Field Level Media
Sep 1, 2019
Jalen Hurts threw for 332 yards and ran for 176 more, accounting for six touchdowns as No. 4 Oklahoma opened the season with a 49-31 win over Houston on Sunday night in Norman, Okla.
About the only blemish on Hurts' Sooners debut, after his offseason transfer from Alabama, was a lost fumble that helped keep the Cougars at least within striking distance.
Otherwise, Hurts was spectacular, throwing for three touchdowns on 20-of-23 passing and running for three more scores on a 16-carry night.
Hurts' counterpart, Houston's D'Eriq King, threw for 167 yards and a pair of touchdowns and ran for 103 yards and a score.
Hurts and King had met as starting quarterbacks before, in high school near Houston when King's team blew out Hurts' team behind a monster performance from King.
This time, though, it was Hurts who was the star, throwing for his first touchdown less than three minutes into the game, a 14-yarder to Jeremiah Hall. He then ran for a 1-yard score, and he hit CeeDee Lamb for a 45-yard TD off his back foot about midway through the second quarter as the Sooners quickly built a 21-0 lead.
A pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns by the Cougars tightened the margin.
It was the second-best passing game of Hurts' career, narrowly falling behind the 347 yards compiled against Mississippi State for Alabama in 2016. It was the best rushing performance of his career as Hurts became just the fourth quarterback in Big 12 history to throw for 300 or more yards and rush for 150 or more.
In Sooners history, only Kyler Murray -- who accomplished the feat three times last season during a Heisman Trophy-winning year -- had thrown for 300 or more yards and rushed for at least 100.
Charleston Rambo had three catches for 105 yards and a touchdown for Oklahoma.
Houston's loss spoiled the head-coaching debut of Dana Holgorsen, who left West Virginia to take over the Cougars in the offseason.
--Field Level Media