Oklahoma Sooners vs Oklahoma State Cowboys Match Player Stats On Nov 28, 2015

The Sports Xchange
Nov 29, 2015

STILLWATER, Okla. - Oklahoma made its final case for a berth in the College Football Playoff on Saturday night, beating Oklahoma State 58-23 in front of 58,231 at Boone Pickens Stadium.

With their regular season over, the No. 3 Sooners must wait to see whether or not they're included in the field.

Oklahoma (11-1, 8-1 Big 12) looked to be in good shape with a Bedlam win after jumping up above Iowa and Notre Dame in the latest rankings.

With Notre Dame's loss to Stanford on Saturday night, the Sooners seem virtually assured of a spot.

Oklahoma made its final case with a huge offensive night, with Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon combining to rush for 267 yards and four touchdowns, a solid performance by quarterback Baker Mayfield and 10 catches - one for a touchdown - by receiver Sterling Shepard.

For the third consecutive week, Oklahoma faced a team starting its backup quarterback.

On Saturday, it was Oklahoma State's J.W. Walsh, who started in place of Mason Rudolph after Rudolph suffered a foot injury a week earlier against Baylor.

The quarterback injuries took a bit of the teeth out of a grueling three-game stretch the Sooners had against Baylor, TCU and the Cowboys to end the regular season.

But Oklahoma won two of the three games in convincing fashion, with only the win over TCU at home going down to the wire.

Rudolph did come into the game late in the first half with Oklahoma up 28-10 but was ineffective.

He didn't complete any of his three passing attempts and Sooners cornerback Jordan Thomas intercepted one of them and returned it 32 yards for a score midway through the second quarter.

The interception was one of two for Thomas in the first half.

Last season, the Cowboys took advantage of an injury to Perine to come back and pull off a stunning overtime win in Norman.

But this time, there was no let-up for Oklahoma and the Cowboys (10-2, 7-2) didn't threaten after Oklahoma went up 34-10 in the second quarter.

Sooners kick returner Alex Ross was one of the best in the country a season ago, when he returned a pair of kicks for touchdowns and averaged 31.2 yards per returns.

This season, though, he'd struggled, failing to break one longer than 28 yards going into Saturday's game.

But after Oklahoma State got on the board with a 43-yard field goal in the first quarter, Ross came through in a big way. Ross returned the kickoff 90 yards to the 4, setting up Oklahoma's first touchdown a play later when Baker Mayfield hit Sterling Shepard for the score.

After testing Oklahoma State through the air early, the Sooners finally got the ground game going late in the first quarter to great success.

Perine broke off a 68-yard touchdown run on the first play of one drive and Mixon went for a 66-yard touchdown on the fourth play of the next drive as the Sooners started blowing the game open.

NOTES: Ben Grogan's first-quarter field goal was the first since Oct. 10 for Oklahoma State's kicker. Grogan had missed his only two attempts since. ... The Sooners wore "kneeling Cowboys" stickers on their helmets in honor of the victims of the Oct. 24 Oklahoma State homecoming crash. ... Cowboys junior DE Emmanuel Ogbah was honored as part of OSU's Senior Day ceremonies before the game. Ogbah is expected to declare for the NFL Draft after the season. ... The start of the game was briefly delayed after a photographer had to be carted off after being hit as Oklahoma State took the field. ... With his first-quarter touchdown reception, Oklahoma WR Sterling Shepard tied Jermaine Gresham for third in school history with 26 career touchdown receptions.