Shortly after OU’s 42-30 win over Kansas State on Saturday, I sent a friend a text message that said, “I have no idea what I just watched.”

Certainly, OU’s game was different from any other this season. On Halloween night, the Sooners came dressed as the 2008 OU team, complete with a high-octane offense, shaky kick coverage and a defense that can’t always get the stop.

I can’t explain why the game turned out the way it did. It doesn’t make much sense that this OU defense was able to shut down Texas and Kansas, but let the Wildcats put up 30 points.

An explanation though, may not be necessary. Saturday night was simply a strange night for the OU defense.

After one quarter, Kansas State had literally no success moving the ball, gaining negative yardage in that first period. With OU up by 21, many fans were leaving the game early to get a head start on Halloween festivities.

For the next three quarters though, the Wildcats had their way with the OU defense. The Sooners may have gotten too comfortable with the lead, they may have come out flat, or the Wildcats may have thrown some things at the Sooners that they had never seen before.

Regardless, the defense on Saturday was not the OU defense fans can expect to see the rest of the way.

Everyone has an off day occasionally. This Sooner defense has been one of the best in recent years, but that doesn’t mean it’s invincible. The good news for OU fans is that the defense happened to have an off day on one of the offense’s best days.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Landry Jones had probably the best performance of his young career on Saturday, avoiding mistakes and making big throws when he needed to. The receiving corps, which featured primarily OU’s younger receivers, had their best collective showing on Saturday, too.

Meanwhile, OU’s much-maligned offense line was able to create running lanes for the Sooner tailbacks, and gave Jones time to throw the ball all night. It appears this relatively young offense took a big step forward Saturday, and will likely continue to improve throughout the season, but that does not mean this team’s identity will shift entirely.

This is still a team that is going to win games with defense. This team is not going to be able to out-score teams week in and week out like they did against Kansas State. If OU wants to save its season and run the table, the defense will have to lead the way.

Weird things tend to happen on Halloween, and Sooner fans that are hoping to see this team make the most of an unlucky season better hope the OU defense they saw on Saturday was nothing more than an apparition.

Steven Jones is a language arts education senior.