel threw his second touchdown pass around right to Stoops from four yards out, and it was 14-0 with less than five minutes to go in the first. It was soon 21-0 as Stutsman intercepted Roman Fuller at the Tulsa 30 and took it to the house a minute and 15 seconds later.

The Sooners had three interceptions in the first quarter. The third by Kendel Dolby set up Stoops’ second TD reception of a Gabriel pass, also from four yards out, with 1:25 left in the first and it was 28-0.

At that point, it looked as if the visitors from Norman would run the Hurricane out of their own stadium.

The Golden Hurricane broke the scoreboard at 12:30 in the second quarter when Williams hit Marquis Shoulders. It was a 28-7 game.

However, the Sooners would respond as Gabriel hit a wide-open Anderson at the Tulsa 1, who would cross into the end zone to make it 35-7 with 9:32 left.

It seemed like once Tulsa got a TD, there would be an exchange of scores. Williams drove the team again as he capped the drive off with a scoring pass of 18 yards to Devan Williams. It was a 21-point game for a third time with 5:30 left before halftime.

Zac Schmidt booted a 20-yard field goal before halftime.

The second half began with Tulsa driving to the OU 2-yard line, but the Hurricane could only get a field goal out of it and it was 38-17.

The Sooners answered with Anderson scoring his second touchdown of the day, from 42 yards to the end zone, making it 45-17 with more than seven minutes to go in the third quarter.

After Tulsa had success with its passing midgame, the OU defense began turning on the heat, sacking Williams and forcing more turnovers.