Caleb Williams saves game for Oklahoma with incredible heads-up play on controversial 4th down

Oklahoma got all it could handle from lowly Kansas on Saturday afternoon. At one point, the No. 3 Sooners trailed the Jayhawks 17-7.

But then, QB Caleb Williams and the offense got it going, coming from behind to earn a 35-23 victory to remain unbeaten.

A critical, game-saving 4th-down conversion was one of the best plays of the day. As you can see below, Oklahoma RB Kennedy Brooks was going to be stopped short on a 4th-and-1 play late in the fourth quarter. So, what did Williams do? He took the ball from Brooks and picked up the first down himself:

https://twitter.com/FTBVids_YT/status/1451988808329674752

That’s something that simply doesn’t happen in college football. The refs reviewed the play. But, ultimately, the first down was confirmed and the Sooners went on to avoid the upset.

Many fans and media members thought Brooks’ forward progress was stopped, thus making it a controversial decision:

That is 100 percent forward progress stopped. 100 percent.

Really smart play by Caleb Williams. But that can’t count.

— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) October 23, 2021

Love the play by Caleb Williams but I am surprised they didn’t say the runners forward progress had been stopped…OU lucky the refs didn’t blow the play dead as the RB was getting driven backwards. KU sucks as per usual!

— Greg Lee (@GregLee_5) October 23, 2021

It's not reviewable. It was a failure in real time. Whistle should have blown.

— Blue? (@deadpull_hitter) October 23, 2021

That play by Williams is going to be talked about for a long time.