It was a dominant performance by the No. 11 ranked University of Oklahoma defense on Saturday, as the Sooners registered a team-record 10 sacks in the game, and defeated No. 22 Auburn, 24-17, on Saturday at Gaylord Family – Memorial Stadium in Norman.

The Sooners remain undefeated with an overall record of 4-0, 1-0 in the SEC. Auburn dropped to 3-1 overall, 0-1 SEC.

“The energy in the stadium all afternoon was really cool,” said OU head coach Brent Venables. “Proud of our players. The determination, the resolve, the grit, the ability to overcome, keep fighting back. Making plays when you have the opportunity to. There aren’t going to be a whole lot of them to be had, but you have to complement each other.”

Both teams exchanged field goals in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Sooners took a 10-3 lead on a 24-yard touchdown pass from John Mateer to Isaiah Sategna III.

Auburn tied the game before halftime when former Sooners’ quarterback Jackson Arnold found an open Cam Coleman with a two-yard touchdown pass.

Tate Sandell kicked back-to-back field goals, from 32 and 28 yards, respectively, to put the Sooners ahead, 16-10, early in the fourth quarter.

With 7:08 left in the fourth quarter, Malcolm Simmons’ four-yard touchdown run tied the game, and Alex McPherson’s extra point put the Tigers up 17-16.

OU’s Mateer quickly responded by leading the Sooners down the field and finishing the drive with a nine-yard touchdown run to give Oklahoma the lead for good with 4:54 left in the game.

Oklahoma pass rusher R. Mason Thomas had to sit out the first half after being called for targeting last Saturday against Temple. On his second play in the third quarter, Thomas got a sack, then later sacked Arnold for a safety with 1:06 remaining to close out the scoring.

Mateer completed 24-of-36 passes for 271 yards, one passing touchdown and one rushing touchdown. Venables gave a lot of credit to Mateer for the win.

“He led us to a win,” Venables said. “I thought John was awesome like he always is. We’ll have an opportunity to watch the tape and all those types of things, but we were four out of four in the red zone. That last drive was just fantastic. He had some huge runs and that last one there, obviously, the quarterback run. He got some really timely third downs with patience and athletic ability and the go-ahead touchdown there.”

Sategna had career highs of nine catches, and 127 receiving yards and Tate Sandell made three field goals for the Sooners.

For Auburn, former OU quarterback Jackson Arnold threw for 220 yards on 21-of-32 passing, and a touchdown. Eric Singleton had nine receptions for 60 receiving yards.

Oklahoma edged Auburn in total offensive yards, 302 to 287. The Sooners ten sacks totaled a loss of 44 yards for the Tigers.

Venables said a big key to the game was the defense keeping the pressure on Arnold.

“I know the [line]backers are a part of that, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention them too,” Venables said. “We played the second half with a really light box. We continued to stop the run with a really light box. Note to self. Their physicality, their ability to get off of blocks and knock people back was something else today.”

Both teams committed several costly penalties. OU was flagged nine times for 99 yards, and Auburn committed 13 penalties for 85 yards.

“Proud of the effort, proud of our kids’ fight and resilience,” Auburn coach Hugh Freeze said. “I’m disappointed in 13 penalties that were incredibly costly. They’re a very good football team. I think we proved today that we were. In our conference they’re tough on the road to win. We’ve got to accept it, go learn from it and be better next week on the road at A&M.”

The Sooners will have this week off before hosting Kent State on Oct. 4 at 3:00 p.m. on the SEC Network.