The Football Brainiacs

* I’ll get to the game itself in a minute, but I wanted to quickly share a thought I had as I spent my morning in the yard mowing up leaves.

I was listening to pregame radio, of which every single option in OKC is more horrible than the next, and couldn’t help but laugh at the people I was listening to raving about how competitive Ok State has been of late in this “rivalry.”

You want to know why I just used the quotes on “rivalry” and why you are, and forever will be, considered ‘little brother.’ It’s talk like that on the radio.

The idea you would be commended for simply being competitive is why I’ll never take you seriously. Why I will laugh every time one of you, or the local media on your behalf, tries to claim you as OU’s biggest rival.

* Look, as many of you are WELL aware I haven’t exactly been thrilled with this 2016 season. But an undefeated Big 12 season, another trophy, and a Sugar Bowl berth aren’t anything to complain about.

I’m not satisfied with it and I don’t think any OU fan worth their salt should be — the goal/standard is and always should be national championships — but to complain about it would also be pretty ridiculous.

* I don’t expect either — or really anyone for that matter — has much of a realistic chance to actually win the Heisman, but if Baker Mayfield and/or Dede Westbrook don’t at least get the invite to New York it will be a borderline travesty.

* 300+ yards on the ground in the second half after that first 30 minutes of offensive “performance” I thought was particularly impressive. Here’s to hoping/wishful thinking/whatever it takes that we get at least one more year of Lincoln Riley.

* As I was watching the game and Skyping with my father, as we do every Saturday, I remarked multiple times throughout the game, even before it actually started, how Mike Gundy seems to coach scared in this game basically every year. And Saturday was certainly no exception. I mean 2-10 pretty much says all that needs to be said.

* To that point, Ok State’s lack of deep balls will remain one of the more fascinating things that didn’t happen this entire season. Thanks, Mike!

* I can’t remember if it was the 1st or 2nd half, but at one point the announcers made a comment about Mike Stoops’ defense “confusion” being the cause of Mason Rudolph’s struggles which I found to be particularly laughable.

But it would be prickish and unfair to not at least recognize the improvements the defense has made over the course of the second half of the season. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still FAR from good and have issues on basically every level. But as bad as they were they did get better, and I think it’s important to at least acknowledge that.

* I keep seeing people say how classy a move Samaje Perine taking a knee was, but I had a very different take on it.

I saw it as the ultimate insult, and I freaking LOVED it!!!

The guy was an absolute beast on Saturday and that’s even after having come out at one point with what looked like what might have been a concussion.

* And speaking on concussions, my lord this year has been ridiculous. At one point on Saturday I jokingly asked (not that head injuries are something to joke about) if OU’s helmets are padded with rocks. It seemed like almost every time they had a guy fall to the field, they smacked their head on the ground and were slow to get up.

It’s crazy how much of a problem they’ve had with that this year.

* I can’t possibly be the only one who noticed that something just seemed “off” with Joe Mixon yesterday, right?

Maybe it was the broken leg some dipsh!t Ok State trolls seemed to believe he was playing through or maybe it was just the weather. I don’t know. He still wound up having a pretty decent game, thanks to that one long, back-breaking run, but he just didn’t look to be himself out there, in my opinion.

* It was certainly encouraging to see some of the other wide receivers step up in spots after Dede Westbrook’s injury. *As to the hit itself, honestly I could go either way. I can see why some think it was targeting just as I can see the argument for why it wasn’t. I don’t expect that goes over all that well here, an OU blog, but I didn’t think it was a particularly egregious non-call. I think we’ve all seen considerably worse hits.*

Whether it was Geno Lewis and even Jordan Smallwood, somebody needed to do it and on Saturday those guys did, thankfully.

* Building on that point, another Twitter question I posed was whether or not Mark Andrews is even still on the team. I was only half-joking as I definitely remembered seeing him on the field, occasionally, but his role in this offense has seemingly all but been eliminated completely in recent weeks.