The Crimson & Cream bounced back on Senior Day.

On a perfect day for football, the No. 13 Oklahoma Sooners celebrated Senior Day with a 28-21 victory over the Iowa State Cyclones (6-5, 4-4). With the win, OU improves to 10-1 on the season, 7-1 in Big 12 play.

Caleb Williams followed up his poorest performance of the season last weekend with another tough showing against ISU. Despite struggling to conduct the offense with any semblance of consistency, the true freshman dual-threat completed 8-of-18 passes for 87 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He also added 67 rushing yards and another score on 12 carries.

After Oklahoma’s defense gave up a game-opening touchdown drive to Iowa State junior RB Breece Hall, Williams responded right away on the Sooners’ second play of the game with a 74-yard rushing touchdown.

Later in the first quarter, a scrambling Brock Purdy found himself on the bad end of Perrion Winfrey locomotive to the chest. The destructive collision forced a defensive stop for the Sooners and set the tone of the defense for the next two quarters.

Just before the end of the first half, as the Cyclones were driving, the OU defense rose up to make one of the plays of the year. Key Lawrence flew in to force a Purdy fumble, and a perfect bounce landed in the hands of a streaking Jalen Redmond for a massive scoop-and-score that gave the Sooners the lead going into the break.

Defensively, the Sooners held the Cyclones in check for most of the day until late. Still, after an abysmal outing in Waco one week ago, Alex Grinch’s defense stymied ISU for just 51 total rushing yards while also forcing a pair of turnovers. Going forward, it’ll be crucial for this team to maintain that level of play as the competition ramps up even more.

In the second half, after Oklahoma built a 28-14 lead in the fourth, backup Iowa State QB Hunter Dekkers came in for a hurt Purdy and led the Fighting Matt Campbells to a scoring drive. Purdy would later return to try to complete the comeback, but a tipped ball on fourth down landed in the hands of senior safety Pat Fields to effectively seal the deal.

Up next, Oklahoma wraps up the 2021 regular season in Stillwater on Saturday, Nov. 27. There, a highly anticipated Bedlam matchup with the Oklahoma State Cowboys awaits. Depending on what happens later today, and should OU win that contest, there’s a strong chance that the Big 12 Championship Game one week later features an immediate rematch between the Sooner state school. Kick-off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT on ABC.

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Head to the comments section to give us your thoughts on the game and everything else throughout the day.

The Oklahoma Sooners play their final home game of the 2021 season, tangling with the Iowa State Cyclones in what has turned into one of the most competitive annual matchups in the Big 12. With a conference title still in sight, the Sooners are looking to bounce back from last week’s dismal showing at Baylor.

Time & TV: Saturday, Nov. 20 at 11 a.m. CT on FOX

Commentary: Gus Johnson, Joel Klatt and Jenny Taft

Streaming: FOXSports

Line: Oklahoma -3

O/U: 59

Gambling Picks

Check out this week’s Picks Trying Not to Suck Podcast for more.

Iowa State (+3) at Oklahoma

Baylor at Kansas State (+1)

Nebraska (+9) at Wisconsin

Michigan State at Ohio State (-19)

Oklahoma State at Texas Tech (+10.5)

East Carolina at Navy (+4)

Oregon at Utah (-3)

Featured games include Texas-West Virginia, Ohio State-Michigan State and Nebraska-Wisconsin.

The weekly college football gambling podcast with Blatant Homerism host Allen Kenney and The Skinny is back for week 12 of the 2021 season. Featured games this week include Texas-West Virginia, Ohio State–Michigan State, Nebraska-Wisconsin and more. They finish up discussing Oklahoma’s last home game of the season against Iowa State.

Make sure to subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice! We’re now on ITunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Google Play and Stitcher. If you enjoy the podcast, make sure to give us a five-star rating on ITunes, as it will help it reach more listeners. You can also catch the episodes live each week on Facebook and Twitter.

CONWAY, S.C. (AP) — Jordan Goldwire and Umoja Gibson each scored 13 points and Oklahoma (3-0, 0-0 Big 12) beat East Carolina (3-1, 0-0 American) 79-74 on Thursday night in the Myrtle Beach Invitational.

After building a 12-point lead in the second half, the Sooners had to gut out a tough one to advance to the semifinals.

In their first trip away from the Lloyd Noble Center in 2021-22, the Oklahoma Sooners held on to survive against the East Carolina Pirates, 79-74. Five Sooners ended up scoring double figures, include Jordan Goldwire and Umoja Gibson with 13 apiece.

In the first half of action, OU connected on 15 of 23 field goal attempts, but 10 turnovers helped keep it at a 1-point contest at intermission. After building a 12-point second-half lead and appearing to break it open, the offense began to stagnate, which allowed the Pirates to hang around. In spite of going the final 2:35 without a field goal, OU’s defense and reliability at the free throw line (21-27) won the day.

One of the positives of the evening was the amount of depth that the team displayed, as 11 different Sooners saw minutes Thursday evening. Perhaps most notable were the quality minutes contributed by freshman guard Bijan Cortes and redshirt sophomore center Rick Issanza, who made important plays at crucial junctures.

Tanner Graves, Jalen Hill and Elijah Harkless also reach double figures for the Sooners, scoring 12, 12, and 10 respectively.

The Sooners will face the winner of Indiana State and Old Dominion Friday evening.

The Crimson & Cream fell five spots after losing to Baylor over the weekend.

The Oklahoma Sooners (9-1, 6-1) are coming off of a loss for the first time in more than a calendar year, and going into Week 12, the College Football Playoff committee has dropped OU down to No. 13 in this week’s CFP rankings.

Full CFP Top 25 Poll

1. Georgia Bulldogs
2. Alabama Crimson Tide
3. Oregon Ducks
4. Ohio State Buckeyes
5. Cincinnati Bearcats
6. Michigan Wolverines
7. Michigan State Spartans
8. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
9. Oklahoma State Cowboys
10. Wake Forest Demon Deacons
11. Baylor Bears
12. Ole Miss Rebels
13. Oklahoma Sooners
14. BYU Cougars
15. Wisconsin Badgers
16. Texas A&M Aggies
17. Iowa Hawkeyes
18. Pittsburgh Panthers
19. San Diego State Aztecs
20. NC State Wolfpack
21. Arkansas Razorbacks
22. UTSA Roadrunners
23. Utah Utes
24. Houston Cougars
25. Mississippi State Bulldogs

Notes:

• Along with Oklahoma suffering its first loss of the season on Saturday, four other ranked teams (No. 11 Texas A&M, No. 16 NC State, No. 17 Auburn and No. 19 Purdue) also fell in defeat. If you’ve been keeping track, ranked teams have been losing at a near-record pace through 11 weeks, which means you can probably expect that theme to continue as the parity in college football looks to be at an all-time high.
• OU’s path to the College Football Playoff took a major hit last weekend, but a top four spot isn’t totally unrealistic. First and foremost, the Sooners have to win out as 12-1 Big 12 champs, and style points certainly won’t hurt. Additionally, they’ll need quite a bit of help around the nation. Let the annual tradition of scoreboard watching begin.
• Mike Gundy’s Cowboys are inside the CFP’s top 10 for the first time in the playoff era. If both Sooner State teams win this weekend, there’s a chance college football could potentially be treated to back-to-back top 12 Bedlam matchups for the conference crown.
• The Houston Cougars are in the top 25 after winning nine straight games following a season-opening loss to Texas Tech. The future Big 12 program is quietly surging toward the postseason as one of the top Group of Five programs in the nation.

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