Oklahoma’s chances for the College Football Playoff may have been dealt a fatal blow as the Sooners fell at Kansas State, 40-47.

Down 23-41 in the second half, OU almost pulled off a miracle comeback. OU pulled to within seven points with 1:43 left. They apparently recovered an onside kick but after review, officials overturned it because the ball touched an OU player just before the ball traveled 10 yards. But the rule book states that the 10-yard rule doesn’t apply if the kicking team player is blocked into the ball, which is what happened against K-State.

“If memory serves me correct, we had a very similar situation up at Baylor, I think my first year,” said OU coach Lincoln Riley. “They on sided it and that was the play that kept coming to my mind because they engaged our player first and then the ball hit our player, and it definitely hit our player before the 10-yard but I was certainly under the impression that if they engage your player into it, there’s no illegal touching. I may be wrong on the Baylor deal but I know the Baylor one was very similar a few years ago up in Waco and they ended up giving Baylor the ball so I don’t know, we’ll see, go back, it was a 50/50 call and it didn’t go our way.”

Riley argued with the official.

 “Yeah, he came over,” Riley said. “He said that they didn’t block him. It was reviewed from our spot in Dallas, by our people.”

Baylor is atop the Big 12 standings, one game ahead of OU who is alone in second place. The Sooners play at Waco on November 16 and that game could decide whether OU makes it to the Big 12 championship.

OU is not eliminated from the play and in fact, every time the Sooners made the playoff, it was with one loss. Fifteen of the 20 teams that have been in the playoff have had one loss.

TCU upset Texas and that gives the Horns two losses. And Iowa State lost to Oklahoma State, giving the Cyclones two league defeats.

 OU hosts Iowa State November 9 after a bye week.

“We didn’t tackle very well on defense, I think this was probably, without watching the tape I’m sure, the worst tackling game that we’ve had all year,” said Riley.

What happened to the OU defense?

“Can’t point any fingers,” said OU defensive lineman Neville Gallimore. “Can’t point a finger. It’s the whole defense, as a whole. Things that we’ve gotta fine tune, things that we’ve just gotta be better.”

It was the first loss in a true road game for Oklahoma in 22 games. That streak had lasted five years. It was the second longest streak of its kind since World War II (OU won 25 in a row in 1953-58).

“I’m not disappointed in how we played, as in, I feel like my guys came out and played hard,” said OU linebacker Kenneth Murray. “I feel like we put it all out there. Obviously disappointed in the fact that we lost and obviously disappointed in the fact that a bunch of points was put up. But at the end of the day, y’know for us, we have to continue to build. We’ve gotta put this one behind us and get back on track. Like I said before, we, when we do things the way that we know how to do them and the way that the coaches have set out for us to do them, then good things happen. And when we don’t, bad things happen. Today we got outplayed. That’s point blank, period, not gonna make no excuses. We’re gonna get this thing fixed and come back rockin’ next, in two weeks.”

OU quarterback Jalen Hurt hit 19 of 26 passes for 395 yards and one touchdown (213.4 passer rating), and rushed a season-high 19 times for 96 yards and three touchdowns. Hurts totaled 491 yards (395 passing, 96 rushing), his second-highest total yardage in a game this season (he had 508 vs. Houston).

“I thought he did some good things, I mean, I did,” Riley said. “I thought he threw the ball well, took care of the ball, ran well. He did some good things. There’ll be a few, like everybody, a few that he’s gonna want back but I put him in a couple of bad positions I think for the most part he handled it pretty well.”

Hurts analyzed the loss.

“There was a lot of self-inflicted wounds,” Hurts said. “You talk about playing a team like that, they played their butts off. A lot of respect for those guys. I think you got to maximize every opportunity that you have. Think it’s as simple as that. Every time we have the ball we gotta put it in the paint. It’s not easy. Climbing this mountain is not easy, it’s treacherous. The higher you get, you get challenged. Everything is not smooth sailing. The result is what it is.”

Kicker Gabe Brkic was 4 for 4 on field goal attempts (44, 25, 50 and 39 yards) and made all four PATs. He is 10 for 10 on field goals and 28 for 28 on PATs this season.

It was OU’s first four-field goal performance since Michael Hunnicutt was 4 for 4 against Iowa State in 2011. His 50-yard field goal to end the first half was OU’s longest since Austin Seibert connected on a 51-yard attempt against West Virginia in the 2017 home finale.