Nov. 11—In order to find a performance that was similar to Dillon Gabriel’s last week, one would have to go back over three years.

Three years and one day to be exact.

On Oct. 4, 2019, Gabriel (then a freshman at UCF), struggled early in a road game against Cincinnati. After throwing two first half interceptions, Gabriel was trying to lead the Golden Knights to a comeback early in the fourth quarter inside the Bearcats’ red zone.

Gabriel threw a pass over the middle of the field intended for his tight end. The pass was high, but catchable and the tight end could only get one hand on the ball, tipping it up into the waiting arms of a Cincinnati defensive back.

UCF would lose the game 27-24, but it would be the last time Gabriel threw three interceptions in a single game. That changed with last week’s 38-35 loss to Baylor.

After suffering their fifth loss of the season, Gabriel and the Oklahoma offense will be looking to bounce back in a road game against West Virginia on Saturday.

“Sometimes it doesn’t go your way,” Gabriel said. “Sometimes you have to make better decisions and take some calculated risks. I didn’t do that.”

Still, despite the Sooners running into difficulties on both sides of the ball throughout the season, Gabriel’s ability to take care of the ball has hardly been the biggest concern. The junior played six games with the Sooners and threw 11 touchdown passes before throwing his first pass to the opposing team.

In his last full season at UCF, Gabriel only threw four interceptions while throwing 32 touchdown passes. In 25 career starts, the Hawaii native has thrown multiple interceptions in just five games with three of those coming during his freshman campaign.

It was an uncharacteristic performance from a quarterback that ranked third in career passing efficiency while with the Golden Knights.

There were several throws Gabriel admits he would’ve liked to have back, but it’s hard to put all three interceptions solely on the quarterbacks’ shoulders. The Bears’ first interception of the day came on a ball that was tipped at the line of scrimmage by a defensive lineman.

The second pass was thrown a little high, but the ball was tipped by Brayden Willis and the Bears took advantage.

“Just had a lot of tipped balls in general that game,” Gabriel said. “I guess it was the thing of the day. Like I said, we have to move on as a unit and a team and take advantage of this next opportunity.”

Gabriel still ranks as the second-most efficient passer in the Big 12 at 155.77. His 2,027 yards passing are still fifth in the conference and just 390 yards short of Big 12 leader Max Duggan despite missing a game and a half due to injury.

Only one other quarterback in the league has the same number of starts as Gabriel, but less interceptions — Jason Bean of Kansas. Even still, Bean has less than half of the number of attempts that Gabriel does.

When breaking down Big 12 quarterbacks by the average number of attempts per interception, Gabriel leads the entire conference. Oklahoma’s signal caller averages 58.8 passes for every interception he throws.

Oklahoma State’s Spencer Sanders is second with 57.6 attempts per pick, but no other quarterback averages more than 40 attempts per interception.

“I love a lot of the things he did particularly in the second half,” OU head coach Brent Venables said about Gabriel. “I thought he came back and responded in a great way. So, obviously, those aren’t ever any good. Three plays and an interception, five plays and an interception, six plays and an interception. We’re fortunate it wasn’t more. We held them to 10 points in those situations. We have to be better.”

Gabriel should have a good opportunity to bounce back against a Mountaineer secondary that’s struggled throughout the season.

West Virginia ranks last in the Big 12 in pass defense efficiency and has come away with a league-worst three interceptions on the year.