With a rare miss from their highly accurate quarterback, the Oklahoma Sooners saw their national championship hopes dashed in Lawrence, Kan., on Saturday.
Dillon Gabriel’s Heisman Trophy aspirations also sailed away when his desperation throw to Austin Stogner on the final play of No. 6 Oklahoma’s 38-33 loss to Kansas was batted out of the back of the end zone.
Shortly after the game, DraftKings released updated odds for the Sooners, who went from +1400 to win the College Football Playoff to a +4000 longshot. Gabriel, who entered Saturday with the fifth-shortest Heisman odds at the book, skyrocketed from +1000 to +3000.
The Sooners suffered their first loss of the season, falling to 7-1. They have four regular-season games remaining, beginning with next week’s rivalry game at Oklahoma State. Oklahoma then plays host to West Virginia before traveling to BYU and returning home to face TCU.
“Turned the ball over, penalties — the timing of all of it was really poor,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said after the Kansas loss. “As I told them, we’re not going to be defined by any one win or any loss. We have a lot still in front of us. But this one hurts. It stings.”
Oklahoma scored 33 points on Saturday, but most of the Sooners’ offensive production came via the ground in their first loss in Lawrence since 1997.
Gabriel was 14-of-19 passing for only 171 yards and failed to throw a touchdown while being intercepted once. Oklahoma scored all five of its touchdowns on the ground, where it racked up 269 yards on 55 carries.
He had slowly crept up the Heisman boards while others fell by the wayside, entering Saturday behind only fellow quarterbacks J.J. McCarthy (+240) of Michigan, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. (+320), LSU’s Jayden Daniels (+340) and Florida State’s Jordan Travis (+800).
However, Gabriel’s Heisman hopes all but evaporated on a cold and rainy day in Kansas.
