No. 3 Sooners make BCS case with 61-41 Bedlam win. News from STILLWATER, Okla. — Oklahoma got all the bounces it needed to get past Oklahoma State in the highest-scoring Bedlam rivalry game ever. But did the Sooners do enough to bounce over Texas and into the Big 12 championship game?

That’s for the voters and computers to decide. The third-ranked Sooners took care of their business on the field.

Sam Bradford threw for 370 yards and four touchdowns, cashed in on a 1-yard touchdown plunge after setting it up with an end-over-end flip, and Oklahoma made a case for a BCS bump with a 61-41 win Saturday night against No. 11 Oklahoma State.

On the line was a shot at the Big 12 title next Saturday against Missouri, and also the edge in the national championship race. The Big 12 South will now be decided among Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech in a three-way tie broken by the BCS standings to be released Sunday.
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The team that comes out on top will likely be a victory away from going to the BCS championship game in Miami in January.

“I think we have a really good chance,” Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. “You look at what we’ve done the last two weeks. We’ve played the No. 2 team in the country and won by 44. We just played the (No. 11) team in the country in their own place, where no one else has beat them, and won by 20.

“Usually it’s what you’re doing at the end of the year, and we have finished the year really pretty strong.”

Texas hopes the pollsters have a longer memory than that, specifically going back to the Longhorns’ 45-35 win against Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl in October.

A group of Texas fans pulled out all the stops to try to keep the Longhorns in the coveted No. 2 spot in the BCS standings, handing out thousands of signs printed with that score for their game Thursday against Texas A&M.

Longhorns coach Mack Brown was even pleading his case in a telephone interview with television announcers while Oklahoma was making its case on the field.

Brown suggested that the Southeastern Conference’s tiebreaker was better than the Big 12’s because it eliminates the lowest rated team in a three-team deadlock and lets head-to-head decide the winner between the top two.

Of course, that would benefit Texas. But that’s not the way his conference breaks its ties.

The Sooners (11-1, 7-1 Big 12) did the best they could to make up a minuscule eight-thousandths of a point in the BCS standings by putting up as many as they could on the scoreboard.

The problem was Oklahoma State (9-3, 5-3) was able to match them strike-for-strike as both teams scored on six straight possessions beginning at the start of the second quarter. Eventually the nation’s highest-scoring offense was just too much.

And the biggest of the bounces went the Sooners’ way, too. Tight end Jermaine Gresham scored a 73-yard touchdown on a third-down pass that was intended for Manuel Johnson and deflected into the air over three Cowboys defenders and into his arms 10 yards downfield. He was able to outrun the rest of the defenders the final 50 yards to put Oklahoma up 30-19.

Oklahoma’s next touchdown came when Stoops decided to go for it on fourth-and-goal from the 1, after Bradford somersaulted on his dive for the pylon and came up a yard short. Bradford fumbled the snap on fourth down but was able to pick it up and plunge in for the score.

And the reason the Sooners were able to stay ahead in the first place was a rare defensive 2-point conversion, scored when Oklahoma State went for 2 to try and tie it at 21 and instead fell behind by four on Frank Alexander’s return of Robinson’s fumble.

“Sometimes you do need to have a little luck to win, and I felt like there were a couple plays that luck was on our side,” Bradford said. “But I still think that we played very well tonight overall.”

Bradford completed 30 of 44 passes, leading Oklahoma to its fourth straight 60-point game. The Sooners played out of the shotgun much of the game after Bradford injured his left thumb, which led to a few fumbled snaps.

Gresham ended up with nine catches for 158 yards, both career highs, and two touchdowns. Chris Brown had 98 yards on 19 carries and two scores, including one on the first play after a two-section wide swath of Oklahoma fans started chanting “B-C-S” with 32 seconds left.

“Hopefully we’ll be the No. 2 team when it’s all said and done, and we’ll go play in the championship,” Gresham said. “If not, we’ve just got to go with what we’ve got.”

The Sooners’ defense, which had been improving and made a statement in last week’s 65-21 rout of then-No. 2 Texas Tech had few answers for quarterback Zac Robinson and the Cowboys.

Robinson threw for 254 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another score, but never could guide Cowboys (9-3, 5-3) into the lead after halftime.

Dez Bryant caught two touchdown passes to give him 18 for his career, enough to break Oklahoma State’s school record set by Rashaun Woods. Perrish Cox had his fourth career kickoff return touchdown, the most among active players in the country, with a 90-yard dash in the fourth quarter to make it 44-41. But Oklahoma State couldn’t keep it up any longer and the Sooners pulled away.

“We had our chances and just didn’t get it done,” Robinson said.

Robinson refused to get in on the campaigning for any of the three teams in the Big 12 South race, and Bradford said his opinion was “obvious” because he was biased.

“Everything we did tonight kind of says why we should be there,” Bradford said. “It’s out of our hands now.”

The following are just comments, not from the author. Please leave your views afterwards:
East choice OU is alot better than Texas ever thought they could be.
Hey, Texas? What was all this nonsense about a neutral field?! You beat OU on a neutral field? Hmmmmmmm, looks like OU beat OSU by 20 on their field!

i would love to see the Sooners play for the big 12 title… but if i was a texas fan, i’d be upset too since i beat the sooners…. BUT.. who played the toughest season overall and is the overall better team…. OKLAHOMA
Sorry Texas If you could have stopped Tech this would not have happened. Oneplay can ruin a season. Go Sooners! Sonners & Florida in National Championship OU 52 Gators 35
Texas beat unranked Aggies at home. Sooners beat #12 ranked LosuRs by 20 on the road. Sooners play & defeat Missouri in Big 12 championship 2 years in a row? I want to see a Sooner-Tide championship.
OU and Texas should be able to play each other once again, and not on a ‘NUETRAL FIELD”!!! What was all that stuff the other day, on a neutral field?! Come on Texas!

Texas Tech is definitely better than Texas this year, Oklahoma State is probably a better team than Texas as well.

So, just because Texas beat OU, they think they are the better team in the Big 12? One needs to look at the overall season, point scored each game, etc., etc… this just was not Texas’ year.

OU just has the better offense, and defense this year.

Everybody in the Big 12 South played well this year, I just do not think Texas was the best, or the second-best, and maybe not even the third-best!
Gotta go with whose playing the best ball now. Clearly Oklahoma. Won five straight games averaging 58 points (3 on the road). Beat the #2 team by 44 and the #11 team by 20 on the road. In addition, quality wins against highly ranked non conference foes #14 TCU and #16 Cincinnati (by 25 and 26 points respectively). Texas fans are going to mimic their desperate coach and parrot the head to head line, but to no avail.
Did OU beat Texas? Enough said !Head to head. How else can you look at it ? Go Bama….
I don’t really worry bout large style points. Of the 3, TT got beat worst in the round robin. Texas did beat Okla at neutral site( in Texas ??), but Okla homa had tougher out of conf games. and TT played 2 FCS teams or was it 3 ?, there out, Both Texas and Okla will be in BCS bowl, Your conference came up with that 5th tiebreaker never imigining it would happen. Now more food for thought, WHAT if MO upset whoever goes to championship game, Then MO gets Big 12 auto slot and only one of Texas, Okla or TT gets another… very interesting….Rules only 2 teams from any conference can go to the 5 BCS Bowls… Then see the moaning…….love it. on any given saturday a team can be king……
Oklahoma does not even slightly belong in any national championship game.Neither do Texas or Texas Tech for that matter. Football is played on both sides of the ball except in the Big 12. They play no defense and would be wacked by either Alabama,Florida or even hated USC. The offense in these conferences is overinflated due to the total lack of defense and I hope the Heisman is not awarded to a QB from the Big 12. It should go to Tebow again who should lead Florida to a solid victory over Bama next week. That should in turn set up a match made in football heaven. Florida vs USC is what the nation wants to see but if it has to be a Big 12 school let it be Texas. Then the Gator defense will shut down Colt McCoy and put to rest all the hype that is Big 12 football.
Texas could sit home and watch OU lose to Mizzou and go to the national championship. So head to head matchup should mean everything!
Why didn’t the article mention the OSU fumble the referees failed to acknowledge? Why are Texas fans screaming “head-to-head” and failing to mention that Texas Tech is in the mix? You don’t get to ignore the fact that it is a three-way tie and each team has a loss to one of the other teams? BTW, you don’t get to change the rules for determining tie-breakers once you realize the rules don’t favor you. And why does S R assume SEC teams play great defense? Maybe SEC teams are facing what amount to mediocre offenses when they play each other.
Dude…It comes down to head to head. What else ?
If Texas is ranked higher than OU and they beat them …Hello How else do you figure it out. What is TT ranked. No where that means anything. That is how the coputer looks at it. #12 TT means nothing to the computer.Working for the NCaa I can tell you this.
Dude…OU, not Texas, knocked TT down in the polls. The logic of TT not good, Texas good is wanting. Constructing a circular argument doesn’t mean anyone has to buy into it. And Texas’ rank, just like every other team, can change.
Why doesn’t The Big 12 Conference just have
its title game between Texas and Oklahoma ????

That is such a simple answer to the problem !!
The rules are as stated. If OU picked up enough style points they are in, if not then texas is. It’s pretty simple for those of you still trying to make a case for the donghorns!
its simple. The real battle is between Texas and OU. TT is ranked 7th and not gonna win. So head to head Texas won. It doesnt matter when it happened. The right thing to do is have Texas vs Mizzou. It it is any other way it is BS. OU should not have lost to Texas when they had the chance.

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