B/R

By the end of the night, after four hours and 10 minutes, after 125 points and nearly a mile in total yards, no one was sure how to react. Not Oklahoma, which won the game. Or Texas Tech, which saw its star quarterback account for more yards than any FBS player ever has in defeat. Or even the game's narrator, who tried to process what had just taken place.

"It was like an NBA All-Star Game where you just knew that they were going to score. There weren't going to be any stops, and it was just kind of a matter of who's gonna have the ball last," says Joe Davis, who called the game for Fox. "That was beyond anything that I've ever called and probably ever will."

Over the years, Jones AT&T Stadium, home of Texas Tech football, has hosted its fair share of high-scoring football games. But it has never seen anything close to what transpired October 22, 2016, against Oklahoma, when quarterbacks Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes helped to produce 17 touchdowns (and two field goals) in a four-quarter game.

The result, a 66-59 victory by Mayfield and Oklahoma, felt almost secondary to the moment, the individual performances of the quarterbacks and the records that fell one after the next. Like the 1,708 total yards, a Division I record, which came on an even 854 yards from each team. Or the 819 combined yards by former Texas Tech QB Patrick Mahomes, an FBS record.

Two years later, Mahomes has blossomed into an NFL superstar with the Kansas Chiefs, accounting for 28 touchdowns in his eight games. Mayfield has also had moments of brilliance with the Cleveland Browns—a tormented franchise that hopes to finally free itself from football purgatory under his guidance.

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On Saturday, two years later, Oklahoma will play Texas Tech at Jones AT&T Stadium for the first time since 2016. Less than 24 hours later, Mahomes and Mayfield will meet for the first time since their historic shootout, this time in Cleveland.

Regardless of the outcome, they will be forever linked. Not just as two of the bright young stars in the NFL, but as architects of a football game that will be talked about for generations.

"The people there that saw it, they ought to consider themselves lucky," says Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley, who was the Sooners offensive coordinator at the time. "Because chances are they'll never see anything like it again."

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The Quarterbacks

Years before, Mayfield and Mahomes were an offseason away from being teammates.

Mayfield walked on at Texas Tech and played for head coach Kliff Kingsbury in 2013. Following an injury-filled season, he left the program disgruntled after not being offered a scholarship and landed at Oklahoma after sitting out a year. In many ways, the intrigue between the two schools started then.

Mahomes arrived in Lubbock in 2014, months after Mayfield's departure. He was named the starter in the ninth game of his freshman season.

In 2015, Mayfield got the best of his former team and Mahomes in a 63-27 victory in Norman. The following year, when Mayfield returned to Lubbock, Kingsbury knew Mayfield's anger over how he was treated at Texas Tech would motivate him.

"Baker obviously wanted to beat us," Kingsbury says. "We had history. And Pat wanted to defend his home turf against Baker. There were a lot of dynamics that played into this turning into the most offensive game in the history of the sport."

Mayfield finished the game with 545 passing yards on only 36 throws. Seven of his throws went for touchdowns, including three in the third quarter that provided the game's first true separation.

Because of Texas Tech's inability to slow Mayfield and the Oklahoma offense, Mahomes was asked to throw more in this game than any quarterback in recent memory. Perhaps more significant than any yardage or touchdown figure is the fact that Mahomes threw the ball 88 times, completing 52.

"I really didn't worry about him getting tired," Kingsbury says of his QB. "He's got such a phenomenal arm, and he's such a great competitor. It was more like, 'Dude, just keep going. I don't know what to tell you.'"

"He just kept making play after play," Riley says of Mahomes. "He was awesome."

Mahomes matched Mayfield's seven touchdowns (five passing, two rushing). He also was Tech’s leading rusher, gaining 85 yards on 12 carries.

The two quarterbacks combined to throw for 1,279 passing yards and finished with 1,383 yards between them, both NCAA records.

"I think I had a unique perspective because I worked with both those quarterbacks," Kingsbury says. "But that was the most impressive thing I've ever seen from two guys going at each other."

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The Defense

What Malik Jenkins remembers most about that night is the tortillas. Not the 17 touchdowns or the painful film sessions that took place in the defensive meeting room the following week, but the tortillas that rained down on the field throughout the night—a Texas Tech tradition that took on new life given the surplus of scoring.

"Just think about the movie 300," says Jenkins, a former Texas Tech linebacker who led his team with 14 tackles in that game. "You know that scene with all the arrows flying down at once? That's exactly how it felt after every touchdown with these tortillas."

He remembers the stadium grew so loud that the earholes in his helmet started to vibrate. He also recalls trying to rip the ball out of every offensive player's hands—knowing that if his defense didn't force a turnover, Oklahoma would likely score.

"Even though the numbers were really, really ugly for us, I just remember everybody trying to come together," Jenkins says. "We battled our ass off. It was awesome."

The first quarter featured 23 combined points. At halftime, Oklahoma held a 30-24 lead. It was at the intermission that former Oklahoma cornerback Will Johnson watched Mike Stoops, the team's defensive coordinator at the time, deliver perhaps the most emotional halftime speech of his tenure, imploring his defense to stop the carnage.

"It was a never-ending night," Johnson says. "Like a really long bad dream. I've never wanted a game to end before like I wanted this game to end."

Despite the pep talk, the scoring continued in the second half as Mahomes and Mayfield carved up both defenses in the third and fourth quarters.

Gradually, for the players and coaches, the realization dawned that it was likely neither team would be stopped. In the second half, the teams combined to score 71 points.

"Nobody really on either team blinked when we started going back and forth," Kingsbury says. "I think everybody knew this was going to be one of those games that when the dam breaks, you just roll with it."

Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press

The Offense

Mason Reed will forever remember the 2016 Oklahoma game for reasons beyond the outcome. Now a senior at Texas Tech, Reed, who has played multiple positions at the school, recorded his first college reception midway through the first quarter—an eight-yard grab.

"It will always have a special place in my heart, that's for sure," Reed says.

Reed finished with 49 yards on three catches, a respectable showing but only the sixth-most receptions for Texas Tech and ninth-most in the game.

What can be lost in the madness of that game were some remarkable offensive performances by players other than the quarterbacks.

Texas Tech wideout Keke Coutee, now with the Houston Texans, finished with 172 receiving yards. He was nearly matched by teammate Jonathan Giles, who finished with 167 yards. Each caught 10 passes.

For Oklahoma, wideout Dede Westbrook, now with the Jacksonville Jaguars, led the way with 202 yards receiving and two touchdowns.

But no skill-position player had a night like Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon, who has found success in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals. Mixon finished with 263 yards rushing, 114 yards receiving and five touchdowns.

"He caught a ball one-handed on the right sideline for a touchdown that was one of the most memorable plays of the game," Riley says. "He was fabulous. That was one of the best individual running back performances I've ever seen."

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The Aftermath

The deluge of points and yardage garnered a mixed response. Many were drawn to the wealth of touchdowns scored. Others couldn't see beyond the total defensive breakdown by both teams.

"I've certainly seen a lot of good offensive performances over the years," Riley said. "And the way those two quarterbacks and those two offenses played that night, they'd have scored on anybody and everybody."

Mahomes went on to account for 53 touchdowns in 2016 before declaring as a junior for the NFL draft, where he was selected with the 10th pick in the first round by the Chiefs. Mayfield followed up a strong 2016 season by winning the Heisman Trophy in 2017 and leading Oklahoma to the College Football Playoff. The Browns selected him with the first pick in the draft.

Many other players from this game have found NFL homes. Those who remain in the two programs, including both current head coaches and some on the roster, vividly recall what those moments following the game were like.

Riley, who started his coaching career at Texas Tech, says he was in a daze when he embraced his family after the win. Despite being involved in his fair share of offense-dominated games, he wasn't quite sure how to process the result.

One of his wideouts, Geno Lewis, who finished the game with three catches for 47 yards, struggled to use his cellphone. He received so many text messages from family and friends that it was ultimately unusable.

"I had to take the back of my phone off because it was so hot from all the text messages," Lewis says.

The following morning, after giving up more than 800 yards in the win, Will Johnson, who was the Sooners' second-leading tackler in the game, woke up to a text message from a fellow Oklahoma teammate. He knew the film sessions that week would be brutal, although he wasn't ready to think about it.

The message was sent to all the members of the Sooners secondary, and it asked the question that just about everyone involved in that game is still wondering years later.

"Did that really just happen?"