The #3 Oklahoma Sooners (11-1) put a Bedlam beatdown on the #11 Oklahoma State Cowboys (10-2) on Saturday night, running away in Stillwater en route to a 58-23 win. The victory secures a Big 12 title for the Sooners and will likely lead to a College Football Playoff berth for Bob Stoops' crew. Here's some notes, quotes and observations from OU's massive rivalry triumph.
Notes:
Oklahoma scored 44 points and amassed 359 yards of total offense in the first half. RBs Joe Mixon and Samaje Perine broke off TD runs of 66 and 68 yards respectively during the half.
Oklahoma State has given up 26 or more points in nine of their their last ten games. The offense has done more than enough to paper over the defense's deficiencies all year long, but that wasn't the case on Saturday.
Sooners QB Baker Mayfield didn't have to do all that much through the air with the running game putting up 344 total yards (77 by Mayfield himself). However, he was effective when he did throw -- going 17/25 for 180 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
Oklahoma's offense ran through a porous Oklahoma State front seven early and often, nullifying the gutsy effort of fill-in Cowboys quarterback JW Walsh (25 of 42, 325 yards, two TDs, one INT). Walsh started and played for the majority of the game for an injured Mason Rudolph, who made a brief appearance but was held out for the rest of the game after going 0 for 3 while looking uncomfortable on his ailing ankle.
Quotes:
"There's a lot of tension in the air. Obviously, this game -- we don't need anyone to tell us it's a big game. We don't need anyone to tell us that it's a game we have to play our hearts out in. But this one? I could tell. I knew our guys were ready and I knew what we were playing for." -- Oklahoma CB Jordan Thomas
"Everybody that's played them has probably had their highest missed tackle total out of everybody they played. Between the two running backs and Mayfield, they're good players. I'm disappointed. I hoped we would've tackled better, but it was evident that they're strong, and they broke tackles." -- Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Glenn Spencer.
"You just figure if you're third and you go to a championship game away from home to the No. 9 team in the country and win by 30-some points, whatever it was, you would only move up, possibly, but you sure wouldn't move back." -- Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops on the upcoming College Football Playoff rankings reveal.
"Credit them. They did a good job and they ran through us. We just didn't tackle well enough. It was my biggest fear, and that's what happened." -- Glenn Spencer on Sooners RBs Joe Mixon and Samaje Perine.
Observations:
Oklahoma RBs Joe Mixon and Samaje Perine combined for 267 yards and four touchdowns on Saturday, asserting themselves as the most dominant RB duo in the nation. Alabama RB Derrick Henry may be the best overall back in the country, but no team has the change-of-pace options that the Sooners have. With the College Football Playoff likely to be next, the Mixon/Perine combo could be the X-factor for OU's playoff hopes.
The Oklahoma State Cowboys' fall from undefeated CFP contenders to sitting at the fringe of the New Year's Six at-large pool was a swift one. OSU gave up a combined 103 points in back-to-back losses to Baylor and Oklahoma, and what's worse is that both of those games were at home in Stillwater. OSU had all the pieces lined up to take the Big 12 title outright, but they just couldn't put the brakes on the Bears and Sooners' offenses when they needed it the most.
Back to the Oklahoma Sooners Newsfeed