Bob Stoops
Opening Statement
“I want to start out by complementing TCU, their program, Coach Patterson, their team. Really a hard fought game all the way through four quarters. I knew it was going to take all four quarters. They played an excellent, well-fought game. I’m really proud of my guys to have played the way they did. In particular I thought offensively with running we had great balance. I thought our running game was excellent with the patched up offensive line.
On the trailing at the beginning of the game
“I saw a lot of fight back. We did come in with a lot of guys who didn’t even make the trip. I saw guys just fight and continue to work. This team has fight and character, and we need to do a lot of fundamental things better. I believe as we go through we will keep getting better from it. I don’t like the fact that we didn’t make some of the plays in the end, but we built the lead. It shows that we are capable and now we’ve got to add to it with more consistency.”
On defense
“They came up big in the third quarter. We got a lot of 3 and outs, and you don’t get a lot from TCU. I thought we got a lot of pressure most of the day, other than those breakdowns on some of those deep balls. We’ve just got to get more consistent play. I thought our guys made a lot better on the deep balls until the fourth quarter. I like what I saw from Michiah Quick in the last week or two, so I think that’s going to keep getting better I really do.”
On Baker Mayfield
“I thought he was exceptional today. He threw some great deep balls for touchdowns and got some great third downs. He put them right in there in tough situations on third down. I think it gets overlooked, 8 out of 15 is pretty good. It opens up some of the run pass option type plays. I thought he did an exceptional job on a bunch of runs, pulling the ball and running when he had the opportunity. I thought he did a great job managing that as well.”
Dede Westbrook
On coach talking about fight and resilience
“No matter what, we kept fighting and we kept competing. We were down 14 points from the beginning and the way that we came together as a team on the sideline and kept pushing to the end.”
Steven Parker
On what changed for OU to come back from being down 21-7
“Just the team mentality. Prior to this game we were all on the same page that we aren’t going to let these first three games define our season, and obviously at the beginning of the game that’s how it was actually going. So we got together with the offense and the defense and said obviously this is not what we want out of our team, so let’s just turn this around and play as a team, play for each other and obviously we turned it around.”
Game Notes
- OU’s 52 points were the most TCU had allowed in regulation at home since giving up 52 to Kansas in 1996.
- The Sooners’ win marked just the 16th time that TCU had lost at home under head coach Gary Patterson. TCU is 76-16 at home in that span.
- Oklahoma held the Horned Frogs to just 65 yards on the ground, their lowest total since rushing for 60 yards against West Virginia in 2013. TCU had rushed for at least 195 yards in three of its previous four games this year.
- Oklahoma improved to 56-30 (.651) vs. AP Top 25 teams in the Bob Stoops era.
- The game marked just the 10th time under Stoops that the Sooners faced an AP Top 25 team while unranked. OU is now 6-4 in such games with wins in five of its last six contests.
- OU improved to 11-5 all-time against TCU. Oklahoma is now 6-1 at TCU, with the lone defeat coming two years ago (37-33).
- Baker Mayfield scored his first two rushing touchdowns of the season on runs of 11 and 9 yards. Mayfield has rushed for two scores in a game one other time in his career (vs. Tulsa on 9/19/15).
- Mayfield threw his 8th TD pass of the season and the 56th of his career on a 67-yard flea-flicker to Dede Westbrook in the second quarter.
- After totaling 329 yards of total offense on the day, Mayfield now ranks 6th all-time among Sooners in total offense with 5,231. He entered the day ranked 9th and passed former Sooner QBs Nate Hybl (5,074), Jack Mildren (5,117) and Jamelle Hollieway (5,143).
- Joe Mixon led the Sooners in rushing with 105 yards, his second 100-yard game of the year. He also added 5 catches for 70 yards.
- Samaje Perine scored his second rushing TD of the game came late in the third quarter on a 1-yard run. The score tied him with Adrian Peterson for sixth on OU’s career rushing touchdown list with 41 total.
- Dede Westbrook caught a career-long 67-yard touchdown pass from Mayfield, on a flea-flicker, midway through the second quarter to give OU its first lead of the game (28-21). The touchdown was the fifth of Westbrook’s career and his first this season.
- Westbrook also recorded his first career multi-score game when he caught a 40-yard touchdown from Mayfield late in the second quarter.
- Jordan Evans led the Sooners in tackles with 10, tying a season high. Also added two tackles for loss.
- Steven Parker logged the first interception of his career on the Horned Frogs’ second possession of the game.