In a game with so few possessions, Oklahoma needed to make the most of their chances.
They failed.
Quarterback John Mateer threw three interceptions and was sacked five times behind a beat-up offensive line, and No. 15-ranked Kentucky struck early and delivered clutch plays late in a 21-13 victory over the Sooners on Saturday night at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.
Mateer did his part early, the OU defense was suffocating again, but too many squandered scoring opportunities fell by the wayside as Kentucky won its fifth in a row.
The Sooners played sluggish, possibly a lingering side effect of the dreaded "Texas hangover" - an inability to bounce back, quickly refocus and play sharp following an emotional win over Texas. The Sooners beat the No. 1-ranked Longhorns 27-24 last week. (Texas lost against earlier Saturday, this time at home to Florida.)
They were sharp at times early, but simply fell apart late.
With the loss, OU falls to 3-3 overall and 1-2 in Southeastern Conference play while No. 15-ranked Kentucky is 6-1 and 4-1 in SEC action.
Both teams had just three full offensive drives in the first half.
Kentucky opened with a touchdown drive - the first team to do so this season against Brent Venables' defense - for a 7-0 lead, and then Mateer completed 6-of-7 passes on the ensuing drive.
But that only produced a Tate Sandell field goal that made it 7-3.
Mateer, offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and the OU offense engineered another nice drive on their next possession, but deep in the red zone, the coaching staff gambled on an awkward, fourth-and-2, fake field goal pass, which the Wildcats intercepted - one of four Kentucky takeaways through the air.
Mateer put together another scoring drive just before halftime, finishing it with a 20-yard touchdown throw to Rocky Beers, putting the Sooners up 10-7.
But that would be the Sooners' only time across the goal line.
OU quickly punted to start the third quarter, and the defense forced another punt.
Mateer and the Sooner offense put together another drive that took double-digit plays, but they bogged down again and another field goal by Sandell made it 13-7.
That's when the Sooners' next drive - also patiently efficient and very promising at the time - ended with a familiar sour taste.
Mateer's arm was hit while throwing deep to Isaiah Sategna. Instead of a possible 38-yard touchdown to Sategna, it became a 43-yard interception return by UK's Ty Bryant.
That pumped life into the Kentucky offense. It also set the Wildcats up for a 44-yard touchdown march, capped by Kenny Minche's 12-yard TD throw to Willie Rodriguez - their second scoring connection of the game - and put UK up 14-13 early in the fourth quarter.
OU got the ball back with 6:04 but went three-and-out as Mateer was sacked twice.
Mateer was intercepted on each of the Sooners' final two drives, the last one a 41-yard pick six to push Kentucky's lead to 21-13 with just 67 seconds to play.
OU visits Mississippi State next week. The Bulldogs are 3-3 and have been blown out in each of their last two SEC games.
Here is the OU stock report from Saturday's game:
After catching just three passes all day last week - before his finishing pair of balletic sideline grabs in the closing seconds saved the day - Oklahoma's best offensive player got the football early and often against the Wildcats.
Sategna caught four passes in the first half alone, although he managed just 23 yards on those. He also nearly broke free on a 16-yard first half punt return.
Sategna nearly caught a 20-yard touchdown late in the first half, but John Mateer's pass was thrown slightly behind him and the defender broke it up (Rocky Beers caught a TD on the next play).
Sategna led the Sooners with eight catches for 83 yards.
Choice got his first career start and opened the game with just his fourth catch of the season, converting a third-and-5 with an 18-yard, toe-tapping sideline grab.
Then, just before halftime, John Mateer found Choice over the middle on first down from the OU 44. The 6-foot-4, 211-pound Choice spun and made safety Terhyon Nichols miss, then rambled downfield for a 34-yard gain.
Mateer threw to Rocky Beers two plays later for a 20-yard touchdown with 30 seconds left to give Oklahoma a 10-7 halftime lead.
After zero receptions in the first three games, the sophomore has now caught a pass in three consecutive games, including a touchdown late in the blowout loss at Georgia.
Choice had three catches for 70 yards in the first half and finished Saturday with a team-high 98 yards on five catches.
Kreul, a true freshman, busted on the first play of Kentucky's second possession, crashing down when he should have read quarterback Kenny Minchey keeping the ball (and gaining 13 easy yards. Rookie mistake.
But then, on the Wildcats' next two plays, Kreul made up for his error when he dropped Minchey on a keeper for a 1-yard loss, then ended the first quarter by sacking Minchey for a loss of 2.
Kreul's final stats: six tackles, 2.5 quarterback sacks and three tackles for loss.
Not sure if the "jump pass" part of the field goal fake that was intercepted in the end zone was an improvisation by holder Jacob Ulrich or part of the play design by special teams coordinator Doug Deakin.
But Ulrich's throw was way behind Rocky Beers, who was running from right to left across an open secondary, and was intercepted by Jordan Castell.
A good throw would have been caught uncontested for a TD by Beers. But jumping up in the air before throwing it was unnecessary and completely derailed any chance of Ulrich having accuracy on the ball.
As a punter, Ulrich was his usual reliable self. His first punt - OU's opening drive of the second half - went 54 yards and pinned the Wildcats inside their 10.
He finished with three punts and averaged 45.0 yards per kick.
It's kind of difficult to be too hard on John Mateer for those three interceptions. The first one clearly wasn't his fault. The second one was an alarmingly bad inability simply see a safety standing directly in the path of his receiver. And the third one was a desperate attempt to rally the team while under more duress.
The cause of that duress was the OU offensive line, which gave up five sacks - three in the second half.
Left tackle Ryan Fodje was somehow being allowed to play even though at times he was literally hopping on one foot because of the badly sprained ankle on the other one. His in-and-out of the lineup shuffle caused movement elsewhere, such as Peyton Joseph having to move to tackle to help. Left guard Eddy Pierre-Louis remained out. So did left tackle Michael Fasusi.
Ultimately, Mateer's stock - trending up, if ever so slightly, after those two throws to beat Texas - has crashed again.
Mateer completed 24-of-40 passes for 270 yards with one TD and the three picks. He also was limited to just 9 yards on a team-high (by far) 13 rushing attempts.
Did he lead his team to a win? No. Is he credited with three more interceptions? Yes. So the other numbers don't matter.
Six of his incompletions and two of his interceptions (both were his fault) happened in the fourth quarter.
The OU defense could have been much better, especially in the red zone (Kentucky was 2-for-3) and on third down (5-for-12). But the Wildcats managed just 230 yards total offense and scored 14 points.
That should have been a performance worthy of victory.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/oklahoma as Oklahoma-Kentucky Stock Report: Who's Up, Who's Down for OU? .
