Oklahoma has rolled off five straight wins and, with a little help from Texas A&M;, put itself in position to win the Big 12 South.
But what happens at the end of the season hasn’t crept into the Sooners’ sphere quite yet. The 16th-ranked Sooners (8-2, 5-1 Big 12) are sporting blinders when it comes to just about anything other than their next opponent: Baylor (4-7, 3-4).
It’s the same path the Sooners have tried to stay on throughout the season. The winning streak hasn’t changed anything.
“Our major goal and our whole focus is on us improving this week, getting better, correcting some of the mistakes,” OU coach Bob Stoops said.
Paul Thompson threw for a career-high 309 yards last week against Texas Tech and OU’s passing game returned after going into hibernation against Texas A&M.;
But the negatives stand out to the Sooner coach.
OU committed four turnovers against the Red Raiders that caused a 14-point first-half deficit. Stoops also pointed out some defensive breakdowns that occurred.
“That’s where our emphasis is — improving, getting better through the week to go down to Baylor and have another opportunity to win.”
For OU, wins against the Bears have almost been forgone conclusions. The Sooners are a perfect 15-0 against Baylor, including three straight wins by 35 points or more from 2002 to 2004.
But that changed when the Sooners had to hold off a furious rally from the Bears to win 37-30 in overtime last season.
“We know what Baylor is capable of,” quarterback Paul Thompson said. “A lot of people might want to overlook them, but when you look at what they’ve done at home, all games have been close and they’ve even pulled off some wins at home. So we can’t get caught up into all of that because on any day, any team can win.”
Perhaps that’s what keeps OU from sampling the buffet of other subjects.
The Bedlam game looms next week. There’s also the hysteria surrounding when Adrian Peterson might return from his broken collarbone.
That doesn’t even call into account questions about the Sooners being stuck at No. 17 in the BCS standings.
“We still have a lot of football to be play and that’s why I won’t let our focus change from going to Baylor this week,” Stoops said. “That’s where all our energy’s at now. Again, there’s a lot of football left and a lot of games to be played, so we’ll see.”
The fact Texas stoked fires of hope for a Big 12 South title by losing to Kansas State last week hasn’t changed OU’s outlook.
“We can only control what we can control,” cornerback Marcus Walker said. “So our focus is on ourselves, not anybody else”
A lot of things, good or bad, can happen over the last two games. Perhaps luck will finally fall the Sooners’ way and the breaks they couldn’t catch early in the year will continue arriving.
But Stoops can only think of one way OU can bolster its resume.
“We still have to show that we’re peaking or that we’re playing as good as we can, and that’s what we’re pushing for,” he said. “It is a factor. You need to be strong late and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
John Shinn366-3536jshinn@normantranscript.com
OU Sports
Lots to play for
But Sooners focusing on Baylor
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