The 2016 Texas Tech-Oklahoma game didn’t just break offensive records. It broke conventional football wisdom. Future NFL QBs Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes turned Oklahoma-Texas Tech into a four-hour offensive masterclass where every drive demanded points. This wasn’t just another Big 12 shootout. Mayfield carried legitimate resentment towards his former school, while Mahomes fought to prove Tech belonged among the conference elite. What made this battle special wasn’t just the crazy stats (we’ll get to those), but how both QBs stepped up when the pressure was on.

Big plays on third down, clutch touchdowns late in the game, changing calls at the line. That game was next-level QB play at its best. Years later, Baker Mayfield still gets fired up talking about that night. On the New Heights podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce, the former Sooners QB couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. Especially when remembering what he was up against. “I feel like it was Oklahoma versus Pat,” Mayfield admitted, “We had to score every single drive in the second half just to win the game. I’m like, what the hell is this? He had over, I think, like 813 or 819 yards total. It was sicko.” Even in a win, Mayfield knew he was outgunned.

The numbers still defy logic eight years later. Mahomes’ 734 passing yards and 819 total yards set FBS records. All while playing through a separated shoulder and fractured wrist. Mayfield fired back with 545 yards and a school-record 7 TDs, but even that wasn’t the wildest part. “It was an unbelievable game and unbelievable atmosphere,” Mayfield admitted in a 2021 interview. “Just the back and forth is something that I will not forget.” The numbers were ridiculous. The effort was exhausting. And years later, Mayfield’s tone says it all: some wins don’t feel like wins. It feels like survival.

For anyone who watched, the game felt like football’s version of a heavyweight title fight. Ten consecutive second-half drives ended in TDs– nine of them 75+ yard marches. OU’s Joe Mixon rushed for 263 yards and 5 TDs. Both teams finished with exactly 854 total yards, an absurd mile-and-a-half of combined offense that still stands as the FBS record. FOX sideline reporter Bruce Feldman, who later wrote an oral history of the game for The Athletic, put it best: “It’s the wildest game I’ve ever worked on.”

Of course, Patrick Mahomes’ heroics weren’t the only thing making Mayfield’s Lubbock return memorable – just ask him about the tortillas.

Baker Mayfield bites back at tortilla toss

Mayfield didn’t just battle Mahomes that night. He waged war with the entire stadium. Because the Texas Tech fans weren’t just chanting; they were armed with tortillas, hurling them at Oklahoma players like edible artillery. “The Texas Tech [fans], they throw the tortillas,” Baker recalled on the podcast. The flour missile came spinning out of the student section like a drunken frisbee, landing near Mayfield’s feet with a soft thwap. For Texas Tech fans, this wasn’t just a game; it was payback. Their former walk-on, now OU’s golden boy, had dared to return to Lubbock.

Mayfield didn’t blink. “Saw the guy who threw it, took a bite out of it,” he recalled on New Heights. “That’s a baller move,” said Jason. “I didn’t get sick… I will eat you for lunch and dinner,” jokingly added the Bucs QB. This was always personal. When Mayfield’s first pass of the night – a 56-yard bomb to Mixon – put OU up 6-0, the Jones AT&T Stadium crowd turned feral. They remembered the walk-on who’d left. They couldn’t have imagined he’d return as a Heisman contender, dragging an offense that refused to punt after the first quarter.

Mahomes matched him play for play despite injuries that would sideline most QBs. His 11-yard TD scramble in the second quarter showcased the absurdity – breaking tackles with a fractured wrist before diving into the endzone. Mayfield answered in 20 seconds flat, hitting Nick Basquine for a 23-yard score that silenced the crowd just before halftime.

The second half became pure offensive delirium. Tech’s defense might as well have been holograms. On OU’s sideline, Mayfield kept stealing glances at the scoreboard between drives. “We knew,” teammate Dede Westbrook later said. “If we didn’t score, we lost.” When Mayfield’s 15-yard bullet to Mixon put OU up 66-52 with 5:22 remaining, the Jones AT&T Stadium speakers blasted “Texas Fight” – but the crowd’s real response came from the stands. Tortillas arced through the east end zone like edible protest signs. Mayfield didn’t engage this time. He’d already made his statement two quarters earlier when he took that first bite, and now with the lead, he simply jogged to the sideline. Of course, Mahomes registered another TD to make it 66-59, the number that’s etched away in NCAA history.

Eight years later, the details blur, but the feeling remains. “That atmosphere…” Mayfield told the Kelces, shaking his head. Almost nostalgic for the chaos. For the “sicko” on the other sideline, who made him play the game of his life.