This is the sixth time in eight years that a Bob Stoops Oklahoma team has played for a Big 12 championship. His 4-1 record is pretty impressive.

     There have been a couple of wins over Colorado, and one over Kansas State and Nebraska. In  between some of those was the embarrassing defeat to K-State in 2003 when people at that time were talknig about OU being one of the greatest football teams of all time.

     Is this Missouri team the best of the bunch that OU has faced in the Big 12 title games?

     There’s no doubt the Tigers are the best offensive team that the Sooners have gone against in these Big 12  encounters. Chase Daniel is a big-time quarterback. This guy is hitting over 70 percent of his passes.

     I hear a lot of people saying that the OU defense is the key to this game. I disagree. Hey, the Tigers are going to score points. And don’t get all over Brent Venables when they do. It’s a fact of life when you go against a spread offense like the Tigers employ, you’re not going to shut them down.

     What Oklahoma needs to do is slow them down. Make them punt a few times and when they are driving hold them to field goals. I think Missouri can score 40 points and Oklahoma still wins the game.

     That’s why I think it’s the Sooner offense that is the key in the game. The Missouri defense isn’t that good. The Tigers aren’t terrible on defense, but you can score a bunch of points.

     Sam Bradford has to be accurate like he has been just about all of the season. OU can’t turn the ball over. Long drives would be nice.

     Let’s see how OU runs the ball. There’s no doubt Stoops got the attention of his offense the week of the Oklahoma State game when he worked them hard to improve their running game. The offensive line played its best game of the year.

     The Tigers did a good job of shutting down the Kansas run game last week. Let’s see if they can do it two weeks in a row. I don’t think so. If Oklahoma can have success in the running game it can keep the clock moving and more importantly keep the Missouri offense off the field.

     Both teams have terrific offenses. But OU is the better defensive club. I’m going with OU, 42-35.

     Why did so many people think this latest Oklahoma-Oklahoma State game was going to be going down to the last seconds? That makes absoutely no sense.

     Let’s just try to figure this out. Oklahoma is the much more talented team. They have the better players. They are a team that only 10 days earlier, that people were saying had a good chance to play for a national title.

     Then there’s the fact that the game is in Norman. This is a place where Bob Stoops has lost but two games in his nine year stint. And for the most part, OU just doesn’t beat teams in Norman, it blows them out.

     I could see people think the game would be close if Sam Bradford was not able to play. But once he was cleared you had to think this wasn’t going to be a game that was going to be decided in the last quarter. Let’s combine the facts one more time–Oklahoma is the much more talented team and it is playing the game on its home turf.

     There were those who thought the game would be close because Bradford wouln’t be the same after his concussion. He would still be thinking he was in Lubbock, TX.

     “I heard people trying to be doctors and say that Sam wasn’t going to be 100 percent and that he would still be dizzy. That’s absolutely crazy,” said one Sooner coach before the game. “Do you think the doctors would have cleared him to play if he wasn’t 100 percent? Sam was as healthy going into this game as he was last week going into the Texas Tech game.”

     When Oklahoma saw that the OSU defense couldn’t stop the run, it did the smart thing. It kept on running. The Pokes made adjustments, but they still weren’t good enough to stop the run even though they knew it was coming.

     Hey, it was like the old days of the wishbone when Barry Switzer would say, “You know we’re going to be running the ball, but you are going to have to show me you can stop us.”

     This tactic kept the very good OSU offensive team on the bench as the clock kept ticking away.

     If the Sooners go on and beat Missouri for the Big 12 title it may be kicking itself for awhile. What happened in Lubbockand Boulder. I know what happened in Lubbock. Sam Bradford was sitting on the bench. But there can’t be any good excuse as to why OU lost in Boulder.

     It’s always an important game, but this time around it’s more important for Oklahoma.

     Bedlam kicks off tomorrow afternoon in Norman. This is a game that Oklahoma is supposed to win. There’s a lot at stake for OU. If the Sooners win they head to the Big 12 championship next week in San Antonio.

     Of course what’s really important is for Bob Stoops and his coaching staff. No, there isn’t anyone suggesting that Stoops should be fired. He’s still definitely one of the top five coaches in the nation.

     But a lot of these Oklahoma fans who are still really mad at what happened at Texas Tech. Instead of talking about OSU, they’re still shouting about that loss to the Red Raiders last weekend. They still can’t figure out what happened. What they don’t realize is that Oklahoma was going to have a tough time in Lubbock even if they had Sam Bradford, without him it was going to be Mission Impossible.

     Oklahoma has lost two games this year. And it has been big favorites in both encounters. And once again it’s a double digit favorite over the Pokes. This was a team that had a path to the national championship because of its schedule. Miami wasn’t as good as its been. This isn’t one of Mack Brown’s best teams at Texas. Games against OSU and Texas A&M, were at home.

     If OU loses to the Cowboys the fans will be screaming that team has been a bunch of classic underachievers. And they will be right on. But if the Sooners go on and wins out the fans might forget about those two losses.

     This is an Oklahoma team that isn’t as good defensively as we thought it was early in the year. There have been holes in the pass coverage. This unit has been given up way too many big plays. There have been mental busts in the defensive secondary.

     Oklahoma State is really a terrific offensive team. Zac Robinson is underrated nationally. He has put some sip into the attack after Mike Gundy benched Bobby Reid earlier in the year. The Cowboys are going to score points in this one.

     But the problem for Oklahoma State is if OU doesn’t turn the ball over, the Sooners should be able to almost score at will. If Sam Bradford isn’t in a daze from that concussion, he will be finding open receivers all over the field.

     OU has two big advantages in this game. No. 1 it’s in Norman and No. 2 it has the better defensive team. I’m going with Oklahoma 41-31. 

     People, settle down. Every time Oklahoma loses a football game, there are a minority of fans who want the head of some coach. It’s not fashionable.

     I remember back in the early 80’s when Barry Switzer wasn’t winning the Big Eight championships. There were those who thought the Sooners would be better off without him. They found out how untrue that was starting in 1989.

     Why did Oklahoma lose to Texas Tech? It didn’t have Sam Bradford. It’s that plain and simple. I thought OU would have a heckuva struggle on its hands with Bradford, who by the way came into the game as the NCAA leader in pass effeciency.

     You are not going to win a game in Lubbock with a quarterback who has hardly ever played in college. That’s not happening. Hey, Joey Halzle did his best. He made the Red Raider fans sweat in the fourth quarter when he began to hit his receivers.

     Did the Oklahoma defense struggle in the first half. Absolutely! But it did hold Tech to a field goal after Allen Patrick’s fumble on that first possession. At times there were too many receivers running open for the Red Raiders. It looked like it was going to get ugly.

     But in the second half the defense was superb. The only score they got was a touchdown after the Sooners botched a fake punt. And I didn’t like that call. They were fourth and one. Just line up and give DeMarco Murray the ball. I like his chances of picking up one yard.

     The Sooner offense just took too long getting going. At one time in the game I thought Oklahoma was ready to call it quits. But they fought back and made it interesting.

     This is a team that is now beat up both emtionally and definitely physically. I’ve always said that to win national championships there has to be some luck involved. In 2000 OU made all of the plays when it had to make them.

     However, more importantly Bob Stoops’ team stayed away from injuries. That’s not the case this year. On Saturday night they were without the player they needed the most on defense–Auston English. And they were without the player they needed most on defense–Sam Bradford.

     Just think a minute, do you think the Indianapolis Colts would have won a Super Bowl last year without Peyton Manning? No, it ain’t happening. And Oklahoma isn’t going to beat a good team without Sam Bradford.

     It was a very good weekend for Oklahoma.

     The Sooners had a couple of things happen that were so very important for their aspirations of getting into a national title game.

     One thing they had to have was Kansas beating Oklahoma State in Stillwater. I was absolutely wrong on that one. I thought the Pokes would prevail. For some silly reason I thought their defense would play better.

     I really don’t know why I did. Maybe I still wasn’t convinced that the Jayhawk offense was really good. Well it is and Mark Mangino’s club is gaining believers all over the country. If Kansas wins out it’s going to be playing for a national title.

     Let’s get back to Oklahoma. So OU needed KU to win. If an unbeaten Jayhawk team and a once beaten OU team meet for the Big 12 championship in San Antonio, I think the winner plays for the national title.

     Another huge thing that happened for OU was that Ohio State was shocked at home by Illinois. Now of the contenders, Kansas is the only unbeaten team left standing. And OU can take care of that.

     Mike Stoops could do his big brother a big favor this Thursday night when Oregon visits Arizona. Let’s not forget that the Wildcats clubbed the Ducks last year in Eugene. The way things have been going in college football this year, an upset like this could happen.

     But for Oklahoma to get into a national title game, it has to play a lot better defense than it did against Baylor. That’s was down right embarrassing giving up over 400 yards to the lowly Bears.

     The Sooner defense has struggled against the spread offense all season. Tulsa had a lot of yards. So did Missouri and now Baylor. And OU will face one of the best spread offenses in the country this weekend in Lubbock.

    This is a Sooner team that hasn’t played well on the road. Sam Bradford, who has played so great at home, had problems in Boulder and Ames. The Red Raiders are going to score points. So the OU offense is going to have to be clicking on all cylinders.

     A month ago I didn’t think Oklahoma had a chance to get into a national title game. But things have changed. The Sooners are getting a lot of help. Now they have to be able take care of their own business.

     I’m all for giving second chancers, but this is a little ridiculous.

     No one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. Look at Dusty Dvoracek and Lynn McGruder. Bob Stoops gave them a second chance and it worked out well. Eddie Sutton did the same thing with JamesOn Cuury. Good decision.

     Some times second chances simply don’t work. Many schools stayed away from Prentiss Elliott when he got in trouble in high school most over schools withdrew their scholarship offers.  Les Miles didn’t. When Mike Gundy arrived as head coach, he gave him the boot.

     How Chris Collins is only SUSPENDED from the Oklahoma State team and not DISMISSED is a total shocker to me. I figured five minutes after he pleaded guilty to sex assaulting a 12-yearold girl he would be removed from the team immediately.

     I could be wrong, and I hope I am, but it appears the Cowboys are trying to figure a way to keep Collins on the team for his junior and senior seasons. This would be a huge mistake. There are few, if any, programs around that would try to keep him on the squad.

     The Cowboys do not need this headache. They are already getting ripped by the national media for this decision. It just doesn’t make any sense.

     Lost in any of the Collins commotion is the game with Kansas tomorrow. It’s a bigger game for the Jayhawks, who are starting to have visions of playing in a national title game. And I think if they run the table, they will be in the championship game.

     Gundy has some kind of task getting his group to rebound after that Texas fiasco last week. The Jayhawks have looked like a pretty good defensive club until last week when Nebraska marched up and down the field on them. I have a gut feeling that the Pokes play well in this one. . .

     MEANWHILE IN Norman it shoud be a laughter against Baylor. The Bears are bad on offense and they are bad on defense. I’m surprised that OU is only a 38 point favorite.

    Bob Stoops says he doesn’t pay attention to style points, but at this point of the season he has to because of the BCS hook-up. This is a game that the Sooners should be able to do what ever they want to do.

     OU has been spending a good part of the week getting ready for Texas Tech. It makes it easier to do that because Baylor plays that spread offense just like the Red Raiders do. The problem the Bears have is that they don’t do it near as well as Mike Leach’s team does.

     The key for OU is to stay away from the injury bug. They can’t not afford to lose any starters as they begin the critical stretch run of the season.

     I’m going with Oklahoma State 28, Kansas 24 and OU 52, Baylor, 7.

     Oklahoma got just what the doctor ordered against Texas A&M last night. No, it wasn’t a perfect performance, but it was one that definitely graded out as an A.

     This was the best overall performance by the Sooners since September. They were very good on both offense and defense. There weren’t a lot of break downs. They accomplished the two goals jhey had established for this game–run the ball well and don’t turn it over.

     Now Texas A&M isn’t anything to brag about. Dennis Franchione was coaching like a guy who knew that he was going to get fired later this month. Still, the Aggies aren’t that bad on defense.

     Sam Bradford looked very good. Once again he looked comfortable and he was accurate. The key for him now is playing well on the road. That’s going to have to occur in 13 days from now at Texas Tech.

     Oklahoma may not be in bad of shape as some thing right now for getting a chance to play in the national title game. Currently they are No. 4 in the polls. They don’t trail Oregon by a great margin. What the Sooners need is for Kansas to be unbeaten going into the Big 12 title game.

     The Jayhawks are now fourth in the latest BCS standings. A victory over them would be huge in the computers and it could push OU past Oregon in the human polls. Don’t forget, the human polls count for 67 percent of the BCS equation.

     I think LSU now runs the table, especially if it meets Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference championship game. I also think Oregon wins out. However, I get the feeling that Ohio State goes down at Michigan. . .

     THIS LATEST OSU loss to Texas might be the worst meltdown of them all. You could have blamed the other two on Vince Young. No one was stopping that guy.

     This time it looked like the Cowboys were playing like, “On no, here comes Texas and it’s going to happen to us again.” When they had to make plays, they just couldn’t.

     And for now the talk has to stop about winning a Big 12 South title. The talk now has to center on how to figure out how to get to a decent bowl game. If they finish at 6-6, it may put them in a precarious position.

     The bottom line is that this Oklahoma State defense is really bad. It seems like no matter who the players are, no matter who the defensive coaches are, when the Pokes play a good offense their defense gets lit up.

     This will be an interesting test with Kansas coming to town. Mike Gundy is going to have some kind of task to get his players to forget what happened against the Longhorns. 

     How important is this game this afternoon against Texas for Oklahoma State? Well, it’s definitely the most important in the Mike Gundy era.

     Just think about this. If the Cowboys win they just need to beat Kansas or Baylor and they will be playing Oklahoma for the Big 12 South title. Did anyone think that would happen after those early season setbacks?

     And it would keep the momemtum going that the Pokes have right now. They are playing so well on offense since Gundy inserted Zac Robinson as the starting quarterback. He has been able to come up with the big plays with both his arm and his legs.

     But what happens in the Cowboys lose? Well, if they can’t beat Texas at home, they probably won’t be able to beat Kansas at home. And then if they lose on the road at Oklahoma, you are looking at a 6-6 season. That would not be good. That might not get you a bowl invite.

     The key for the Cowboys today is being able to run the football. They need to keep the clock going. They need to keep their defense off the field. . .

     AND IN NORMAN, let’s see if the Sooners have made good use of their off-week to begin to play like they were earlier in the year. This is a team that has been going backwards in some cases. The offense looked bad against Iowa State.

     Offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson says he gave quarterback Sam Bradford a break in practice.

     “Last week we let Joey Halzle and Keith Nichol get a lot of snaps in practice. The reason was that we wanted to rest Sam’s arm some. Late in the year a quarterbacks arm could get tired. I think the rest really helped Sam because earlier in the week he had his best day of practice for the entire season,” Wilson said.

     Sam has struggled in the two true road games at Colorado and Iowa State, but has been on target in Norman. He should have a lot of success against that Texas A&M defense tonight.

     There aree two things the Sooner coaches went to see. No. 1 is they have been working hard to prevent turnovers. They have not been pleased with this area recently. They can be an absolute killer in close games.

     And No. 2 they want to see if their running game can just move the ball down the field like they thought they could before the year started. The offensive line has not done a great job in pass blocking. This will be a good test because they A&M defense isn’t that bad.

     You hear Sooner fans talk about playing for a national championship. Down the stretch of this season Oklahoma has to play like a team that deserves to be in that game. And it has to start tonight by winning comfortably over the Aggies.

     I like Oklahoma State to topple Texas, 31-28 and I’ll go with OU 31-10 over Texas A&M.