2011 Game For The Big 12 Title
Week 14, OU vs. Oklahoma State
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National
Rankings
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OU |
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OSU |
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4th |
Total Offense |
3rd |
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52nd |
Total Defense |
107th |
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8th |
Scoring Offense |
2nd |
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28th |
Scoring Defense |
64th |
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42nd |
Rushing Offense |
57th |
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31st |
Run Defense |
93rd |
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3rd |
Passing Offense |
2nd |
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87th |
Passing Defense |
102nd |
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52nd |
Turnover Margin |
2nd |
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Position Rankings
relative to each
other
5 Highest - 1 Lowest |
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OU |
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OS |
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5 |
Quarterbacks |
5 |
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3 |
RBs |
4 |
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4 |
Receivers |
5 |
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5 |
O
Line |
4.5 |
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4 4 |
D
Line |
3 |
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5 |
Linebackers |
3 |
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3 |
Secondary |
3 |
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3 |
Spec
Teams |
4 |
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5 |
Coaching |
4 |
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at Oklahoma State 44 … Oklahoma 10
CFN Analysis: For all the great things has done this year, it was the defense that came up with the dominant stomping the team had to have. The Cowboys made the Sooners look silly. … The offensive line destroyed the Sooners with Joseph Randle and Jeremy Smith each running for more than 100 yards and two scores. Brandon Weeden wasn’t sacked. … This was stunning from the start. It was a special performance and a great game overall, but it was as if everyone on both sides of the ball – including the fans – were stunned that things unfolded as they did. … Oklahoma State won the Big 12 title. In all the hoopla and all the debating, winning the conference championship can’t be overlooked. It’s a really, really big deal.
CFN Analysis: Landry Jones picked the wrong time to come up with the worst game of his career. He threw 50 times with no touchdown passes, two picks, and just 250 yards. He and the offense ended up giving the ball away five times. … The defensive back seven did a nice job of keeping the big pass plays to a minimum, but it was gouged by the OSU running game. … The Sooners needed a steady running back to calm things down by grinding out drives in the first half, but the O line didn’t give the runners any room.
(AP) STILLWATER, Okla. -- Mike Gundy didn't feel comfortable campaigning for No. 3 Oklahoma State to play for the national title until his Cowboys had at least won a conference crown.
His team made a better case than anything he could have ever said.
Joseph Randle ran for 151 yards and two touchdowns, Richetti Jones returned a fumble for a score and No. 3 Oklahoma State throttled Oklahoma (No. 10 BCS, No. 13 AP) 44-10 Saturday night to win the Big 12 championship and make its case to play for the BCS national title.
"I don't think there's any question Oklahoma State should play in the big game," Gundy said.
The Cowboys (11-1, 8-1 Big 12) snapped an eight-game losing streak in the Bedlam rivalry and won their first outright conference title since 1948 in the three-team Missouri Valley.
Oklahoma State's defense, badmouthed much of the season while giving up big yardage but leading the nation in takeaways, forced the Sooners (9-3, 6-3) into five turnovers -- four of them by quarterback Landry Jones.
Fans started chanting "L-S-U!" midway through the fourth quarter with the victory well in hand, then stormed the field and tore down the goal posts when it was over.
The top-ranked Tigers could be next up for the Pokes, but only with a boost in the BCS standings due out Sunday night.
"If that's the way it works out, absolutely. We took care of what we could take care of," quarterback Brandon Weeden said. "We had to worry about us and control what we could control, and if we were able to do that, we were conference champs."
While the top-ranked Tigers won the SEC championship Saturday to lock up a spot in the BCS title game, No. 2 Alabama sat at home idle after finishing second in its division. Oklahoma State, meanwhile, proved itself the best team in its state and its conference. But it's up to the voters, who had the Cowboys fifth in the coaches' poll and Harris poll, to decide whether Oklahoma State will play for the highest stakes.
Gundy proclaimed earlier this week that he considered the Crimson Tide to be the second-best team in the nation "right now" -- but that's what he thought his team needed to hear at the time.
"I have to make that decision and I wasn't raised that way. I'm not comfortable standing up and beating our chests and saying that we needed to play somebody when we hadn't even won this game," Gundy said.
"That was what we were telling the team in here every day. ... I said, 'Look, I'm not going to go stand up and say we need to go play somebody else until you guys beat Oklahoma."
Afterward, he proclaimed on the field that "there's no question Oklahoma State should be No. 2 right now."
"The honest answer is we didn't deserve it. We do now," Gundy said. "And if we'd have won this game 17-14, I don't know if I'd have said it. ... When you win by 34 points, we deserve the right."
The Cowboys won over at least one voter: Sooners coach Bob Stoops said he'd put them at No. 2 on his ballot.
"I'm sure they're going to have some great opportunities from here," Stoops said. "I don't know what will happen."
For most of the 107 years of the Bedlam rivalry, the Sooners had the better team and more on the line.
But each of the past two years, Oklahoma came in with a lower ranking and still found a way to derail a couple of the best teams in Oklahoma State history -- first dashing any hopes of a BCS at-large berth two years ago and then taking away the Cowboys' shot at the Big 12 championship last season.
With all that history on their side, the Sooners came out looking to intimidate.
After coming onto the field, players ran into the west end zone for a pregame prayer and then lingered after it was over -- right outside the gate where the Cowboys were getting ready to run out. Coaches, game officials and security officers made them get out of the way.
The Sooners couldn't back up the pregame bluster, though.
Brandon Weeden's 53-yard pass to Tracy Moore set up Jeremy Smith's 9-yard touchdown run, and the Cowboys defense -- which entered the game ranked 107th out of 120 teams in the nation -- never needed any more than that.
Brodrick Brown outfought Jaz Reynolds to pick off Landry Jones' pass in the end zone and prevent an Oklahoma score, and Alex Elkins stripped the ball from the quarterback on a sack to set up a TD for the Cowboys.
Jamie Blatnick picked up the fumble and returned it 59 yards to the 1-yard line, and Randle scored on the next play to make it 17-0. Randle added a 2-yard run after Sam Proctor's holding penalty on a kickoff return backed the Sooners up, and they went three-and-out -- punting it back to Oklahoma State on a shortened field.
Richetti Jones made it 34-3 after Landry Jones reached back to pass the ball and fumbled it onto the turf, with the OSU defender bobbling it and then finally controlling it for a 5-yard return.
The Sooners got their only points on Michael Hunnicutt's 48-yard field goal at the end of the first half and Blake Bell's 28-yard TD scamper with 2:25 left in the game.
It ended up as Oklahoma's most lopsided defeat since losing the 2005 Orange Bowl against Southern California, and the second-biggest margin of victory for the Pokes in the series -- behind only a 47-0 shutout in 1945.
"That was a convincing win over OU, who is a great team. We were in the No. 1 power-rated conference, we won it outright and we held them to 10 points," Blatnick said.
"We beat them convincingly. What more do you need than that? I don't think anybody wants to see another rematch with no touchdowns."
The Tide's only loss was at home against LSU, 9-6 in overtime. Alabama has the nation's top defense and LSU is second, while Oklahoma State has the nation's No. 2 offense.
"They had their opportunity. I've got all the respect in the world for Alabama, all the respect in the world for LSU, but we need our shot," Gundy said. "There's talk all year about offense in this league, defense in that league and all that. Well, let's find out."
Oklahoma State's case to play against LSU in New Orleans next month will be hurt by a double-overtime loss 15 days earlier at Iowa State, which finished its season 6-6. It'll be bolstered by five wins against teams in the BCS Top 25, compared to two for Alabama.
And, of course, the Cowboys will have the momentum from not only winning a conference title but doing it in dominating fashion against a team that was ranked No. 1 earlier this season.
"They had their shot," Gundy said. "Give us ours."
Oklahoma (9-2) at Oklahoma State (10-1) Dec. 3, 8:00, ABC
Here’s The Deal … It’s the last possible question in the BCS championship debate, and for anyone who hates the idea that Alabama is going to get a do-over against LSU for the national title, it’s blowout or bust for Oklahoma State.
Had Quinn Sharp’s late field goal attempt against Iowa State gone a few inches to the left instead of the right, and had the team been a bit more focused on the game – which wasn’t exactly easy with the devastating plane crash that rocked the athletic department and the university the night before – this game would’ve been OSU’s chance to solidify a spot in the BCS championship against LSU. Instead, the Cowboys are likely out of the national title debate unless they can obliterate their arch-rivals.
It was Oklahoma’s national championship for the taking.
The preseason No. 1 team wasn’t always sharp over the first six games of the year, but the offense was rolling and the defense was more than solid in good, strong wins over Missouri, Florida State, and Texas. And then came the inexplicable brain cramp.
Forgotten in the loss to a Texas Tech team that didn’t win a game the rest of the season was that OU almost pulled off the win. After a miserable first half, the Sooners came roaring back with 31 second half points – 21 in the fourth quarter – with Landry Jones finishing with 412 yards and five touchdown passes. But the loss seemingly ended the BCS championship dreams for a few weeks, and then came the dominant blowouts against Kansas State and Texas A&M, and then came the title talk again.
Considering how good Oklahoma State is, the thought was that OU still had a shot to get to New Orleans if it could beat Baylor and Iowa State and then look great in Stillwater. An 11-1 Sooner team with a dominant offensive attack would likely have had the juice and the respect to get into a top two spot over Alabama, but the secondary couldn’t stop Robert Griffin in a 45-38 loss, and now the goal is a fourth Fiesta Bowl in six years, an eighth BCS appearance in ten years, and a fifth Big 12 title in the last six years.
Don’t blow off that last part.
All the talk and all the discussion has been about the national title chase and, but winning the Big 12 championship and going to the Fiesta Bowl is nothing to dismiss, especially for an Oklahoma State team that’s never gone to a BCS game and hasn’t beaten OU since 2002. After losing eight straight in the Bedlam rivalry, just beating the Sooners would be a big day for the Cowboys.
Oklahoma State still has a shot at an at-large BCS appearance with a loss – most likely the Sugar Bowl – but that would be a bitter disappointment for a season with so much promise. To start out the year 10-0 only to lose in double overtime and then at home to the bitter rival would all but ruin all the great things the team did. But a win would get the debate rolling.
So what would it take to get Oklahoma State in the BCS championship over Alabama?
There’s wiggle room in both the Harris and coaches’ polls, and if OSU is impressive, it should move up from the No. 5 spot in each. If the Cowboys can jump up two No. 2 in one of the polls and No.3 in the other, they would be a virtual dead-heat with Alabama – assuming LSU beats Georgia – for the coveted spot. Considering the Tide has beaten just three teams with a winning record, and OSU will have beaten eight bowl-bound teams with a win over the Sooners, it could get interesting.
But Oklahoma has been the dominant program in the Big 12 for a reason.
On Championship Saturday it’s the biggest game on the slate, and it should be a fun and wild show. It’ll be Bedlam, and it could be the most important game in the history of the series.
Why Oklahoma Might Win: Defense. Oklahoma has one.
It might not have seemed like it in the losses to Baylor and Texas Tech, but those were strange aberrations. The Sooner defense effectively kept Texas A&M under wraps, allowing just 25 points despite giving up over 500 yards in total offense, and it shut Kansas State down cold. Outside of the two losses, most of the yards gained on OU have come with the game already out of hand.
The defensive front has been terrific at getting into the backfield on a regular basis and from several spots, led by Frank Alexander, the Big 12 sack leader, and with the linebackers chipping in to apply the pressure. More importantly, the linebackers are talented enough to keep the short-range passes to a minimum. OSU QB Brandon Weeden bombed away against Iowa State, but the yards after the catch weren’t always there because Cyclone linebackers A.J. Klein and Jake Knott made play after play, combining for 22 tackles with Knott coming up with a pick. Sooner linebackers Tom Wort and Travis Lewis are better, and while they’ll give up passing yards, they won’t miss many tackles, if any, and they should combine to shut down the Cowboy running game that didn’t go anywhere against Knott and Klein.
Offensively, OU is one of the few teams in the nation with the firepower to keep up the pace with the Cowboys. Top rusher Dominique Whaley and star receiver Ryan Broyles were both knocked out for the year, but the machine has kept right on rolling with 500 yards or more of total offense in five of the last six games and in every game three on the year. Everything starts with the OU line that leads the nation in sacks allowed. Oklahoma State has a good, aggressive pass rush, but it’s not good enough to throw off the timing of the Sooner passing attack for a full sixty minutes.
Why Oklahoma State Might Win: Yeah, Oklahoma might have a killer pass rush, but Ronnell Lewis is out with a knee injury and Alexander is dinged up with a shoulder problem. If Alexander isn’t Alexander, OU will quickly have to get creative to get some sort of a push on Weeden or the secondary will get picked apart. Lately, the OU pass rush has been merely average with just three sacks in the last three games and with just three tackles for loss against Iowa State.
The Sooner secondary hasn’t been bad for the most part, but it got torched by the three high-octane passing teams on the schedule so far and lost to two of them. Texas A&M’s Ryan Tannehill threw for 379 yards and two scores in the loss, but most of his production came late when the game was well out of reach. It was a different story for Texas Tech’s Seth Doege, who threw darts on the way to 441 yards and four scores. More importantly, Doege made the big throws he needed to keep the offense moving late. Baylor’s Robert Griffin could’ve taken it easy and played for overtime, but he marched the attack down the field to beat the Sooners in the final seconds to finish with 479 yards and four scores.
Doege and Griffin didn’t throw a pick. Ball State was the only other team to not give up an interception making OU 8-0 when it came up with one. Weeden will throw the occasional interception, but he’s also mature enough and cool enough to handle himself without a problem to keep leading the team through adversity. He’s not going to have a problem with the enormity of the game.
What To Watch Out For: Penalties and turnovers. Oklahoma State has been good at not making big mistakes, but against Iowa State it got flagged ten times and turned the ball over five times. The Cowboy offense turned the ball over four times against Kansas State and was in a dogfight, and the team committed 11 penalties against Texas A&M and was in a battle. OU hasn’t had a problem with penalties, but the nine committed against Baylor were the most all year, and the three turnovers didn’t help.
For Weeden, the Heisman spotlight is on. With Andrew Luck and Trent Richardson not playing, Weeden can get back on the map with a huge performance and a win over OU. While it might not be enough to win the honor, he could be a finalist if he keeps up the pace over the last few weeks. On fire, he followed up a 502-yard, four score game against Kansas State with 423 yards and five touchdowns against Texas Tech. He might have thrown three picks against Iowa State, but he also threw for 476 yards and three touchdowns. Last year in the shootout loss to the Sooners he was held to just 257 yards and two touchdowns with a season-high three picks. If he does that again, the Cowboys will get blown out.
Landry Jones threw for an effective 224 yards in the 2009 win and last year bombed away for 468 yards and four scores, but with three interceptions, in the 47-41 win. While Weeden might be on display for the Heisman, Jones is auditioning for the NFL scouts as the possible second quarterback taken – if he chooses to come out - behind Andrew Luck. Interceptions have been a bit of an issue, throwing 12 on the year, and he hasn’t thrown a touchdown pass in either of the last two games, but he hit the 4,000-yard mark for the second year in a row. The consistency hasn’t always been there, and while he has proven himself time and again over the last three years, coming through with one more big win would be a big plus for the pro résumé.
What Will Happen: Oklahoma will be Oklahoma. While everyone wants to talk about what might happen if Oklahoma State wins, there’s a reason the Sooners have won seven Big Ten titles under Big 12 Big Game Bob Stoops. Weeden will come up with his numbers and the Cowboys will look fantastic at times, but OU’s defense will do just enough to get into the backfield while stopping Joseph Randle and the OSU running game cold. The Sooner offensive line will outplay the OSU defensive front, and Jones will match Weeden stat for stat in a fun see-saw shootout.
CFN Prediction: Oklahoma 38 … Oklahoma State 34
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Click For Latest Line From ATS: Oklahoma State -3.5 O/U: 74
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