Oklahoma punts on 4th and goal against Kansas

Oklahoma made the decision to punt on a fourth-and-goal against Kansas late in the second quarter on Saturday. And in fairness, that was probably the only choice the Sooners had. The ball was at Kansas’ 44-yard-line.

Oklahoma had to punt because it backed itself up once it got to the Kansas 7. A holding penalty on first down moved the ball to the 17. The Jalen Hurts got sacked on the resulting first down and the ball got pushed back to the 25.

A failed play on second down meant a loss of 23 yards to the Kansas 48 when a reverse to wide receiver CeeDee Lamb lost a bunch of yards and then decided to flip the ball back to quarterback Jalen Hurts, who ended up losing even more yardage.

Here’s an aerial perspective of where Oklahoma was after that play.

Oklahoma got 19 yards back on third down but lost 15 of those when offensive lineman Marquis Hayes got called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after the play. And then the punt had to happen.

The punt led to a TD

The decision ultimately worked out. Reeves Mundschau’s punt was downed at the Kansas 2. The Jayhawks couldn’t do anything with the ball backed up near the goal line and then had to punt themselves.

Lamb had a long punt return and that, coupled with a Kansas penalty on the punt, put Oklahoma at the Kansas 10 — or 34 yards ahead of where it was when it punted in a goal-to-go situation on the previous drive. On the first play of this drive, Hurts tossed the ball to Lamb, who scored a 10-yard TD and ultimately gave Oklahoma a 21-7 halftime lead.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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