I was pretty surprised by the outcome.
Listened to the pregame and the talking heads telling everyone how Alabama was going to mop the field with the Sooners, and Lou Holtz saying Alabama was the best team in the nation, they only had one bad game and that was against Auburn. After hearing the "experts" lay out the scenario, I kinda expected Alabama to put the game away early, ala the USC-OU title game in 2004.
Once the game started.....yeah, Bama went right down the field like it was more of a practice session for them than a real game. But OU came to play, and play they did.
Several things really stood out for me as the game progressed and the commentators rattled after each play: 1) Bama's defense looked winded early on, like Saban hadn't kept them in football shape. The commentators remarked how it had been 32 days since they played last (I remember the same thing being said when Ohio State looked out of shape against Florida in the title matchup several years ago). When the heavy favorite is losing, they have to make excuses. 2) Derrick Henry is a BEAST, and only gonna get better! Six foot three and 238 pounds....holy smoke! That's linebacker size! 3) The Bama defenders looked to have gotten caught up in their own hype. I've seen it a lot over the years.......a highly ranked team's defense thinks they can get away with blatant holding and interference because of who they are. Wrapping your arm around a receiver and using his body and momentum to pull yourself into position to bat a pass down is gonna draw a flag, especially when even the viewers can see the receiver's body being twisted around as you grab him. Man up, admit you screwed up (Saban didn't help matters yelling at the officials about it), and get your head in the game. 4) As much as I dislike Bob Stoops, the man knows how to spot talent and develop a QB. Not a lot of freshmen, even redshirt freshmen, can step into a big game and play the way Knight did. But Stoops seems to know what to do with young QB's and game plan for them.
I had the game on while I was playing AH, and ended up logging off to watch and see what happened. Kept expecting Alabama to come storming back and win, fulfilling Holtz's statement about Bama being the best. What I saw instead was a Sooner team that wanted it more and kept playing hard til the end. The best measure of how good a team is, is how they handle adversity. Bama fell apart there at the very end, looked shocked at the idea that not only was OU hanging with them, they were BEATING them.
All in all, best game I've watched in a while. I love it when the underdog pulls off the upset, even when the underdog is Oklahoma.
