The last time Oklahoma played in Lubbock, the Sooners won 66-59. OU quarterback Baker Mayfield threw for 545 yards and seven touchdowns while Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahones completed 52 passes for 734 yards and five touchdowns. OU’s Dede Westbrook caught nine passes for 202 yards and Sooner Joe Mixon rushed for 263 yards and had 114 yards receiving.

Whew.

Mayfield, Mahones, Westbrook and Mixon are all in the NFL now and no one really expects another offensive explosion like what happened in 2016 between Texas Tech and OU when the two teams meeting in Lubbock at 7 p.m. Saturday.

It might be hard for Texas Tech to repeat that kind of performance. The Red Raiders are 5-3, 3-2 in the Big 12, and are coming off a disappointing 31-40 loss at Iowa State.

No. 7 Oklahoma, on the other hand, is mirroring the offensive numbers of the last two seasons and for the past weeks, the Sooner defense has stiffened. OU crushed Kansas State 51-14 Saturday in one of the worst defeats ever handed to KSU under Bill Snyder.

The Sooner offense got a season-high 702 yards, with 380 yards in the air and 322 on the ground. It was the most yardage since the OU-OSU game in 2017. OU has topped 600 yards in total offense three times this season.

“I don’t know if the ship has ever been in this condition before – I’m not sure that it has,” Snyder said. “ I can’t tell you that I’ve got an immediate answer. We’ll work at it, I know that.

“Oklahoma is the better football team than we are.”

OU quarterback Kyler Murray continued his march toward a possible Heisman Trophy. Murray hit 19 of 24 passing attempts for three touchdowns and 352 yards. He also ran five times for 46 yards and a score.

And those numbers came in only two and a half quarters of play.

“He did what he always does,” Snyder said. “He threw the ball quite well, he has great quickness and change of direction, and he manages his team quite well. In this league, if you can throw the ball around at a 70 percent clip, you’ve got to be a pretty efficient player. Particularly, at his size at 5-10.”

Murray has a 97.2 Total QBR rating – second best in the country behind Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovaioa at 97.3.

“He’s been pretty patient,” said OU coach Lincoln Riley, who played and coached at Texas Tech. “He’s been smart with the ball. He’s done a great job with – and these are sometimes hard to simulate, other than games – broken plays. Obviously, his athleticism helps, but his poise on the broken plays…

“He’s got a good  feel for what we’re trying to do and how we’re trying to attack people and their adjustments. He’s playing well.”

Murray is hitting 73 percent of his passes with 28 touchdowns and only three interceptions. And he has only been sacked three times.

“I think as far as offense goes, we have a sense of urgency in knowing penalties have been kind of the backbone on what’s been bringing us back and slowing us down,” Murray said. “I think we’ve been getting better every week and that’s really all you can ask for is getting better each and every week.”

“He is very consistent,” OU wide receiver CeeDee Lamb. “The man is very hardworking, and he is willing to go the extra yard because you never know when your last play is going to be. He is emphasizes that whatever your last play is, that is how you want to be remembered.”

Against K-State, Lamb had two touchdown catches and a career high 160 yards. Lamb has caught a touchdown pass in seven straight games and he recorded his eighth touchdown pass of the season with an 82-yard touchdown pass against KSU.

“I’m not really thinking about overthrowing,” Murray said about his pass to Lamb. “We didn’t draw it up for him to be that wide open, but he just happened to be and you saw the rest. We just try to go out and execute the plays that are called.”

Against the Wildcats, OU kicker Austin Seibert tied the NCAA record for career point after makes (274) and point after attempts (278). Seibert is tied with Aaron Jones, who played for Baylor. Seibert has made a school record 142 PAT attempts in a row. And he has hit nine of 11 field goal attempts in 2018.

OU running back Kennedy Brooks ran for 94 yards and two touchdowns on five carries (18.8 average). That including an 86-yard touchdown run – the longest of the season for OU.

“All three sides of the ball played incredible, man,” Brooks said. “ I couldn’t do it without my offensive line, couldn’t do it without everyone blocking for me. Coaches gave me a chance, and there really isn’t anything different, I’m just going out there and having fun with my friends.”

OU running back Trey Sermon added 85 yards on 12 carries plus Sermon caught four passes for 27 yards.

“I don’t think I know (what happened), we just didn’t play very good,” said KSU defensive tackle Trey Dishono. “We missed tackles, we didn’t wrap up and I think that’s where the big plays came from. We’d have them stopped for a one or two yard gain at the line, then they’d break one tackle and it would be a big play and a 20-plus yard gain.”

The OU defense is much improved.

“One of the things that Coach Riley preaches and that we do as a staff and as a team – they’ve heard these two words – ‘complimentary football,’” said OU defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeil. “That’s offense-to-defense, defense-to-offense, and both offense- and defense- to-special teams, so for us to keep improving is very important from the aspect of making sure we have great complimentary football.

“That’s not going to change. That’s been our message for a while. You want to be playing your best football each game. You keep getting better. We’ve got to keep doing a great job in practice.”

If Oklahoma wins the next four games and the Big 12 championship game, the Sooners should be in great shape to make the four-team College Football Playoff.

“We’re going to play a lot of good football teams coming up including the one next week (at Texas Tech), we’re going to play in some tough venues and have adversity,” Riley said.