Source: Tulsa World, Okla.迷你倉Nov. 08--WACO, Texas -- The silence in the Oklahoma locker room spoke volumes following Thursday night's humiliating 41-12 loss to Baylor."It was very difficult," wide receiver Jalen Saunders said. "We hate losing. Everyone hates losing.""This is a tough one to swallow."The Big 12 Conference game was billed as a matchup between two of the nation's top programs, but only one squad looked worthy of elite status.Bob Stoops could have tied Barry Switzer as Oklahoma's all-time leader for coaching victories. Instead, the 29-point setback was the fourth-worst loss of Stoops' 15-year career."We didn't coach them, obviously, well enough, and they didn't do a good enough job paying attention to detail," Stoops answered when asked about OU's mistake-filled game. "Some of it is their responsibility, and ours as coaches. It's always that way."The sports adage is "win as a team, lose as a team." OU's defense started off giving the Sooners a chance to compete against Baylor's high-powered attack.But the offense didn't come onboard."The defense did play well early," co-offensive coordinator Josh Heupel said. "We talked about it for the last week-and-a-half that when you are playing an explosive offense like this, it has to be a team game. Special teams played well enough."Offensively, we need to do some things to help the defense out and keep them off the field and keep them in long drive situations instead of short fields."No. 5 Baylor (8-0 overall, 5-0 in Big 12) managed just three points after its first five possessions, which any coach would take against the nation's top-ranked offense.But No. 12 OU could not find the end zone. The offense only managed a field goal after inheriting the ball at the Baylor 12-yard line after Saunders' return of a free kick.A fourth-and-goal from the 1 was stuffed and a missed field goal and Blake Bell interception doomed the team in the opening 30 minutes.How hard was that for Oklahoma's defense, especially after shutting down the Bears early?"It was real frustrating," said linebacker Frank Shannon, who finished with a game-high 15 tackles. "But we're a team, so we have to put that behind us."OU actually led 5-3 after Michael Hunnicutt's 22-yard field goal and Dominique Alexander's sack of Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty in the end zone for a safety in the second quarter.The lead could have been extended on OU's next possession, but Hunnicutt's 48-yard field goal was wide left. It was a precursor of bad things to come.Baylor, which had only trailed 2 minutes and 6 seconds all season, put together a five-play, 69-yard drive capped by Petty'smini storage5-yard TD run. It was the team's 45th scoring drive of two minutes or less this season, and the Bears led 10-5 with 7:02 remaining before halftime.After an OU punt, Baylor put together a 93-yard scoring drive kept alive by a key third-down penalty.Eric Striker was ruled offsides after Baylor failed to pick up a third-and-9 from its own 8. Given new life, the Bears picked up the first down and, seven plays later, Petty scored on a quarterback sneak to make it 17-5 with a minute left before halftime.OU chose to be aggressive after receiving the kickoff and paid for its decision. Bell was intercepted by Eddie Lackey at its 38 and, five snaps later, Petty connected with Antwan Goodley for a 24-yard TD pass.Baylor, with a world of momentum, entered the locker room with a 24-5 halftime lead."The offsides on a third-and-9 and had a stop, that was a killer for us," OU defensive coordinator Mike Stoops said. "We were going to get the ball back at midfield and have a chance to go in before the half with a lead."Then they go 90 yards, score and get an interception and score. That was the deflating part of the game for me personally and for the defense. The last five minutes of the first half were really critical, and we just didn't come up with the plays."The Sooners' offense tried different things to produce points. Backup quarterback Trevor Knight took some snaps (there's no quarterback controversy, Bob Stoops said) to change things up. Two running backs were inserted to help offset the loss of injured fullback Trey Millard. But nothing worked."They beat us up front," Heupel said. "We weren't efficient throwing it when we needed to."I don't know if we hit any of the play-action shots that we had tonight. We didn't get any chunks."There wasn't a lot that we did well enough to beat a good team on the road."Oklahoma ended with just 237 yards of offense.Bell was 15 of 35 passing for 150 yards. He had two interceptions. The running game, so effective against Texas Tech one week earlier, netted 87 yards.Oklahoma's Big 12 championship hopes all but vanished in the Waco night. The team needed a win to keep pace with league leaders Baylor and Texas and now need both of those teams to lose three games."We can't control what happens out there," Bell said. "Obviously, we lost tonight."All I know is from here we have to go in the right direction and get ready for (Iowa State) at home -- that's all we can do."Eric Bailey 918-581-8391eric.bailey@tulsaworld.comCopyright: ___ (c)2013 Tulsa World (Tulsa, Okla.) Visit Tulsa World (Tulsa, Okla.) at .tulsaworld.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉
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