Let’s start with this: No one really wants to get caught up into a shootout.
Ask Lincoln Riley or Kyler Murray, they’ll tell you: Scoring touchdowns is tons of fun. Scoring points on every possession is really enjoyable. But having to score points on every possession … or else?
That’s insane pressure.
“As a team, I don’t think we look forward to being in shootouts,” says Murray, Oklahoma’s junior quarterback.
Said Riley, the Sooners’ second-year coach: “I enjoy close games. I don’t necessarily enjoy shootouts.”
But they both might as well have shrugged, because with these Sooners, wild, wacky, who-has-the-ball-last affairs have become almost inevitable.
Oklahoma brings the nation’s top scoring offense into its College Football Playoff semifinal at the Orange Bowl, an extremely balanced, very potent attack led by Murray, the newly minted Heisman Trophy winner. But its hopes of upsetting No. 1 Alabama appear to hinge almost entirely on Murray and the offense – because as good as the Sooners are at scoring touchdowns, they’re just as accomplished at, well, giving them up.
Oklahoma ranks 109th in total defense, and 128th – that’s dead, solid next-to-last – in passing defense. In other words, if Oklahoma’s going to win, it’ll be in a shootout.
“If that’s what it comes down to then, yeah,” Murray says. “I think we have the recipe. I think we know what to do, think we know how to handle it. “
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