TULSA, Okla. — When these two teams met a year ago, it was SMU that erased a three-TD Tulsa lead in an eventual three-overtime win. This year, after getting up by three touchdowns, it was SMU that collapsed in a 28-24 loss.
SMU didn't score a point in the second half. And once the outstretched hand of Tulsa TE James Palmer got inches past SMU's goal line, the massive comeback was complete, and SMU's chances of playing for a conference title were put in immediate peril.
The Mustangs might have scored fewer points against Cincinnati, but this game was the most difficult offensively for SMU in the last two seasons. SMU scored zero points in the second half.
It ended with a Shane Buechele interception. He finished 18-of-36 passing on the day. SMU had 360 yards of offense. No receiver had more than 100 yards.
The game started off horrendously for the ex-Baylor QB, Zach Smith, now in his second season with Tulsa. He had turnovers on his first two possessions, both deep in the team's own territory. Both came within the first five minutes, and the first was a pick-six by Mustangs DB Brandon Crossley, who ran untouched for the first score of the game.
SMU's offense never really got a rhythm, even as the team scored 24 points in the first half. Two of those scores were TDs off of turnovers in the first quarter.
The loss is devastating for any chances SMU has of making the conference title game. A win would have given the team a very clear path to the conference title game. It would have needed just one or two more to make it.
But the loss makes the path nearly impossible. It now is two games back of both Tulsa and Cincinnati, both of whom are undefeated and own tiebreakers over SMU. This game was as close to a must-win as it could get for a Mustangs team that has said all year that its goal, above all else, was to win the conference.
SMU's defense had a chance to get a second goal-line stand in that third quarter, on the next possession. It appeared to get it when it forced a fumble that SMU recovered in the end zone. It would have basically ended the game. But the referees overturned the call, said Tulsa was down, and it scored two plays later.
On the Golden Hurricanes' next possession, a clearly botched assignment resulted in Josh Johnson with acres of open space for a 35-yard TD.
To that point, SMU's offense had failed, and the stout defense was starting to fizzle, too.
Twice after that, Mustangs drives got into Tulsa territory. But twice, SMU — not quite in field goal or punting territory — came up empty on fourth down.
There were a lot of drives, a lot of chances. But on the final stand, under 100 seconds to play and in need of a TD, Buechele fired it right into the hands of Tulsa linebacker Zaven Collins. It was a backbreaking moment — a moment of redemption for Tulsa's collapse last year, and one that changed the entire tenor of a 2020 season that seemed on the verge of something magical.
