Oklahoma won the Big 12 championship on Saturday and it wasn’t even close. The No. 5 Sooners manhandled the No. 9 Cowboys 58-23.
Baker Mayfield three two TD passes and ran for another. An average day for the once walk-on QB for the Sooners.
But there was a big-time atmosphere in the air — with ESPN College Gameday set up on campus and the nation’s attention on Bedlam, which this year was the defacto Big 12 conference championship game.
Jordan Thomas, who intercepted two passes and returned one for a touchdown, said. “Obviously, this game — we don’t need anyone to tell us it’s a big game. We don’t need anyone to tell us that it’s a game we have to play our hearts out in. But this one? I could tell. I knew our guys were ready and I knew what we were playing for.”
After the game, Coach Bob Stoops said he hadn’t heard that Notre Dame lost to Stanford. Notre Dame was the only other team anticipated to perhaps challenge Oklahoma for one of the four playoff seeds, even though the Sooners were elevated to the No. 3 spot by the CFP committee last week. The Irish lost to Stanford.
“You just figure if you’re third and you go to a championship game away from home to the No. 9 team in the country and win by 30-some points, whatever it was, you would only move up, possibly, but you sure wouldn’t move back,” Stoops said.
Mayfield was in true form against the Cowboys, rushing for 77 yards and a touchdown. The Sooners (11-1, 8-1 Big 12, No. 3 CFP) gained 524 yards, including 344 on the ground, to claim their third win over a ranked opponent in three weeks.
“You just figure if you’re third and you go to a championship game away from home to the No. 9 team in the country and win by 30-some points, whatever it was, you would only move up, possibly, but you sure wouldn’t move back,” Stoops said.
“You just figure if you’re third and you go to a championship game away from home to the No. 9 team in the country and win by 30-some points, whatever it was, you would only move up, possibly, but you sure wouldn’t move back,” Stoops said.
Stoops said Mayfield deserves to be in the Heisman talk.
“I would think that he would be as deserving as anybody in the country,” he said. “I’m never one to say any one guy is — there’s still some games to play here and all — but he has to be right up there to the top with everybody. I lose track of how many touchdowns he accounted for tonight, but he was special again tonight.”
Late in the 4th Qtr most of the OSU faithful had departed T. Boone Pickens stadium. The stadium was filled with a chorus of “Boomer! Sooner!” chants from the OU fans who stayed to watch the final seconds tick down to their team’s championship coronation.
Joe Mixon ran for 136 yards and two touchdowns and Samaje Perine had 131 yards and two scores.
“Everybody that’s played them has probably had their highest missed tackle total out of everybody they played,” Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Glenn Spencer said. “Between the two running backs and Mayfield, they’re good players. I’m disappointed. I hoped we would’ve tackled better, but it was evident that they’re strong, and they broke tackles.”
Cowboys QB J.W. Walsh passed for 325 yards and two scores. James Washington caught seven passes for 169 yards and touchdown for the Cowboys (10-2, 7-2, No. 11 CFP).
It was just the third time the rivals have met when both ranked in the Top 10.
Oklahoma rolled to a 44-20 halftime lead. The Sooners gained 359 yards on 36 plays before the break. Perine had touchdown runs of 68 and 25 yards, and Mixon added a 66-yard scoring run in the half.
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