Brent Venables hasn't necessarily had the smoothest start to his tenure as the head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners. Venables went 6-7 in his first year in Norman, coaching the Sooners to their first losing season since 1998. Last year, he got Oklahoma back on track, winning 10 games which included an upset victory over Texas in the Red River Shootout. But even that last-second win over Texas painted a picture in which two evenly matched teams went down to the wire.

On Saturday against Auburn, the Sooners were thoroughly outclassed for three quarters, yet still managed to find a way to come away with a victory in hostile territory. Oklahoma was outgained by nearly 200 yards and had 15 fewer first downs than the Tigers. Call it luck or an Auburn choke job if you'd like, but Brent Venables will choose to call it “Sooner magic.”

“That was my first experience with Sooner magic as a head coach,” Brent Venables said after the game. “That was an amazing last four drives on offense and defense. … We played our best ball when it mattered most.”

Auburn took a 21-10 lead early in the 4th quarter, and after Oklahoma turned the ball over on downs on the next possession, the Tigers had a 97.4% win probability, according to ESPN.com. However, an unsuccessful 51-yard field goal kept Auburn's lead at 11, opening the door for Oklahoma to find a way back into the game.

True freshman quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. and seldom-used receiver J.J. Hester connected on a 60-yard reception on the second play of Oklahoma's next drive, setting up a 2-yard Jovantae Barnes touchdown run to cut the Auburn lead to 21-16.

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On Auburn's next possession, the Tigers were driving into Oklahoma territory and looking like they'd find a way to seal the game, but when quarterback Payton Thorne threw an ill-advised pass into the middle of the Sooners defense, Kip Lewis made him pay.

The Sooners tacked on a two-point conversion and eventually a field goal late in the game to score a 27-21 victory over Auburn, their first in SEC play. There will be plenty of lessons that Oklahoma can learn from this game, but for now, Brent Venables will settle for a silver lining.

“We didn’t play very well,” Venables said. “But we played amazingly when we needed to.”