The Big 12 Championship

The Sooners have played their way into the Big 12 championship yet again and have a chance to start putting a pretty bow on a season for the ages. To recap,  Bob Stoops resigned and the Lincoln Riley era began. Baker Mayfield returns to "finish what he started". Then, in spite of losing their top wide receiver and top two running backs from a year ago, Baker manages to run an offense that's arguably improved over last year. Aaand, he's running away with the Heisman Trophy.

Following the inexpicable Iowa State loss, the offense has rolled on and the D has done enough to not ruin hopes and dreams. They've run the Big 12 gauntlet. Everything is out if front of them.

I am, dare I say, optimistic. It's all out there for the taking. A win and they're in the playoff. Standing in the way is a pesky Gary Patterson TCU squad. He will be pulling out all the stops.

OFFENSE

At this point there are no surprises. The presumptive Heisman trophy winner, the best O-line in college football and play makers all around. The Sooners need to take care of the football and not take sacks to win this one. TCU has to play otherworldly and still the Sooners will score points.

Round 1 of this matchup was the Rodney Anderson show. He dominated rushing and receiving. This may have been born more out of necessity than game plan as TCU has a salty pass defense. It's going to take a more complete collective effort from the wide receivers to build up enough scores to get comfy. Distributions to a variety of wide receivers and a bruising run game should soften things up nicely.

Baker is OPOG 1A (and spoiler: he will be for every remaining game) but for 1B I'll go Marquise Brown. Just a gut feeling. Visions of him catching the ball in stride in open space get me fired up.

DEFENSE

The oft maligned defense has managed to do just enough over the course of the season to win but, to their credit, they've battled, made plays when they absolutely had to, and made more adjustments both in game and in season than I can ever recall.

The good and frustrating thing about this D is they tend to play with an edge in big games. So they should be good to go. Why they can't do it all the time is beyond me but I'm moving on from it. All I care about is good effort and good tackling.

Much like the last time these teams met I'm not scared of Kenny Hill. He is average at best. This offense is a pretty good matchup for this defense. I'm sure there will be some frustration with awful tackling including some missed chances in the backfield and a run or two up the middle that go for big yards. It's just what you get with these guys. All you can ask is to keep it to a minimum.

I don't think there's a individual you can pick in this group. It'd be a stretch to say that's a good thing because the collective is untrustworthy. If forced I'll take Caleb Kelly. He has the potential to make an impact blitzing Hill, stopping the run or defending the pass.

SCORE

I'm feeling pretty good about this one. I ain't skeered of the TCU offense. I think the Sooner D will step up but they are going to take some big shots from the Frogs. Again, TCU has nothing to lose and will relish playing the spoiler role. The Sooners offense is going to do what it do. I'd like to see the Sooners keep the hammer down. No points are too many. No lead is safe. Hopefully they don't have to play from behind.

The D really just needs to be it's average best. If TCU punts more than five or six times I think that's enough cushion for the Sooners to build up a solid lead. Then it's on to the next round.

I'll take the Sooners 42-28

Boomer to the motherfuckin Sooner.