Baker Mayfield completed all but six of his 31 passes for 346 yards and four touchdowns, Dede Westbrook had nine receptions for 184 yards and three scores and No. 19 Oklahoma pulled away to beat Kansas State 38-17 on Saturday.
One week after Mayfield passed for 390 yards and Westbrook had a school-record 232 yards receiving, the duo was electric once again as Oklahoma (5-2, 3-0 Big 12) won its third straight game after starting out 1-2.
"That's pretty special," Mayfield said of Westbrook's new mark. "If he keeps lighting it up, why would we stop throwing to him? Dede's kind of our deep threat -- with speed like that, it's pretty special. When we can take our shots, we're going to and we can take advantage of the speed that he has."
With Samaje Perine sidelined by an undisclosed injury in the first quarter, Joe Mixon stepped up for Oklahoma. He rushed for 88 yards, caught three passes for 34 yards and a touchdown and became the first Sooner running back since 1973 to throw a touchdown pass, a 26-yarder to Westbrook in the second quarter that put the Sooners ahead 21-7. The last one to do it was also named Joe (Joe Washington).
"We trust Joe," Mayfield said. "We were able to come out there and still run the same plays, even when Samaje wasn't out there, so that's why you saw some success in our passing game because those guys were still worried about our run game."
Kansas State (3-3, 1-2) had its own injury issues as starting quarterback Jesse Ertz left for good just after halftime with an apparent problem with his right throwing shoulder. He completed 8 of 14 passes for 68 yards and ended the game as the Wildcats' leading rusher with 40 yards and a touchdown on seven carries.
Joe Hubener came in and threw for 157 yards on 12 of 23 passes, with a spectacular 54-yard touchdown to Dominique Heath early in the fourth quarter that pulled K-State to within 31-17. Heath ended up with seven receptions for 101 yards and the TD.
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"It's never as good as I would like," Kansas State coach Bill Snyder said of his quarterbacks. "I think Jesse did some good things, Joe did some good things, but they made some mistakes. It's still a work in progress."
TAKEAWAY
Kansas State: K-State entered the game with the Big 12's top defense, allowing just 17.6 points and 310.2 yards per game, but Oklahoma had 21 points less than five minutes into the second quarter and piled up 510 total yards.
Oklahoma: They need to keep feeding the ball to Mixon, even when Perine is healthy. Even as Perine's backup, Mixon entered the day ranking fourth in the nation averaging 179 yards per game in all-purpose yards, and put up 177 in this one. His 19 rushes were a career high.
UP NEXT
Kansas State: The Wildcats host Texas next Saturday.
Oklahoma: The Sooners visit Texas Tech next Saturday.
