Owen Field was deemed too slick on Saturday for Oklahoma’s two live mascot ponies to do their typical celebratory trot after every Sooner score.They could only watch from the northeast tunnel at Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial as the Sooners faced Maine on a gloomy afternoon. They remained attached to their crimson and cream painted conestoga wagon, but weren’t able to come charging onto the field as they had many times before.Even worse, Boomer and Sooner would’ve had their biggest day of the season so far.Oklahoma opened the game with a five-play drive that went 12 yards and ended in a punt. The Black Bears responded with a nine-play, 68-yard touchdown drive.Over the next 10 drives, the Sooners decimated the Black Bears the way teams from the FBS are expected to against the FCS. Still, it wasn’t guaranteed from an OU offense that has struggled to find consistent success since starting conference play over a month ago.The Sooners exploded for a season-high 665 yards of total offense and rushed for 381 behind a big day from running back Jovantae Barnes.They pulled away for a 59-14 win to snap a three-game losing streak.“Good game,” OU head coach Brent Venables said. “At the end of the day, we got what we wanted accomplished — got a lot of young guys some experience, saw some improvement with guys up front just playing through the whistle, competing, playing with confidence.”The game was moved from 1:30 p.m. to 11 a.m. in an attempt to avoid storms that were forecasted to arrive Saturday afternoon. The move worked — the game was over long before the game arrived, but the early kickoff time played a role in the subdued crowd of 82,831.The Sooners had set a program record for sacks allowed each of the past two weeks with 19 combined against South Carolina and Ole Miss. On Saturday they didn’t allow a sack against Maine and only allowed two tackles for loss.Barnes took his third carry of the day 74 yards before being dragged down at the 1-yard line. It was Oklahoma’s longest run play since 2019 (Rhamondre Stevenson against South Dakota).He would go on to punch it in two plays later to set the stage for a career day. Barnes rushed for a career-high 203 yards on 18 carries with three touchdowns.The Sooners averaged 7.3 yards per carry against the Black Bears, but no other rusher ...
