After needing every second in the 60-minute game to beat UCF, the Oklahoma Sooners lost to the Kansas Jayhawks, 38-33, in Week 9. Before the loss, the Sooners were looking at a possible return to the College Football Playoff as the No. 6-ranked team in the country.
After the loss, the margin of error has now fallen to zero. Even worse, the poor defensive performance against Kansas raises viable questions about Oklahoma going forward, especially with a potential rematch with Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game looming.
The inability to contain good offenses showed its ugly head for the Sooners in this game. Still, the program has a clear pathway to the Playoff. While it is possible, it will require the defense to play a lot better in the coming weeks.
What is Oklahoma's path to College Football Playoff after Kansas upset?
Despite the loss, Oklahoma has a path to the playoff that doesn't include an unlikely collapse by every team ranked ahead of them. The first thing that Oklahoma will need to do is to get through the rest of the regular season unscathed. That should be a manageable task for Dillon Gabriel and the offense, at the least.
TCU and Oklahoma State might cause challenges for the Sooners, but Oklahoma should be favored to pick up those victories, in addition to less-daunting matchups West Virginia and BYU.
Perhaps more important for the Sooners, though, is that rival Texas also needs to get through the rest of the regular season with just the one loss against OU going against them on the ledger.
This would help the Sooners' case in two ways. Not only would this make the Red River win over the Longhorns continue to look great for Oklahoma, but it would also set up the opportunity to beat their rivals and a Top 10 team twice as that will set the two programs up for a rematch in the Big 12 title game.
Given the overall lacking strength of schedule for the Sooners, this would be huge to get two wins over Texas, even if beating the same team twice isn't as impressive as other resumés.
Yes, the loss to Kansas makes things more difficult for the Oklahoma Sooners. But the path is still there and a Playoff berth is still possible.
