Sooner Football

ARLINGTON, TX – Oklahoma has never lost a rematch. Not in the Orange Bowl against Nebraska, not in the three rematches in the first incarnation of the Big 12 Championship Game, and for sure not Saturday against TCU in JerryWorld. Baker Mayfield and the Sooners put the lie to TCU’s nonsense about having “shut down” the Sooners in the second half of last month’s rout in Norman, pounding the Frogs 41-17. The win secured the Sooners’ second three-peat Big 12 Championship and a spot in the...

HOUSTON, TEXAS – We’ve seen two kick-sixes, as they happened. One live on TV and one live in the stadium. Both were equally boneheaded moves by the coach trying the field goal, but the first one was a lot more amusing than the second. Houston’s kick-six against the Sooners broke open a two-point game in NRG Stadium yesterday as Houston upset Oklahoma 33-23, in a game that wasn’t as close as the score. Indeed, a goal-line fumble in...

DALLAS, TX – After three years of getting pushed around the Cotton Bowl, the Sooners had finally had enough. Today, they did the pushing, as they took the Golden Hat back home with a 45-40 win over Texas, in a game that was way closer than it should have been, thanks to continuing defensive problems. This thing wasn’t officially put away until the last play - the longest futile attempt at a lateral play that we’ve ever seen. The thing literally went on about 45...

MORGANTOWN, WV – In the biggest game in West Virginia in many years, a game with the locals hyped and sauced to the gills, a game where the home team was fighting perceived disrespect from the CFP committee and fighting for a chance at a conference title, Oklahoma played the role of, well, Oklahoma. The Sooners rolled into a roiling Morgantown Saturday night and rolled over the Mountaineers 56-28, in a strange game that was at once closer than the score indicated, and then again not as...

NEW ORLEANS, LA – The second-best team in Alabama has nothing on the best team in the Big 12. Again. Three years after knocking off Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, the Sooners returned to the Big Easy and gave similar treatment to the Crimson Tide’s agriculturally-inclined little brothers, stomping Auburn in the 2017 Sugar Bowl by a count of 35-19, in a game that was not as close as that score indicated.

To be sure, this Auburn...

NORMAN – If you weren’t paying close attention, and nobody told you, there was virtually nothing about the Sooners’ 56-7 thumping of UTEP Saturday afternoon on Owen Field that would have given you the idea that anything had changed. This was an opener that any of Bob Stoops’ teams could have delivered against a lesser opponent. For that matter, it might have been one of Stoops’ better openers, given the Sooners’ historic trend of less-than-impressive Labor Day weekend showings.

But...

NORMAN - Well, we always seem to uncork a stinker every year that results in a head-shaking loss. So it was yesterday, as Iowa State came into Norman and won for the first time since 1990, 38-31.

To be sure, the Cyclones deserved the win, but the Sooners couldn’t have done much more to help them. Critical, stupid penalties. A turnover inside the Iowa State five-yard line that turned what was about to be a 15-point Sooner third quarter lead into a tie game....

NORMAN – What a difference a week makes. We won’t pretend that a significant decrease in the quality of the opponent didn’t have a lot to do with it, but still, the Sooners looked very much a sharper team in last night’s 59-17 drubbing of Louisiana-Monroe in the newly-renovated Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Baker Mayfield was 14-20 for 244 yards and 2 TDs in only a half of action. Joe Mixon rushed for 117 yards on 14 carries, while Samaje Perine added 58 yards on...

NORMAN – Maybe our best chance was the monsoon. If we had played in the absolute downpour that hit Owen Field a couple of hours before the Ohio State game was scheduled to kick off, we might have been better off. But, public safety considerations being what they are, the powers that be wisely decided to delay kickoff 90 minutes, so we could all be dry as we watched the Sooners take a comprehensive thumping from Ohio State, 45-24.

Things started off well enough,...

FORT WORTH, TEXAS – Here is all you need to take away from Saturday’s crazy 52-46 Sooner win over TCU at Amon Carter Stadium – we are 1-0 in conference. That is literally the only thing that matters. Yes, half the game was outstanding, and half was wretched. Yes, this team is clearly capable of going 10-2, but is equally capable of going 7-5. But there are no beauty contests here – the beauty contests ended...