Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes: a record confrontation in 2016

Mahomes: They had a ton of talent. We had a ton of talent.

Rick Trice, Technology Statistician: We usually have a lot of offensive numbers here, but we were not prepared for how the game would unfold.

Kingsbury: I think it was anticipated that there might be fireworks. … look at some of the players you had in this game. You watch Baker and Joe Mixon, Dede Westbrook lights it up. Plus the big tight butt (Andrews) that is in Baltimore. And then we had Pat and Keke Coutee on our side, some spectacular players. And then two quarters, Baker obviously with the story here. He was on a mission, and then Pat had a mission not to let him get one here.

Riley: Most of our things were on time. Mahomes was a little different. … doing so many unconventional games, so many scenario games, out of rushes, big shoving, launching games. He has just made incredible games. And that kept them in it. You knew you were looking at something quite special with the way these two guys were playing.

Stoops: I remember very well that we both had a hand on Patrick, really feeling that, hey, we finally got a bag. A chance to transform it for us. And he would come out one way or another, escape the bag and get out of there.

Okoronkwo: We had it in our hands at least 10 times and he kept escaping, as he was greased or something like that. Many times, I pursued him while I thought I was going to get him, but I did not do it. We could not stop it.

Teddy Lehman, color analyst OR: Mahomes' performance was perhaps more impressive than Baker's in a sense, as he struggled to save his life. And I did not see another player we were playing with who was opening the guys. He disentangled himself and threw him just to one spot and his receivers made adjustments to return to the ball.

Mahomes proves unstoppable

In addition to quarterbacks, many players in this game would display monster numbers. The Red Raiders would have almost three different receivers to travel more than a hundred yards in Coutee (172 yards), Jonathan Giles (167) and Cameron Batson (99). Meanwhile, the Sooners would become the first team in FBS history to boast of having a 500-yard passer, a 200-yard receiver (Westbrook) and a 200-yard runner (Mixon), who would become the first player in the history of the OU to finish. with 200 yards rushing and 100 in the same game.

Riley: Joe Mixon had a touchdown for a penalty. It's still, to this day, the best race I've ever seen in college football. He just made a little move, reversed the ground, eventually broke several tackles. He grabbed a ball with one hand to the right side for a touchdown. It was fabulous that night, one of the best individual running shows I've ever seen.

Jensen: The guy who really killed us was Mixon. True, Mayfield started well, he had seven touchdowns, but Mixon would be wide open, break a tackle and be gone.

Level: We are still talking a bit about this game. For OR, it was the Joe Mixon / Dede Westbrook show.

Jah & Shawn Johnson, Security Technician: The skills they had were great. Baker did a great job of buying time and putting it on the money all night long.

Four minutes later, it seemed like the OU was going to be routed. Giles dropped the ball in Tech's first possession, and Mayfield hit Westbrook for the second Sooners touchdown. Mahomes then faced third place from the back of his own territory.

Riley: Baker probably wanted to win this game as much or more than anything we've ever played here. I knew that he was really, really stuck. He threw two first touchdown passes that, I think, arranged it.

Mayfield (in 2016): I let them know very quickly that we would not flinch.

Level: Kliff has decided to say that it's not right, we're just not going to throw the ball.

Riley: It was frustrating because we had a number of third tries and we could not get them off the field, and Mahomes was the main reason.

Mayfield, recalling the game this week: They were 20 out of 25 on the third tries.

Jensen: Every time Pat got in a car, they would point out a few pieces later from Oklahoma. Oklahoma scored so fast on his records that they were not even really records. And then, Pat should organize something to come back. It was just ridiculous that he continues to play with another room.

Riley: We played so many big games offensively that our game numbers were not incredibly high.

Kingsbury: We had the lead and they hit a long pass just before halftime to take it back. I knew that it would take 60 points to win this thing.

Johnson: It was very frustrating. All we needed was a one-stop shop. But they will not be arrested.

Orlando Brown Jr .: I do not want to talk bad about Tech, but they did not have a lot of talent in defense. Our mentality has been marked as much as possible.

A classic is revealed

Both offenses were hot in the first half. In the second case, they were completely unstoppable. After Tech opened the third quarter, both teams scored touchdowns in each practice the rest of the game for a total of 10.

Mayfield (that night): I told some of the guys at half-time: "If you're scared and you do not want to score each record, stay here."

Riley: Honestly, I think people could not really believe what they saw.

Trice: In the third quarter, I really started watching the two teams' total offensive, watching it constantly and updating the media relations department, as I felt we were nibbling records of the NCAA.

Kingsbury: I have never seen anything like it. Pat was phenomenal and (Mayfield) on the other side. I do not know if the ball hit the ground for them all night.

Johnson: These guys were going there, playing games left and right. This was not nice for the defenses.

Andrews: Our back Dimitri Flowers has made an exit in the opposite direction. Baker started to rush and found him in the back of the end zone (for a 34-yard touchdown at the end of the third quarter). It was an amazing catch. One of those things you do not see very often.

Lehman: A crowd enters a game each time the defense tries to get a big stop. But there has hardly ever been one. So, there has never been these moments when the crowd is really noisy. It was the weirdest thing.

Creighton DeKalb, OU group (battery): The "Boomer Sooner" account was actually not abnormally high. We play Boomer between games to cheer the team. But the attack scored so fast that we only really played after the touchdowns.

Lehman: There were many expectations around the picks.

Level: It was like pingpong. I do not know if Oklahoma has ever been in danger of losing this game. But Pat did not stop throwing it. He would not leave.

Trice: You knew in the second half that if one or the other team was hiccupping, had a turn-over, had to bang, whatever, it was going to cost them the game.

Andrews: The best game I have ever participated in. Two major prolific offenses will follow him. Everyone knew we were going to score. All the while, the feeling was that the last team with the ball was going to win.

Records begin to fall

In fact, that would be the case. But not before a set of spectacular fourth quarter plays – some of which were designed by the Red Raiders.

Kingsbury: You just missed games. When you call as many plays – and as many passes games – you save things in the mud and you try to get people to open at the end.

Mahomes: With Coach King, we always had games in the tank.

Kingsbury: I just remember asking Pat on the side, "Hey, would it work because I do not have much left on the sheet, so what do you think?" And he usually had good answers. We had proposed something, and no matter what we called it that night, he was going to make it work.

Stoops: Coach Riley came to me at one point – I want to say it early in the fourth quarter – and asked if I wanted him to burn the stopwatch. I said "Look dude, we have to score." We do not play enough games (in defense) and Mahomes is hot and we have Baker. " They did not stop us, so I said "Look, you just do what you need to do to mark and do not worry about the clock."

Kingsbury: Pat threw a pass from his back foot. The ball was probably 60 yards to Keke with a defender who injured his face. I did not think he'd ever make it and he hit it fast. One of the most impressive jets I've ever seen.

Mayfield: It does things that you can not even imagine possible.

Jensen: "Can you believe that he just did that?" I had to say it a thousand times in his career, but in this particular match.

Coutee: It was fast, but at that moment, I thought we were really going to win.

Stoops: Wild. Wild all day.

Jensen: My voice was terrible. It was rude and weak and I drank everything I could get my hands on in the cabin. Cokes water and diet. I found myself stuck in the ice, doing everything I could to keep it going.

Mahomes: I think baseball has prepared me to be a pitcher. I did not know that I had thrown it many times. I remember one of my friends (receiver Hunter Rittimann) came to see me before the last training and said: "You have 77 attempts to pass right now" and I thought: " Man, it's a lot of passes. "

Technology technician Chad Harberson was asked to match the Red Raiders' score after every touchdown or goal in the field: It was crazy. We were dead at the end. Those guys who were holding the push panel, they were exhausted. We were dreading the next set that we should have made if Tech had tied up in the end. But it would have been worth it.

After cutting the OU to 66-59 with 1:38 to make a three-yard touchdown pass to Batson, Mahomes would no longer touch the ball.

Riley: The last game of the game, apart from the moment we knelt, we had a third goal and it was necessary to get a first goal. There were seven of us, we had to get a first goal or we gave them the ball and we certainly did not want to do it.

Andrews: It was complete exhaustion. There were so many plays, taps, everything.

Riley: You're just a bit like, "Wow, it was a marathon."

Trice: The craziest thing about the game is that both teams have exactly the same number of yards (854). I do not even know how it goes.

Kingsbury: In fact, I was heading to the locker room and SportsCenter was playing there already. I saw the number of yards and the numbers and I told myself "Wow". To have these two guys play as they did. … we will never see him again, I do not think so.

Riley: For so many years (as a technical assistant under Mike Leach), I borrowed the other tunnel after the match. The first time it was a strange feeling. I finally came to understand everything, of what had happened, to be able to be part of these two offenses and their historical performances.

The legend of Mayfield and Mahomes begins

Covering the game that night at Jones Stadium for ESPN, I was in the visitors tunnel afterwards. Mayfield stopped to recite the game casually, asking what discs Mahomes had broken. Like almost everyone, he had been blown away by Mahomes' performance.

Jensen: It was the game that really marked in our mind how good Mahomes was and was going to be. There were so many times that he could have failed in this game and he never did it. I will never forget how impressive he was in this game.

Coutee: What he could do that night was remarkable.

Krueger: He is probably the most difficult athlete with whom I have had the opportunity to work closely. I think we were just amazed at what he was doing after all his injuries, because he really increased his level of play after two bad weeks fighting on the shoulder. He was unstoppable.

Kingsbury: He was going to try and be this game no matter what. I would have liked that we could win the match for him because he deserved it.

Mahomes: It was a game where there were a lot of talented people on the field, one of those big 12 shootouts. I would have liked us to win, but it was great to be part of it.

Riley: I've always trusted Baker and his abilities. I've always thought that he would be lucky to be an excellent pro. I left tonight thinking the same thing about Mahomes.

Board: All those who left that stadium that night, even though they were the fiercest enemies of Baker Mayfield, could not help but be impressed by what was going on. ;they saw.

Johnson: That's why Baker ranks first. He protects the ball very well and hands it to his playmakers. That's why Pat was ranked in the top 10. He extends the games with his feet and can do any throwing. .

Mayfield: As for talent, I thought it should have been (choice # 1 also in 2016). I love Myles (Garrett, his Mayfield teammate in Cleveland, a Texas A & M defensive end who was actually the first choice that year). Coming from the Texas Tech system, there are always skeptics about people who doubt that it's just sitting there and throwing the ball. He pitched the ball 88 times in our game, but in the end, throwing the ball, it's throwing the ball, and he's really talented.

Consequences: exhaustion, appreciation

Immediately after, some of the national attention focused on the defenses, instead of the incredible mistakes. But as Mahomes and Mayfield became NFL stars, the 2016 OU-Tech game was appreciated for what it really was: a classic quarterback.

Rowland: When I called it, I thought in my head, "We are witnessing the most amazing college football game of all time, both teams just trading haymakers." Then, as soon as you accessed social media, the outcry from the people who watched them did not feel that way. They were crazy because the defense was so poor.

Lehman: I've never seen a cloakroom where, honestly, it seemed like half of the guys had won the Super Bowl and the other half, like the one lost against Rutgers.

Okoronkwo: It was as if we had lost. Yes, we won the game, but we gave up (854) yards. It was quiet, we did not say anything about the bus ride back home. We were ashamed. Everyone was laughing at us. I watched my Twitter and just deleted the application because all our fans were disgusted with us.

Riley: That night, the defense was not really imported. I think a lot of people who saw the numbers and the score after the match without seeing them miss their shot. It was a great college football game.