OU vs. Iowa State

Sooner nation was ready to jump off a cliff following the Kansas State game. Now we see the cliff, shrug our shoulders, and back away. The Sooners didn't embarass themselves last week, Notre Dame is just better unfortunately. It's been proven on the football field that the Sooners just aren't an elite team this year. It sucks.

Notre Dame has a hell of a defense but everybody knew Lonnie wasn't going to lead a comeback. Notre Dame has an excellent football team and if the Sooners and Irish played five times, Notre Dame probably wins three.

In other news the tailgating scene was pretty awesome. To a party, every effort was made to make things "just so". Avid Steamroller reader Robert Powell had some fine smoked ribs at his Legal Eagle tailgate where I also enjoyed smoked bacon-wrapped quail and jalapeno. It was divine. The tortin' and cavortin' tailgate also had an open bar which may or may not have impacted my disposition for the remainder of the evening.

Oh well. The Sooners have a lot to play for. Namely, the Holiday Bowl or some such other mid-upper tier bowl game. They also face a stiff test in Ames against a scrappy Cyclone team. If the Sooners can't untuck their bottom lips this season will go from bad to worse.

OFFENSE

Things should return to form. Iowa State, whilst scrappy, is not the fierce unit Notre Dame is. However, it does not appear DD Williams will play much, if any. The law firm of Millard, Whaley and Clay should be fine in DD's absence.

Say, what about this Jalen Saunders? He's yet another reason why there is no good excuse for this offense to not have defenses on their heels early and often. 

Choosing an OPOG this week is throwing darts. With DD out, I'm going with Brennan Clay. He's been able to get to that second level on multiple occasions and so I like him to set a career mark for yards today.  Makes perfect sense.

DEFENSE

This group should be fired up. They clearly have room to improve and a short time to get there. The Cyclone offense is hard to figure. They seem to do poorly against half way decent defenses and they also seem to be pretty opportunistic. In short, the Sooners cannot take them lightly and the Javon Harris's of the world need to be alert.

For my DPOG I'm inexplicably going with David King. His is a name that hasn't been called that much lately so maybe it's time for that to change.

THE SCORE

I hope the Sooners don't mail in their performance like I just mailed in this piece. They need to take Iowa State very seriously. They need to get back on track. Big games are still ahead.

I think the Cyclones can get a couple of scores but I think they can't keep the Sooner offense contained.

OU 37, ISU 17

Boomer to the motherfuckin Sooner