Who does Baker Mayfield think will win Super Bowl 58?
He’s not exactly telling, but he sounds torn on the quarterback situation.
Brock Purdy (San Francisco) versus Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City) represents a head-to-head showdown of former Big 12 Conference quarterbacks, a couple of big-play gunslingers who set their school record book on its ear and elevated their teams to new heights.
Mayfield saw them both play against Oklahoma — he beat Mahomes twice head-to-head, but Purdy went 0-4 against the Sooners after Mayfield left for the NFL.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for both of ‘em,” Mayfield told Sports Illustrated this week in Las Vegas. “It’ll be a good game, though.”
At Texas Tech, where Mayfield started as a true freshman walk-on before a midseason injury, Mahomes took over the job in November 2014, the year after Mayfield transferred to Oklahoma.
Mayfield took over as OU’s starter in 2015, the same year that Mahomes’ career took off in Lubbock.
In their 2015 meeting in Norman, OU beat Tech 63-27 as Mahomes completed 26-of-40 throws for 233 yards with one touchdown and four interceptions. He also rushed for 47 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries. Mayfield, meanwhile, was 15-of-22 for 212 yards with two TDs and a pick against his former team.
The one everyone remembers, of course, is their 2016 rematch in Lubbock, an all-time college football classic, won 66-59 by Oklahoma. Mayfield was 27-of-36 for 545 yards with seven touchdowns and zero INTs. Trailing much of the game and without a running threat to help him, Mahomes launched 88 passes, completed 52 for 734 yards and five touchdowns and was intercepted once. He also ran for 85 yards and two TDs on 12 carries. The fireworks from that game incinerated the NCAA record book and still have reverberations today.
Mahomes is playing in his fourth Super Bowl today and is seeking his third championship.
“Obviously Pat’s been here a bunch,” Mayfield told SI. “He knows exactly what’s at stake. He knows how the pressures of the game, how to operate it, how to do all that. He’s tough to beat.”
Purdy wasn’t the Cyclones’ starter yet when they hosted the Sooners in Week 2 of the 2018 season — Mayfield’s rookie year in Cleveland.
Kyle Kempt and Zeb Noland battled it out early for Matt Campbell. Noland played against Kyler Murray in the Sooners’ 37-27 victory in Ames, but it was Purdy, a true freshman, who jumped into the lineup two weeks later, seized the starting job and never let it go.
Purdy went 0-4 against OU — he narrowly lost to Jalen Hurts in Norman in 2019, narrowly lost to Spencer Rattler twice in 2020 (the second one for a Big 12 title) and narrowly lost to Caleb Williams in Norman in 2021.
Purdy’s best shot at beating the Sooners was his first, when he threw for 282 yards and five touchdowns and rushed for 55 yards and a score but couldn’t finish a 2-point conversion pass to win at the end of a 42-41 loss.
In 2020, OU beat him 37-30 in a regular season matchup in Ames (Purdy was 12-of-24 for 254 yards with one TD passing and one rushing) and 27-21 in the conference championship game in Arlington (Purdy was 20-of-29 for 156 yards with a TD pass and a TD run).
In 2021, Williams struggled throwing the football in Norman (he was 8-of-18 for 87 yards with a TD and an interception), while Purdy did not (30-of-41 for 281 yards with one TD and one pick). Williams did add a 74-yard touchdown run and OU got a scoop and score from Jalen Redmond to seal it.
Purdy’s most memorable play from his four games against the Sooners might have been his first quarter sack at the hands of Perrion Winfrey, a vicious blind-side hit that nearly took Purdy out of the game.
But that’s one of the things Mayfield likes most — and may give Purdy an edge — in the Super Bowl: his ability to take adversity in the face and keep going.
“I think Brock’s got a little chip on his shoulder after getting hurt in the NFC Championship Game last year and not getting a chance to play in (the Super Bowl),” Mayfield said. “I think the extra motivation for him is everybody talking about him as a game manager. The guy just executes. He does it in his own way. That doesn’t make him a game manager. That just means he’s executing in his own way and doing it in your own way.”
As Sooner Nation knows, Mayfield is a big believer in the chip on his shoulder.
Coming off the most difficult year of his career, in which he was traded by one team and then released by another, Mayfield just had the best year of his career, in which he posted career-highs for yards and touchdowns, led Tampa Bay to a South Division title and playoff win, and was selected to his first Pro Bowl. He was even named Pro Bowl MVP.
“The chips on my shoulder will never change,” Mayfield said. “I don’t forget a whole lot of things of people and what they’ve said. But you’ve got to turn that into internal motivation.
“For me, it was the first time that … somebody told me to just, ‘Hey, go be you. That’s all we want. Go play your game. Go be you.’ And that’s empowering. I can’t thank Tampa enough for that. So for me, I’m grateful and thankful.”
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