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MANHATTAN, Kan. -- The 19th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners proved Saturday that they have more to offer than they showed last week in their loss to struggling Texas.
Baker Mayfield threw for five touchdowns and Oklahoma bounced back from its Red River upset to beat Kansas State 55-0 on Saturday, the first time the Wildcats have been shut out since 1996.
Kansas State had delivered serious scares to Top 25 opponents each of the last two weeks, but the Wildcats (3-3, 0-3 Big 12) were helpless against the Sooners (5-1, 2-1). Oklahoma set the tone early, taking only 1:04 to score on its opening drive on a 22-yard pass from Mayfield to Sterling Shepard.
"We had a great intensity coming into the game, and guys were fired up in the locker room," Shepard said. "Everybody wanted to show what type of team we were because of last week's loss, so we did a great job with intensity and executing our jobs."
The Sooners took a 35-0 lead into halftime as Mayfield threw for all five of his TDs in the first half, including two to Shepard. He finished 20 of 27 for 282 yards. The quarterback credited the success to the quickness with which the offense moved.
"It's the tempo," Mayfield said. "Defenses can't line up and do all their crazy stuff, and when we do that, I think I play better faster. I'm able to react and go on the run."
Oklahoma kept rolling to open the second half. The Wildcats had benched Joe Hubener in favor of Kody Cook, who played most of the first half at wide receiver, and Cook promptly threw an interception that Zack Sanchez returned 38 yards for a touchdown that made the score 42-0.
"It's disappointing, that's a big word for it," Cook said. "You're angry. You're disappointed. It's really frustrating. We obviously didn't expect to get shut out. We thought we had a pretty good game plan."
The Sooners tacked on two more field goals in the third quarter, and five minutes into the fourth quarter Joe Mixon scored the first rushing touchdown of the day for Oklahoma, stretching the lead to 55-0.
Mixon finished with 73 yards on 15 carries to lead a Sooners rushing attack that rolled up 232 yards. Mixon also caught three passes for 29 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter.
The dominating win came after Oklahoma's arduous trek to get to Manhattan. Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops said the Sooners left their facility at 2 p.m. Friday to drive to Oklahoma City and take a 40-minute flight to Manhattan but because of problems with various planes did not walk into their hotel rooms until 12:15 a.m.
Waiting at the airport until late in the evening, Stoops said the support members of the program had to team up to deliver what amounted to a fast-food potluck so that players and coaches could have dinner.
"Try and get 10 burgers, 10 tacos, 10 -- if everyone, if we had 10 people go out and get 10 whatever, we'd feed our players, and that's exactly what we did," Stoops said.
"Now the players want it every week," Stoops joked.
Mayfield said players were so focused that nothing could have distracted them from redeeming themselves from the 24-17 loss to the Longhorns.
"Our week of practice, I knew we were ready to come out and play, no matter what happened," Mayfield said. "We could've stayed up all night and come out and been ready to play."
Going into Saturday's game, Kansas State had scored in 234 straight games. The loss to Oklahoma marked the first time the Wildcats have been shut out at home since 1991.
"I think all of us are embarrassed," Kansas State coach Bill Snyder said. "I can't remember being involved in a game like this since 1989, the first year we were here, and I don't even know if we had one that bad in that first go-around."
