Sooners snap streak, high hopes of Bears

— Sterling Shepard had 14 catches for 177 yards with two touchdowns and No. 15 Oklahoma beat No. 6 Baylor, 44-34, on Saturday night to end the Bears’ 20-game home winning streak — and probably their playoff chances.

Baker Mayfield was 24 of 34 for 270 yards and three touchdowns and ran for a score to help Oklahoma gain control of its destiny in the Big 12. The Sooners (9-1, 6-1) have won five straight since that still hard-to-explain loss to Texas.

Baylor (8-1, 5-1), the first team left out of the initial four-team playoff last season, was sixth in the latest College Football Playoffs as an undefeated team with the toughest part of its schedule left.

The two-time defending Big 12 champion Bears will certainly drop further in the playoff rankings before playing at No. 8 Oklahoma State (10-0, 7-0) next Saturday. The Sooners will be in Stillwater the next week for their regular-season finale.

Shepard’s tiebreaking seven-yard touchdown catch with 9:52 left in the third quarter put the Sooners ahead to stay, and they became the first opposing team to win in the 11 home games Baylor has played since moving last season into its campus stadium on the banks of the Brazos River.

Less than a minute later, after Baylor went three-and-out, Samaje Perine had a 55-yard touchdown run to make it 34-20. Perine finished with 166 yards and two touchdowns.

If the Sooners sweep their final two regular-season games, next week at home against Texas Christian before Bedlam against the Cowboys, they would clinch their ninth Big 12 title. It would be Oklahoma’s first since sharing a title with Kansas State in 2012, and end its longest league championship drought in Coach Bob Stoops’ 17 seasons.

The Bears were trying to be the first team to beat Stoops three times in a row, and the last two were by lopsided margins. Baylor needs help to join Oklahoma as the only teams to win three consecutive Big 12 titles — and even more help to get back in the playoff hunt.