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.