STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) John Mateer threw touchdown passes on consecutive possessions on each side of halftime and Oklahoma Sooners handed Mississippi State Bulldogs its third-straight loss 23-15 on Saturday.

“I’m proud of John and the way he played,” Sooners coach Brent Venables said. “I thought he played an excellent game. I thought he did some fantastic things. He made some great throws.”

Mateer went 22 of 29 (76%) for 283 yards through the air to go with the two scores. He added 37 yards on nine carries on the ground.

Tate Sandell got the Sooners (4-3, 2-2 Southeastern Conference) on the board with a field goal on their first drive. Billy Puckett, who came in at quarterback for Kamario Taylor, got the Bulldogs (4-3, 2-3) to OU’s 6-yard line late in the second quarter, but he coughed the ball up on the next play. The Sooners recovered and marched 96 yards on 14 plays, the last of which was a 36-yard pass from Mateer to Isaiah Sategna, for a 10-0 halftime lead.

The Sooners got the ball back out of the break and went up 17-0 on the third play, a 32-yard pass from Mateer to Rocky Beers up the middle.

“Their chunk plays, offensively, to me was the difference in the game,” MSU coach Jeff Lebby said. “That and third downs defensively, I loved our effort, our attitude, our physicality. I thought we attacked. We gave up chunks at the wrong times, and those moments, they were frustrating.”

Oklahoma had five passing plays of 15 or more yards that accounted for 191 of its 283 passing yards. Two of those plays resulted in touchdowns and two other big plays came on third down.

The Sooners were 8 for 17 on third and fourth down while the Bulldogs were 3 for 16.

Mississippi State got on the board later in the third on back-to-back trick plays. The second one was an 18-yard pass from tight end Sam West to Camden Capehart. It was MSU’s first touchdown in eight quarters dating back to its game on Oct. 3 against Alabama.

Oklahoma responded with another field goal, then after two straight field goal misses, converted on one to make it 23-7 with 4:26 left to play.

Puckett found Sanfrisco Magee on a 42-yard touchdown and a two-point conversion to make it a one-possession game at the 2:10 mark. The Sooners got the ball back and converted on back-to-back third downs to put the game away.

Oklahoma, which came into the game averaging 92.5 rushing yards per game, ran for 184 yards against the Bulldogs.

“That should have been, probably a four or five-score win. It wasn’t,” Venables said. “But I’m just thankful for the victory.”

The return of MSU’s star signal caller did not last long.

Taylor completed just 2 of his 5 passes for 10 yards while taking two sacks against the Sooners. He took a hit while running out of bounds on fourth down late in the first quarter, was taken to the locker room and did not come back.

“He felt it a little bit, and so it felt like the right thing to do was get him out of the game,” Lebby said. “As we move forward, we’ll know a lot more tomorrow. We’ll know more Monday as we move through it.”

Taylor suffered a foot or toe injury in State’s win over Missouri on Sept. 26. He left the next week’s game against Alabama with 12 minutes left and sat out last week’s game against LSU.

Oklahoma: The Sooners did just enough offensively and flexed their muscle on defense once again.

Mississippi State: The loss of Kamario Taylor was ultimately too much to overcome.

Oklahoma: Hosts South Carolina on Saturday.

Mississippi State: Plays at No. 19 Texas on Saturday.

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