By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

Fourth-ranked Baylor saw its dreams of an undefeated season come to an end Saturday night, along with a national-best 20-game home-field winning streak, 10-game streak at McLane Stadium and a school-record 10-game winning streak in Big 12 play.

But coach Art Briles and the Bears say that a 44-34 loss to 12th-ranked Oklahoma "won't define us."

"The good thing is we still control our own destiny, (we need to) try to finish out and do right and see where it all ends up," said Briles, whose team falls to 8-1 overall and 5-1 in league play with games left against Oklahoma State, TCU and Texas. "There's a few of us banging around there with one loss, so we'll just see where it ends up. I can't predict the future, but I certainly feel like I know them and have a lot of confidence in how we'll prepare and how we'll play."

After going his first eight games without a turnover and throwing for 419 yards and three touchdowns in his first collegiate start last week, freshman quarterback Jarrett Stidham was 16-of-27 for 257 yards and two touchdowns and two interceptions and was sacked twice.

"I just think we made too many mistakes and had some untimely penalties there at the end," Briles said. "But, Oklahoma played extremely well and got out of here with a win."

While the loss certainly hurts the playoff chances for Baylor, which was sixth in the first two rankings by the College Football Playoff committee, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops believes his Sooners (9-1, 6-1) are maybe squeezing their way into the hunt for one of the four spots.

"Go into their backyard on a night like tonight and play this way, you know, we're one of those teams that has a chance," said Stoops, whose team has won five in a row since a 24-17 loss to Texas. "Again, you come into an undefeated team ranked that high, waiting on you, and win by 10, it's got to be a positive."

Battling back to a two-touchdown deficit, the Bears seemed to have all the momentum on their side when Stidham connected with Jay Lee for a 17-yard touchdown pass that made it a 37-34 game with 10:29 left.

"No doubt," said Stidham, who was battling through a back injury all night. "With momentum switching like that, everybody's fired up."

Punished all night by the passing of Baker Mayfield and hard-nosed running of Samaje Perine, the defense seemed poised to give the ball right back to the offense with a chance to tie it up or take the lead.

Running back Joe Mixon was dumped for a five-yard loss by nickel back Travon Blanchard on first down, setting up a second-and-15 from the Sooners' 17. And then on the next play, Mayfield was flushed out of the pocket and looked like he was going to either be sacked or throw it away, setting up a third-and-long.

But Mayfield and OU got the reprieve they so desperately needed when Blanchard was flagged for a horse-collar personal foul, dragging down the OU quarterback by the top of his jersey near the shoulder pads.

Instead of maybe punting from inside their own 20, the Sooners picked up a first down out to the 32 and drove 78 yards in 10 plays, extending the lead to 44-34 on Mayfield's seven-yard TD pass to H-back Dimitri Flowers with 4:47 showing on the game clock.

Blanchard, who had a first-half interception that set up a short, game-tying drive, said he was just trying to "grab cloth and bring him down."

"I just had bad hand placement and got the flag that extended their drive to help them go down and score," he said.

"That's massive, because we had momentum, and the game's all about momentum," Briles said. "If that's not called, then I think they're third-and-20-something on their own 6- or 5-yard line, and we're getting the ball hopefully around the midfield area with a chance to down and take the lead. I haven't seen it, but it was called. You've got to live with it, and you've still got to stop them, and we didn't."

Any chance for a late comeback ended on the Bears' next offensive play, when safety Ahmad Thomas intercepted Stidham's underthrown pass.

"That was just bad judgment on my part, probably the worst pass I threw all night," Stidham said.

While the Bears averaged just 3.6 yards per carry, finishing with 159 yards on 44 attempts, it was the running game that got them going early.

Shock Linwood, who posted his sixth 100-yard game of the season with 103 yards on 21 carries, picked up 51 on four totes on the opening drive. Devin Chafin finished off the opening drive with a five-yard run, his first of three TDs on the night, to give the Bears the early lead.

After going three-and-out on their opening series, the Sooners answered with an 11-play, 65-yard scoring drive, aided by a pair of costly penalties on the defense. Perine, who finished with 166 yards and two TDs on 28 carries, capped it with a six-yard run, with the extra point giving OU the lead at 7-6.

The Sooners failed to capitalize on Baylor's first turnover of the game, a Chafin fumble at the 38, but they made it 13-6 when Mayfield hooked up with Sterling Shepard for a 39-yard TD pass over safety Chance Waz. Mayfield was 24-of-34 for 270 yards and three touchdowns, while Shepard had a huge night, hauling in 14 passes for 177 yards and scoring twice.

"We can't let (the penalties) extend drives," Blanchard said. "We have to get them off the field and get the ball back to our offense."

Blanchard did just that, stepping in front of a Mayfield pass and wrestling it from Shepard to set the offense up at the OU 42.

Grinding it out, the Bears took 10 plays and nearly 3 ½ minutes, tying it up at 13-13 on a three-yard run by Chafin.

Mayfield bounced back to go 4-for-4 on the next drive and then scored on a two-yard run to give OU a 20-13 halftime edge.

"We didn't complement each other very well as a football team tonight," Briles said. "The defense would get stops, and the offense wouldn't do anything with the ball. And sometimes, a little bit of vice versa."

Baylor tied it up again on its opening drive of the second half, with Chafin scoring from six yards out this time. Oklahoma started to pull away, scoring back-to-back on a seven-yard TD reception by Shepard and Perine's 55-yard TD burst, but the Bears got it back to a one-score game when 400-pound tight end La Quan McGowan hauled in a five-yard touchdown pass.

When the defense held the Sooners to a 33-yard field goal by Austin Seibert after the first of two Stidham picks, and then Lee hauled in the 17-yard strike from the freshman QB, it looked like the stage was set for the Bears' fourth-quarter comeback.

But Oklahoma had other ideas.

"This doesn't define our season," Stidham said. "We're going to come back tomorrow and look at the tape and get back to the drawing board and go up to OK State and see what we can do."

All-American tackle Spencer Drango said the Bears have to "clear it and move on."

"There's nothing really to hang our heads about," he said. "Yes, we lost at home, and that hurts. But, we can still win the conference, so that's what our goal is."

Corey Coleman, who came in with a national-best 20 TD catches, was held to just three receptions for 51 yards and failed to score for the first time all year. He had had multiple TD catches in seven straight games.

The Bears hit the road for their next two games, facing fifth-ranked Oklahoma State (10-0, 7-0) at 6:30 p.m. next Saturday, Nov. 22, in Stillwater, Okla., in a game that will be televised nationally by FOX. OSU, the lone remaining undefeated team in the Big 12, rallied from a 17-point deficit to beat Iowa State, 35-31, Saturday in Ames, Iowa.

"To go down like this, it hurts inside, not only for me but for the fans," Lee said. "We've just got to look forward to bounce back and showing up next week and get ready for Oklahoma State."