The Oklahoma Sooners shut out the Missouri St. Bears 48-0 on Saturday night. In his first career start, Freshman quarterback Spencer Rattler threw for 280 yards & four touchdowns against the Bears, becoming the first Sooners quarterback to throw for four touchdowns in his debut.
Rattler connected with Marvin Mims on a 58-yard strike within the first 5 minutes of the game. Then later in the first, Rattler connected with Charlston Rambo on a 53-yard touchdown pass. After throwing another touchdown pass in the second quarter, Rattler threw his final touchdown of the night to Charlston Rambo with 3:19 left in the first half.
“I feel like I’ve earned a lot of trust from my guys on the team.” Said Rattler of his performance, “Being the quarterback, you have to have that assertive leadership and bring certain qualities to you, and I feel like I’m still working on that, but doing a pretty good job with it.”
After being benched in the second half for Tanner Mordecai, Rattler finished his day completing 14 of 17 passes. Two of the incompletions, came off dropped touchdown passes. He finished with a passer rating of 303.3– the third highest single game passer rating in Sooners history.
The Sooners offense outgained the Bears 236 yards to one and had a 31-0 lead in the first quarter. Oklahoma held the Missouri State offense to 135 total yards and 7 first downs.
Missouri State Head Coach Bobby Petrino, former Arkansas and Louisville Head Coach, said of the disappointing performance postgame, “First and foremost, Oklahoma is a really good football team, we got a little overwhelmed up front on the offensive side of the ball.”
Oklahoma did what was expected. The passing game looked great, the defense looked improved, holding the Bears without a first down for the first 25 minutes of the game. Brian Asamoah led the Sooners in tackles with seven, while Delarrin Turner-Yell had the Sooners only interception.
The Sooners are scheduled to host Kansas State on September 26. The Wildcats are coming off a loss to Arkansas State in their opener. Though they upset the Sooners last season 48-41. That loss marked one of the biggest upsets for Kansas State though, the rematch doesn’t look to hold as much promise for KSU. Look for Lincoln Riley and the Sooners to extract some revenge for last season’s loss.
