The defensive line just got pushed around.

How does that happen?

“They just really outplayed us,” Bob Stoops said.

“We just didn’t make plays,” began Lewis Baker. “And when you have the opportunity to make plays, you have to make plays, and we didn’t do that today.”

“There were some competitive plays we needed to make and we didn’t it,” said Kevin Wilson, whose juggernaut offense picked up 230 yards or, put another way, 438 fewer than it gained against North Texas, 181 fewer than it gained against Miami, 387 fewer than it gained against Utah State and 323 fewer than it gained against Tulsa.

Just so we’re straight, the Sooners didn’t make plays.

But that can’t be the story. Not the whole story.

Not for Colorado, which made the plays and deserved to win if only because the most dangerous guy on the field was quarterback Cody Hawkins, the Buffs’ redshirt freshman who outdueled Bradford on a day both of them played the best defense they’ve yet faced. And not for the Sooners either, because it just sounds like some sort of cop out.

Remember, the thing Stoops likes most about this team is the way it goes about its business. When he explains it, he knocks the nearest wood. “Robotic,” he calls it, but in the best possible way. That should help at the Cotton Bowl in six days, but how could it let the Sooners down so suddenly with nothing less than the season on the line because the season’s on the line every week in the college game.

At least until you lose.

OU had committed six turnovers through four games. They committed three against the Buffs alone.

Colorado had the ball almost 39 minutes. The Sooners had it barely 21.

“For whatever reason,” Wilson said. “We couldn’t handle success.”

Maybe it’s because these Sooners are still so young.

Maybe it even had something to do with the altitude.