On Taylor Cornelius’ Bedlam, and How Only Three Yards Can Shape Narratives

NORMAN — Taylor Cornelius ducked his head, threw both hands up over his ears, and calmly worked loose his chinstrap as he jogged off the field. He had just missed his trusty target whom he had already connected with 10 different times in Bedlam earlier in the eve, Tylan Wallace, misfiring by inches on an attempted 2-point conversion that would have given OSU a 49-48 lead in its biggest game of the season.

The clock had 63 seconds left to count down. At the time, OSU’s gunslinger had a remarkable 501 yards passing, three touchdowns and zero interception stat line. One of the best showings by a QB in Bedlam ever. And yet the difference between how we remember his performance, that game, the ending, all of it from a historical perspective, may be whether or not he’d added three more passing yards to his final stat line.

“He played good, right?” said Mike Gundy rhetorically after the game. “34 of 53 for over 500 yards; he played pretty good. He ran the ball effectively at times on a couple scrambles and draws, so he played really good.”

Had Cornelius completed that final pass that flew errantly into the chest of OU cornerback Tre Brown, he’d have ascended higher than his 6-6 frame directly into the highest company of OSU lore. Instead, despite his obvious greatness, the memory of his stupendous showing may fade.

“Sure would have liked to have completed that last pass,” said Gundy, “but sometimes in life things don’t go your way.”

By passing for 501 yards and three scores in the 48-47 loss, Cornelius thrust himself among the OSU elites: Only Brandon Weeden and Mason Rudolph, quarterbacking royalty at the top of the OSU lexicon, have hit the half-a-thousand mark. Sealing a signature win by completing a two-point conversion would have been icing on the cake for an historically awesome showing.

So how far is the emotional gap between euphoria and misery, you ask? Bedlam proved Saturday the difference is only three yards.