With the Oklahoma Sooners men’s basketball team losing to the Kansas Jayhawks over the weekend, they are now sitting at 4-2 in conference play. While No. 3 Kansas was expected to win, the dominance on the court in their 67-54 win really showed why they are always ranked high when it comes to basketball.

It has been pointed out by many that the road the Sooners have in front of them for the next few weeks is going to stay rough. The have to take on the Jayhawks again on February 9th. Before that, they face Baylor (which is Wednesday), Kansas State and Iowa State. Kansas State being the other Big 12 team the Sooners have lost to.

The No. 20 women’s team on the other hand is sitting at 5-2 in conference play, just recently losing to the No. 1 team in the country, the Baylor Bears. The Brittney Griner-lead Bears are looking to repeat their 2011 Championship performance and are sitting at 8-0 in the Big 12 and 18-1 overall.

The Sooner women are hosting TCU on Wednesday and looking for the season sweep. In just a little over a month, it will be Big 12 tourney time.

Where has the season already gone?!?!

What was expected to happen Saturday night, did: The Sooners pounded the Jayhawks, 52-7. Seven different Sooners scored Saturday night and the helmet sticker for most improved unit this week goes to the Sooners special teams.

Justin Brown, the Penn State transfer had a 90-yard punt return and dived into the endzone for a touchdown. Brown’s run marked the 5th longest run in Sooner punt return history and the longest run the team has seen since 2002 and Antonio Perkins’ 91-yarder against Tulsa.

To start the second half, Roy Finch took a 100-yard kickoff return to the house. If there was a point-of-no return for the Jayhawks, it was this 45-0 lead at the beginning of the second half.

Earlier in the week, Jayhawk head coach Charlie Weis had gone with the decision to run a 2 QB scheme against Oklahoma. He should have looked at the game film from other teams who have attempted this;  it doesn’t work out well.

Sooner QB Landry Jones ended the night well, with 3 TD’s, 291 yards and no interceptions. Blake Bell was given the chance to throw the ball, as he replaced Jones late in the game. There isn’t too much to go over in this game, everyone was clicking, and it wasn’t a basketball game for Kansas.

In more interesting news, the undefeated Notre Dame Fighting Irish are visiting Norman this weekend for the first time since 1966. The Top 10 match-up has prompted ESPN’s College Gameday crew to make the trip as well. The Gameday crew has been on site for 27 Oklahoma games. Florida and Ohio State are the only two teams with more appearances on the show.

To say this is an important game for the Sooners season is a complete understatement. Premium seats are apparently going upwards towards $4000. So let’s just say I’m glad I have season tickets because I wouldn’t miss this for the world.

The Sooners are coming off a monster win against the Longhorns last week in Dallas, and will be hosting the last place Kansas Jayhawks.  I’ve seen some chatter that this could be a trap game for the Sooners. My response to that? Stop it.

I understand why one would call it a possible trap, it happens a lot in college football: the team plays soft against a weaker opponent after a huge win. If it was another team, I may agree with the possibility. But its Kansas. And this is football.

Kansas is an improved team this year, yes they are 1-5 with their only win coming in week 1. But little by little, things are looking up. Their defensive line has been playing well, last week holding Oklahoma State’s Joseph Randle to around 80 yards, where he has been averaging 300 per game. They were in a 20-point hole and pulled QB Dayne Crist in favor for Michael Cummings, who brought the Jayhawks in winning range.

Head coach Charlie Weis announced he will be running a 2-QB system on Saturday and mentioned he had some new trick plays that he has been working on. He wants to also try and run those on Saturday. So 2 quarterbacks and some trick plays? I’m not sure the Sooners defense is the team to try this out against, but Weis has coached so many places he has to know what he is doing, right????

A bright spot for the Jayhawks is that they have a decent running game. Running back James Sims is averaging 100+ yards a game so far. The defense has also forced 14 turnovers, which Oklahoma has been spotty at committing them. If Kansas wants to stay in this game for a bit, they need to force as many as they can and actually produce from it.

Sooners head coach Bob Stoops is 18-1 in the month of October. They have a huge top 10 game next week against Notre Dame, so the key is to keep the team focused and healthy against the Jayhawks. Once again, get the running game going early and test out some of the younger receivers.

I am predicting this wont be the trap game some are saying, but I also said Texas Tech wasn’t going to be a trap for West Virginia. So there’s that. I think the Sooners walk away with the win, 41-7.

New NCAA Reception Record Holder, Ryan Broyles

The Sooners started off shaky, but finished dominating to beat the Jayhawks 47-17. After the first half, I don’t think many thought it would turn out that way.

The Sooner offense was slow to get going, with QB Landry Jones throwing inconsistently. He missed 4 passes in his first four attempts against a defense that allowed 56 points scored on them in the first half of their game last week against Oklahoma State. The road-woe Landry showed up to Lawrence. Going in to the second quarter the Sooners were  only ahead by 3 points.

The second quarter kicked off with with the same lack of enthusiasm from the Sooners, as the score was 27-17 going into the half.

The third quarter is when things finally started to click. The Sooner defense decided to wake up, and held the Jayhawks to no points the entire second half. Hopefully the BCS computers missed the first half statistics of the game.

One thing that head coach Bob Stoops can be pleased about from last night is the record breaking performance Senior WR Ryan Broyles had. Broyles caught  a 57-yard touchdown pass from Jones in the first half Saturday night, and Broyles finished with 13 catches for a school-record 217 yards and two touchdowns. Broyles now has 326 career receptions,  beating out former record holder Taylor Stubblefield’s 316.

Broyles on his record night: 

 ”I was just in the moment out there. I’ve been blessed to be around some great quarterbacks.”

Heisman Trophy winner and current St. Louis Rams QB, Sam Bradford was his QB before Jones. Broyles also admitted to getting pretty emotional on the sidelines last night after the record. And Coach Stoops was right there with him. “Ryan Broyles was just out of this world,” Stoops said. “When you set a national record, that’s pretty special, but to do it with over 200 yards is unreal.”

RB Walk-on Dom Whaley also had another great night, with 165 yards and a touchdown to add to his growing numbers. Whaley is making the case for that scholarship offer. Between Broyles and Whaley’s two late touchdowns, they put the nail in the coffin for the Jayhawks attempt at coming back. And looking at the second half numbers, its doubtful that was going to happen.

Official Stats from SoonerSports.com

The Sooners are back in Norman next Saturday to take on Texas Tech.

And unfortunately for Kansas, it isn’t a basketball game. Kansas doesn’t have too many positives coming into this game, and I think the only way Oklahoma loses  is if the team bus gets lost or breaks down in route to Lawrence.

The Jayhawk defense is ranked 120 in the Nation, out of 120 FBS schools. The Jayhawks have been allowing an average of 49 PPG and around 550 yards of offense.  And going up against the Sooner offense isn’t going to help much. If the Oklahoma offense continues to keep doing what it has been, it may get ugly, quickly in Lawrence. Or more importantly, if the Oklahoma defense keeps doing what it is doing.

Kansas is also coming off an awful loss from the hands of the other Big XII Oklahoma team, Oklahoma State. The Cowboys gave the Jayhawks a 70-28 spanking, pulling their entire first string very early.

There is a silver lining in the Kansas offense, and that is in QB Jordan Webb. Jordan Webb has completed nearly 70% of his passes for 11 touchdowns and only 5 interceptions and has a better quarterback rating than Boise State’s Kellen Moore’s 171.6; Webb has a 172.0. If the Jayhawk offensive line can keep the Sooner defense back, and give Webb time to throw the ball, they may have a chance. Again, Kansas’ issues have not been putting points on the board, it has been stopping the opponent from scoring and gaining 500+ yards a game. Georgia Tech had over 700 offensive yards against them…

Realistically, I’m not sure anyone sees this happening. But there is always the Sooner road woe talk that comes in to play when the Sooners are away. Oklahoma  handled Florida State pretty well on the road, though at times, Landry Jones was shaky. But then there was last weeks neutral field beatdown. The only team that can beat the Sooners this Saturday is the Sooners.

Ryan Broyles will be chasing after an NCAA record this Saturday

Before head coach Bob Stoops puts in his second team, Jones will be looking to air out the ball to WR Ryan Broyles. Broyles is four catches away from breaking former Purdue WR Tyler Stubblefield’s NCAA record on career pass receptions, with 316.

Broyles even heard from Stubblefield this week sending him his congrats, saying, “When I broke the record, I didn’t hear from the guy who held it before. I wanted to reach out to him and let him know it was a big deal.”

Broyles responded back with, “I’m going to hold it as well as you did.” Stubblefield played for Purdue from 2001-2004.

The Sooners are set to kickoff at 8:15 CST and will be televised on ESPN 2.