The Sooners faced a 7-2 Baylor team that they’d beaten seven straight times. But instead of capturing a needed win, Baylor handed Oklahoma a 27-14 loss.
It is rare that a Power 5 team’s undefeated record works against it. The 9-0 Georgia Bulldogs are the top team in college football, and, barring an unlikely loss, are nearly assured to make a playoff appearance. Last season, Nick Saban’s Alabama team held that distinction. The two years prior, it was Louisiana State in 2019 and Clemson in 2018. This year was Oklahoma’s turn. The Sooners entered the season with an offense that was expected to be potent, led by a quarterback in Spencer Rattler who’d drawn preseason Heisman Trophy hype. But despite winning 17 straight games and pulling off several comeback victories in 2021, the Sooners hadn’t impressed the College Football Playoff selection committee. Absent from their 9-0 résumé was a win over a team currently ranked in the top 25 of the College Football Playoff rankings. “There just hasn’t been a signature win yet,” Gary Barta, the chair of the selection committee, told reporters this week. Saturday was Oklahoma’s chance. The No.8 Sooners faced a 7-2 Baylor team that they’d beaten seven straight times. But instead of capturing a needed win, the Sooners lost, and they underperformed badly in the process. In a possible preview of the Big 12 championship game, Baylor handed Oklahoma a 27-14 loss that may have punctured the Sooners’ College Football Playoff hopes. Baylor did so by quieting Oklahoma’s offense, which entered the game averaging nearly 500 yards a game and over seven yards per play, and by depending on the rushing of junior quarterback Gerry Bohanon, who finished with 107 yards on the ground.
