* 13-11
** 40-37
*** 17-22-1
**** 8-3
All I can say is Saturday night's game against Tech was one of the best and most complete games that I've seen OU play in years. I thought they had a good chance to cover. But I wasn't expecting that kind of performance. OU's defense gave Harrell fits all night. And I think it's pretty obvious now that the Sooner defense has been undervalued all year. When you have an offense that has scored over 60 points in the last 3 games, it's natural that this team is going to give up points in the second half when they've got over a 40 point lead going into the fourth quarter. But many around the country including ESPN perceived this as bad defense. When in reality the points scored were all points after the fact. There is a big difference between giving up 35 points in a competetive game comnpared to a non-competetive game.
Needless to say the BCS is a hot mess. Just judging by all of threads started on the subject around the RX and other places, people think this is an unfair system. And I don't disagree. Texas is getting jobbed because all of their hard games were played in October and not November. And the BCS poll is all about what have you done for me lately. So if you put OU in Texas place, I would be pissed too. It all makes me long for the old days before the BCS when we just had the Coaches and the AP polls. The highest team in the polls goes to the conference championship game. Then we have the bowl games.
What the BCS has done to our bowls is it's taken the suspense out of football. With just one game for all of the marbles, it makes all of the other bowls meaningless. I long for those days when my college buddies and I used to load up on beer and snacks and prepare for one big New Years Day of football going from 11 in the morning to 11 at night, where all of the games were played on the same day. And each game had meaning to determin the national champ. I can remember OU winning two national championships from games that were played out on New Years Day. In 1975 we sat around and watched number 1 Ohio State get knocked off by UCLA in the Rose Bowl, and then OU beat Michigan that night for the National Championship in the Orange. And in 1985 OU needed Tennessee to beat Miami in the Sugar Bowl, and then they beat Penn State that night in ther Orange to win it all. National Champions were determined that way almost every year. And it made New Years Day the single biggest day of football all year. But we'll never see anything close to those days again unless we have some kind of playoff system or just junk the BCS all together. Personally I don't mind a little argument of who is number 1 at the end of the year. Two split champions in the polls never bothered me. If my team got a piece of the national title, that was always good enough for me. But a playoff system would definitely put the right team in there. And the playoff games would give us some excitement along the way. Each game would mean something instead of the non-suspensful drab BCS computer bowl system we have now.
Okie Lite (+7.5) over OU **
I hate going against my team while their hot. But at least on paper this is simply too many points to be giving the Pokes on their home field. OSU has been playing possum for the last few weeks with their less than spectacular performance against Colorado. And now they've been laying low for the last two weeks waiting for OU to stop by for the Bedlam showdown. This looks like the classic letdown spot for OU. Winning big in primetime and then hitting the road against a dangerous rival is always a tough spot. Especially when your going against an offensive mind like Gundy, who has been drawing up offensive schemes to throw at this OU defense for the last couple of weeks. And this is the problem I have with taking the Sooners here...OU has always been great at defensing Texas Tech, because Stoops is so familiar with Leach's schemes. Plus OU had two weeks to prepare for Tech. But Gundy is a different story. They never play OU the same way twice. And now that the Pokes have such a good passing attack to go with their outstanding run game, it makes this team very hard to prepare for in one week. Gundy is a very unpredictable play caller..He'll call a very conservative game on the road like he has the last two weeks. But then he'll open it up at home. And that's what I think he'll do here. I think he's going to open the pass game up and test the OU secondary. My bet is he'll have enough success to keep this game close to the number. Nobody has been able to stop OU all year. And I don't expect any different in this game..But going against a ball control type of offense like OSU, I'm betting that Sam Bradford and company won't be on the field as much in this game as they've been for the last few weeks. OSU ran for 217 yards against Texas on the road. And I believe they are fully capable of doing it here..So it definitely makes OSU the potential running dogs in this game. And with the game being played in Stillwater makes this a decent play.
** 40-37
*** 17-22-1
**** 8-3
All I can say is Saturday night's game against Tech was one of the best and most complete games that I've seen OU play in years. I thought they had a good chance to cover. But I wasn't expecting that kind of performance. OU's defense gave Harrell fits all night. And I think it's pretty obvious now that the Sooner defense has been undervalued all year. When you have an offense that has scored over 60 points in the last 3 games, it's natural that this team is going to give up points in the second half when they've got over a 40 point lead going into the fourth quarter. But many around the country including ESPN perceived this as bad defense. When in reality the points scored were all points after the fact. There is a big difference between giving up 35 points in a competetive game comnpared to a non-competetive game.
Needless to say the BCS is a hot mess. Just judging by all of threads started on the subject around the RX and other places, people think this is an unfair system. And I don't disagree. Texas is getting jobbed because all of their hard games were played in October and not November. And the BCS poll is all about what have you done for me lately. So if you put OU in Texas place, I would be pissed too. It all makes me long for the old days before the BCS when we just had the Coaches and the AP polls. The highest team in the polls goes to the conference championship game. Then we have the bowl games.
What the BCS has done to our bowls is it's taken the suspense out of football. With just one game for all of the marbles, it makes all of the other bowls meaningless. I long for those days when my college buddies and I used to load up on beer and snacks and prepare for one big New Years Day of football going from 11 in the morning to 11 at night, where all of the games were played on the same day. And each game had meaning to determin the national champ. I can remember OU winning two national championships from games that were played out on New Years Day. In 1975 we sat around and watched number 1 Ohio State get knocked off by UCLA in the Rose Bowl, and then OU beat Michigan that night for the National Championship in the Orange. And in 1985 OU needed Tennessee to beat Miami in the Sugar Bowl, and then they beat Penn State that night in ther Orange to win it all. National Champions were determined that way almost every year. And it made New Years Day the single biggest day of football all year. But we'll never see anything close to those days again unless we have some kind of playoff system or just junk the BCS all together. Personally I don't mind a little argument of who is number 1 at the end of the year. Two split champions in the polls never bothered me. If my team got a piece of the national title, that was always good enough for me. But a playoff system would definitely put the right team in there. And the playoff games would give us some excitement along the way. Each game would mean something instead of the non-suspensful drab BCS computer bowl system we have now.
Okie Lite (+7.5) over OU **
I hate going against my team while their hot. But at least on paper this is simply too many points to be giving the Pokes on their home field. OSU has been playing possum for the last few weeks with their less than spectacular performance against Colorado. And now they've been laying low for the last two weeks waiting for OU to stop by for the Bedlam showdown. This looks like the classic letdown spot for OU. Winning big in primetime and then hitting the road against a dangerous rival is always a tough spot. Especially when your going against an offensive mind like Gundy, who has been drawing up offensive schemes to throw at this OU defense for the last couple of weeks. And this is the problem I have with taking the Sooners here...OU has always been great at defensing Texas Tech, because Stoops is so familiar with Leach's schemes. Plus OU had two weeks to prepare for Tech. But Gundy is a different story. They never play OU the same way twice. And now that the Pokes have such a good passing attack to go with their outstanding run game, it makes this team very hard to prepare for in one week. Gundy is a very unpredictable play caller..He'll call a very conservative game on the road like he has the last two weeks. But then he'll open it up at home. And that's what I think he'll do here. I think he's going to open the pass game up and test the OU secondary. My bet is he'll have enough success to keep this game close to the number. Nobody has been able to stop OU all year. And I don't expect any different in this game..But going against a ball control type of offense like OSU, I'm betting that Sam Bradford and company won't be on the field as much in this game as they've been for the last few weeks. OSU ran for 217 yards against Texas on the road. And I believe they are fully capable of doing it here..So it definitely makes OSU the potential running dogs in this game. And with the game being played in Stillwater makes this a decent play.
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