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Writer's pictureAaron Torres Media Staff

Crazy story - as Lincoln Riley almost challenged his own team's best play of the season

Oklahoma had to hold on for dear life on Saturday against Nebraska. And a key part of their 23-16 win over the Cornhuskers, was a crucial fourth down interception on a late, fourth quarter fourth down.


It, wasn't just any interception though, but a sick, one-handed grab by corner DJ Graham.

Here is another view on it.



It really was unreal.


Unfortunately, there was one person who wasn't all that impressed with it - Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley.


Well, he was impressed, he was just unhappy with the result.


So unhappy in fact, that he almost challenged the play. Yes, a play that was not only a sweet interception - but one of the plays of the year in college football.


His logic? An interception on the fourth down gave his team the ball inside their five yard line. If he won the challenge, and it was simply an incompletion - his team would get the ball on their own 24.


"I might have been the first coach in history to challenge a play we got an interception on," Riley said with a laugh. "I was hoping it would've gone down."

He even consulted with the refs, before making the decision to go against the challenge.

"I thought it juggled around a bit," Riley said, adding he asked the officials if it was a catch, and they said they already confirmed it was. "I might have challenged it."

Whether the refs are actually allowed to share that information with a coach is another story for another day, but ironically, it was probably would have been the right call for Riley.


Oklahoma wasn't able to muster much offense on the subsequent drive, and was forced to punt from there. It was a punt that allowed to Nebraska to score a touchdown to cut the Oklahoma lead to 23-16.


The Sooners were able to hold on to win the game, but still, this is a quirky story in a game that produced some major storylines coming out of the weekend.


Oklahoma held on to win 23-16, barely the kind of narrow win anyone expected, you know, since the point spread was 22 points in Vegas.


So, is Oklahoma not as good as we thought? Is Nebraska improving? Or somewhere in the middle?


These are all questions everyone wants to know, but in the mean time all we know is this: Had Riley challenged, that would have been a really, really weird move to make.


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