Oklahoma running back Rodney Anderson breaks through a tackle against TCU in Norman on Saturday night. Anderson finished with 290 total yards and four touchdowns. (Associated Press)
NORMAN — Coming out of Oklahoma’s game with TCU on Saturday, one thing is certain.
The Sooners (9-1, 6-1 Big 12) are one of the four best teams in the country — they proved that with a 38-20 throttling of the No. 6 Horned Frogs.
OU controlled the game from the beginning, giving us a slightly different flavor from the typical shootouts we’ve seen throughout the season.
This weekend was one of the most eventful this season with two of the top four teams in the College Football Playoffs rankings going down in blowout fashion, making the Sooners’ performance even more timely.
Baker Mayfield and Rodney Anderson’s monster performances took center stage, and the defense tied everything together, giving OU its first complete-game outing since the Ohio State game just over two months ago.
Although the Sooners get mostly positive marks, there was one downside that you either thought was clever or had you groaning at your television.
With that said, which performances raised the bar, and which one tempered the excitement at Gaylord Memorial Stadium? Let’s take a look.
Positives: 1. Mayfield’s dominant first half
At this point, the Heisman Trophy seems to be Mayfield’s to lose.
Only seven days after a record-breaking Bedlam outing, Mayfield took no steps back, dissecting the No. 6 defense in the nation — No. 1 in the Big 12 — with ease.
The redshirt senior completed 18 of his 27 passes for 333 yards and three touchdowns and no interceptions, while also rushing for 50 yards on 11 carries.
Oh, I forgot to mention most of that came in the first half.
Yep, he threw only six passes in the second half for 34 yards, which might have been a little too conservative, but I’ll get back to that.
Behind the arm of Mayfield, OU scored more points in the opening two quarters than any team has been able to manage against TCU in an entire game.
The Sooners’ 38 points were the most surrendered by the Horned Frogs this season, beating out SMU’s 36 points in Week 3.
Coming into the contest, the Horned Frogs allowed 13.9 points per game, giving up only 24 total points the past four contests combined.
It was also the most points TCU has allowed since OU hung 52 on it last season. I guess the Horned Frogs aren’t quite up to the task when trying to slow down Mayfield and his prolific offense.
And according to Mayfield, this might be only the tip of the iceberg for him and the Sooners.
“We’re getting better and better,” Mayfield said. “We’re getting better at the right time of the year. That’s pretty scary for other teams right now.”
Scary, indeed.
2. Emergence of Anderson
There is no doubt about it — OU’s backfield now belongs to Anderson.
For the first six weeks of the season, the running back position was in limbo, with three backs — Anderson, Abdul Adams and Trey Sermon — all vying for the starting spot. As the battle raged on, it seemed Anderson was all but out of the race.
Adams and Sermon accumulated 117 of the 139 carries among the trio through the Texas game, but something changed after the Sooners’ 29-24 win over the Longhorns on Oct. 14.
Since then, Anderson has carried the ball 75 percent of the time, averaging 147.5 yards per game and scoring nine touchdowns.
He had his best game yet against TCU, tallying 290 total yards (151 rushing, 139 receiving) and four touchdowns.
His scores — two rushing and two receiving — all came in the first half, making him only the sixth player in school history to score four touchdowns in one half.
“He just kept getting better,” OU coach Lincoln Riley said. “Really that Texas game, that’s when things turned. He made some big plays in that game and got some confidence. We got confidence in him, and it’s just grown and grown and grown.”
Anderson might be the final piece of the puzzle to complete the Sooners’ run to a second College Football Playoff berth in three years, and perhaps — just maybe — an eighth national title.
3. Defensive woes subside
It is no mystery OU has looked suspect in the defense category.
However, any questions seemed to be answered when the Sooners held the Horned Frogs, who averaged nearly 36 points per game coming in, to only 20 points.
The most interesting part of it all was the fact defensive coordinator Mike Stoops started four true freshmen — Kenneth Murray, Robert Barnes, Tre Brown and Tre Norwood — in the secondary, and they didn’t disappoint. Barnes, Brown and Norwood were making the first starts of their careers.
Norwood had two pass breakups, while Brown and Barnes combined for seven tackles. Murray had five tackles, which tied him for second with five teammates.
“It’s a very uncomfortable situation playing four true freshmen,” Stoops said. “I don’t know if it’s ever been done here at Oklahoma, but that’s the position we were in.”
If this keeps up, Jordan Thomas and Parnell Motley have probably seen the last of their starts for some time.
Negative: Second-half offense
Look, I get it.
The game was well in hand, and with the defense playing so well, Riley decided to go conservative in the second half and not score any points.
That’s nice and all, but if you’re a fan of the game, you probably found this incredibly frustrating like I did.
I already didn’t like Riley’s apology for Sermon’s long touchdown run with less a minute left against Oklahoma State, and I probably disliked this strategy even more.
It’s almost like the first-year coach was trying to atone for that score by refusing to score at all in the second half against TCU.
Mayfield challenged the fans early in the week to show up and make a difference, and the 88,308 people — the largest crowd in OU history — who packed into the stadium did just that.
However, the Sooners rewarded them with only one half of offensive fireworks. Maybe I’m overreacting, but I would’ve felt taken advantage of.
That certainly doesn’t make for compelling football. The second half probably produced more yawns than cheers.
“The second half was totally different,” Riley said. “We were able to play really conservatively offensively, even though I’m not happy we didn’t get a couple of the short-yardage plays. Our defense was playing well, which gives you the opportunity to do that.”
Of course, maybe the vanilla second half was by design. After all, the Sooners and TCU look destined for another matchup a few weeks from now in the Big 12 Championship game, pending any major meltdowns from either team.
If that is the case, though, Riley isn’t letting anyone know it.
I guess we won’t have an answer until OU hangs 50-plus on the Horned Frogs, which it could've done Saturday, inside AT&T Stadium in Dallas.
“I really wasn’t thinking about that at all,” Riley said. “I was thinking about just trying to win the game at that point.”