The Oklahoma Sooners are undefeated no longer.
After surviving an upset bid from UCF last week, the Sooners got bit by the Kansas Jayhawks on Saturday, 38-32.
Who is the blame for the frustrating loss with potential College Football Playoff implications?
3. Dillon Gabriel, Jalil Farooq and Marcus Stripling
You'd be hard-pressed to find many upsets in college football that didn't involve multiple turnovers. Turnovers are the lifeblood of the underdog spoiler bid. And Oklahoma dished them out like they were going out of style.
The Sooners committed three turnovers, two on offense and one on special teams. Kansas scored 14 points off of those miscues.
It started early with Dillon Gabriel's first-quarter pick six. It continued in the second half with Falil Farooq's fumble to set up a quick-strike touchdown for Kansas. And it got even more inexplicable with Marcus Stripling muffing a kickoff after the Jayhawks took a 32-27 lead. At least Oklahoma lucked out on that one as Kansas missed their ensuing field goal attempt.
You won't win many games giving away the ball three times. You invite the underdog to pull off the upset when you gift them points.
2. Jeff Lebby
Dillon Gabriel didn't play well enough and turnovers hurt the Sooners badly, but offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby also dropped the ball himself.
Lebby's playcalling has been questionable at times this season but his offense had done enough to keep the Sooners unscathed, especially with late-game heroics from his quarterback.
This time, the Sooners didn't need heroics. They just needed to run out the clock with 2:23 remaining when the defense got them the ball back with an interception. With a one-point lead, Oklahoma could close out the game.
Obviously they didn't. Two handoffs to Jovantae Barnes and a keeper by Gabriel managed to bleed all of 24 seconds off the clock while moving the ball negative-two yards.
In general, Lebby opted to keep the ball out of Tawee Walker's hands when he was the hot hand with 146 yards and a 6.3 yards per carry average. He even dialed up a handoff to Jalil Farooq, which resulted in a fumble.
The Sooners win the game if the offense ranked 88th in SP+ going into the game.
1. Brent Venables
Brent Venables took responsibility for the loss after the game. And he's right. His team played sloppy with mistakes on offensive, defense and special teams, putting them in position to lose. The buck stops with him in the most basic sense.
Even beyond that, Venables' game management needs to be called into question. He admitted he screwed up by not calling a timeout before the backbreaking fourth-and-six play that set up Kansas' game-winning touchdown. His defense wasn't ready to make the stop and they got burned for 37 yards.
That wasn't the only time the defense wasn't prepared. They blew the coverage on another fourth-down conversion earlier in the quarter. They gave up 443 yards to an offense run by a backup quarterback. They allowed 5.5 yards per carry.
The Sooners committed three turnovers and 11 penalties for 101 yards. Those are the recipe for an upset.
And this shouldn't have been a surprise for Venables or his staff. Oklahoma flirted with disaster last week against UCF in a letdown spot. Maybe this was a lookahead trap game with Oklahoma State coming up, but you've still got to be ready to play everyone in front of you.
