Its game day again and the Sooners once more have to try to get over the hump of .500 football. It's kind of sad if you ask me but no one's asking so let's get the win and get on track to make a run for the Big 12 Title. We've discussed reasons for concern against the Baylor Bears but there are also reasons to be confident.
5. Its Baylor! - The Sooners are 19-0 against the Bears and are looking to push that to 20-0 this afternoon. Its safe to say that Oklahoma's has Baylor's number!
4. Bradford Is Back - The locker room at Texas Stadium was described as a morgue after Sam Bradford went down with a shoulder injury. This team has missed Bradford's on-field leadership and poise. There is a thought that this team will rally around their captain and hopefully we'll see a different attitude from the coaches all the way down to the players.
3. Robert Griffin Won't Be In Uniform For Baylor - Truth be told, Baylor's best chance for an upset went down when Robert Griffin did. Griffin was a two-fold threat for the Bears and had completed over 65% of his passes with 4 scores and no interceptions. Instead of their track star/dual threat quarterback opposing the Sooners it'll be Nick Florence or Blake Szymanski.
2. Baylor Allows 164.8 Yards Per Game On The Ground - That stat is good enough to rank them 10th in the conference (ahead of Colorado and Iowa State) in rushing defense. Opponents are averaging 4.1 yards per carry and have scored 6 touchdowns against them on the ground. In Bradford's return Oklahoma should be able to use Chris Brown and DeMarco Murray on the ground to open up the passing game.
1. Home Field Advantage - Bob Stoops has lost twice in Norman. Both games were unexpected losses where the Sooners were heavy favorites. That could describe just about any team that comes to Norman and while two of them actually did sneak up on Oklahoma, twice in 10-plus seasons isn't bad.