PHOTO: USA Today Sports
The Bedlam Series has been owned by the Oklahoma Sooners. The Sooners came into today with a 83-17-7 lead in the series and had won eight of the last nine.
This year it was the Oklahoma State Cowboys that played the role of favorite. Despite the history of the series, Vegas installed them as a ten point favorite over the Sooners. With a win over Oklahoma, the Cowboys would head to a BCS bowl game but it couldn't be that easy, could it?
Oklahoma struggled to move the ball in the first half as their first four drives went for 13 yards, 10 yards, 16 yards and 8 yards. Luckily for them, Jalen Saunders returned a punt for a TD to help keep the Sooners in the game. The Cowboys moved the ball in the first half but had trouble punching it into the end zone. The key play of the first half was a failed conversion by Oklahoma State on a 4th and 1 from the one yard line. On the very next drive, the Cowboys started on the Oklahoma 41 but came away with just a FG. Missed opportunities were the story of the first half and instead of leading 21-0, it was 10-10 at half.
Oklahoma QB Trevor Knight got hurt early and his replacement Kendal Thompson was ineffective. The Sooners turned to Blake Bell and the Sooners got more physical when this happened and started to really move the football on the ground.
Oklahoma finished the game with four straight drives of more than 50 yards scoring two TDs and adding a FG on these drives. The key play of this half was a fake FG that resulted in an eight yard TD pass for the Sooners. This pulled them to a 17-17 tie.
The Sooners won the game on a last minute drive by Blake Bell where he went 5 of 8 passing and got a bit lucky as a question-able interception was dropped (and then not reviewed). Bell finished off the drive by hitting Jalen Saunders with a 7 yard TD in the back of the end zone for the win to dash the BCS hopes of Oklahoma State.
This was the second straight day where we saw a teams BCS hopes go up in flames. First it was NIU, today it was Oklahoma State. For the Big 12, the bowl picture is now wide open as three teams will finish the season tied at 7-2 in the conference. The Oklahoma win also makes the Baylor/Texas game a de-facto Big 12 Championship Game with the winner going to a BCS bowl game.
For Baylor, it would be a huge step forward for their program as they didn't even make a BCS bowl the year RG3 won the Heisman. For Texas, how amazing would it be for them to head to a BCS bowl game after everybody calling for Mack Brown's job earlier this season?
Just when you think you have figured everything out, college football throws a wrench in things and makes you head back to the drawing board.
