Game Is Over! Enough Complaining!

Allright, I was one of the first ones to stand up for Oklahoma this past Saturday after they got shafted by the Pac 10 officials in the Oregon game. Saturday is approaching us and I'm still hearing whining and complaining from Oklahoma, OU fans, and a minority of analysts and columnists (Ex: Skip Bayless and Craig James).

There's nothing that can be done about it. The refs messed up. It's happened before. It'll happen again. Let's not forget that OU was the beneficiary of a bad call in their opening game against UAB. With six and a half minutes left in the game and OU clinging to a 24-17 lead, the refs blew the whistle very early on a punt return where UAB stripped the ball loose from a Sooner and recovered it inside the 25-yard line. UAB could've very well tied that game up at 24 fairly late in the 4th quarter and who knows where it would've gone from there. While the final results of the two contests didn't turn out the way they should've, when all is said and done, perhaps OU deserves to be 1-1. Heck, if I were them, I'd much rather have a loss on my record to Oregon at Autzen than one at home against UAB. UAB got jabbed in game one and Oklahoma got jabbed in game two. Things evened out a bit for OU.

Let's not go on about how OU is out of the championship picture. This is not a great Oklahoma team. They've got a solid running game, but what else do they have? For the next year, they might as well refer to themselves as Adrian Peterson University. They also play in a rather mediocre Big XII. This was a non-conference loss, so they have as good a chance as anyone at this point in time of winning the Big XII, going to the conference title game, and potentially going to a BCS game. This is not the end of the world. It's certainly not a time to threaten a referee's life. It's a game of football. It's not life or death. It's not a matter of war. It's a game, plain and simple.

Also, let's not beat around the bush. Oregon was aided immensely by the refs in this game, but Oklahoma should've won the game regardless. Oregon was down 33-20 and OU gave up the first touchdown to close the gap to 33-27. If OU had stopped them, then they would've won. After Oregon "allegedly" recovered the onsides kick, again, Oklahoma could've stopped them, but they didn't and Oregon went up 34-33. Even after that score, OU had a chance to win and were in field goal range for the last play of the game. The kick was blocked and Oregon stormed out onto the field. Just as UAB had chances to tie and win the game against Oklahoma the week prior, Oklahoma had similar opportunities against Oregon. It's time for head coach Bob Stoops to get his team focused again. If not, then they could very well be out of the Big XII title picture before too long. The game's over. It's time to focus on the next game and a Big XII Championship.