NORMAN, Okla. – Just before halftime, there was the tweet from Kyler Murray's other team.

"Watch @TheKylerMurray play and wish it to be what the uniforms looked like." – @ Athletics

The gif that accompanied him was that of people who collided in a harmless manner by carrying transparent inflatable balls on the upper part of their body.

Congratulations to Oakland Athletics for winning Twitter. And their concern is understandable, given that they made Murray the No. 9 pick in the Major League Baseball Draft in June.

There is no good way to pack a quarter of Oklahoma, so that fun tweets aside, athletics will hold its breath every game, all season. But two games in game, you think a lot of college footballers should wish Murray picked baseball.

This is evident after Oklahoma's victory over UCLA (49-21).

Earlier in the week, UCLA coach Chip Kelly praised Murray by suggesting he did not want to try to catch the speedster in a baseball game. As it turned out, catching him on the football field was no easier for the Bruins. Kelly, who brought a very young team and a first-year quarterback to his first start, could be forgiven if he wondered what Murray was in his version of the spread.

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He's really good at the Lincoln Riley air raid. And it is his death that could give nightmares to opponents.

We knew Murray could run. He is among the fastest players on a very fast attack, and he was sometimes exposed, whether on designed tracks or dazzling races. An example of each:

At the beginning of the second quarter, he kept the area read for a 10-yard touchdown. On the way to the end zone, his sudden momentum left a helpless linebacker.

And then in the third and the beginning of the fourth quarter, the pocket collapsed. Murray managed to escape the pressure and maybe the only reason he was not running was because he slipped after the first lap.

This last part is very good news for athletics, but also for Sooners-Murray's slides. Sometimes it seems like he steals a base; it might as well appear, call time and dust itself off. He does not take unnecessary risks or strokes that could hurt him.

But Murray's loss makes Oklahoma potentially as dangerous as, say, last season, when Mayfield accumulated yards and points en route to the Heisman Trophy.

He throws a ball deep enough. Clearly, he trusts the variety of talented gaming leaders at the receiver, and he should clearly – see the long TDs at Marquise Brown and CeeDee Lamb.

But look a little further at the 58-yard connection to Brown. The touchdown came after Brown hijacked a potential tackle, before giving way to the defense. But we knew Brown's abilities. The most impressive part – the part that should concern each opponent – was Murray's delivery.

It was the third and the fourteenth. Brown has made a comeback. Murray put it on the money; the ball came as Brown turned around.

What happened after the capture was all Brown. What happened during the first run was an intriguing snapshot of why the Sooners insisted, during the off-season, on the fact that the popular Oklahoma narrative receding after Mayfield was wrong.

Murray was 19-for-33 for 306 yards and three touchdowns. He rushed for 69 extra yards and two touchdowns on 10 runs.

He had two passes deflected on the line – his indicated height of 5 to 10 could have come into play – and he passed a few receivers and started an interception. But he also made the quick throws required by Riley's attack.

Add to that Murray's performance in a 63-14 win against Florida Florida in the opening game of the season – 9 of 11, 209 yards and two touchdowns in less than two quarters – and it was a good start. Now, we have evidence to make with the theory that his rare combination of abilities could make the Sooners at least as powerful as last season.

Things will get tougher next week, when Oklahoma will play its first game on the road, at Iowa State (does anyone remember what happened the last time the Cyclones have played the Sooners?). But the first two opponents provided enough data to gauge Murray 's ability to bar Riley' s offensive.

This was not good news for the Sooners. Junior halfback Rodney Anderson, one of the top 12, fell in the final quarter of the first quarter with a right knee injury. The loss of Anderson, who emerged in the second half of the 2017 season to rush over 1,100 meters, would be a blow, even if the Sooners do not miss other weapons.

Anderson's injury only reinforces the reason for the tweet of athletics. Aside from humor, baseball folks will surely keep their collective breath every time Murray takes off, all season long, hoping that their investment of nearly $ 4.7 million remains healthy. Unfortunately, bubble wrap is not an option.

But while Oklahoma has lifted the veil over Mayfield's successor, the first results are much better than they have been.