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Oklahoma blasts Missouri, books spot in BCS title game

Dec 7, 2008 - 7:02 AM KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Sam Bradford and Oklahoma slammed their critics by crushing Missouri and booking a trip to Miami for the BCS championship game.

Bradford, looking very much like a Heisman Trophy winner, passed for 384 yards and two touchdowns Saturday as the second-ranked Sooners blew out No. 17 Missouri, 62-21, to win their third straight Big 12 Conference title.

By drubbing the overmatched Tigers in a rematch of last year's league title game, Oklahoma (12-1) locked up its fourth all-time berth in the BCS championship contest. The Sooners likely will play Florida, which beat Alabama for Saturday's SEC title, on January 8 in Miami's Dolphin Stadium.

"I don't know what (the media) is looking for," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. "Everybody has their opinions. Some people's are different than others.

"That's a pretty convincing win in a championship game against another ranked team. I think that's our fifth ranked team that we've been able to beat this year. So if that doesn't make a statement, then you don't want it to."

The Sooners certainly played the part of a national title contender in this contest, rolling up 627 yards of total offense en route to their NCAA-record fifth straight game with at least 60 points.

Oklahoma also established a record in the Football Bowl Subdivision by finishing the regular season with a whopping 702 points scored.

Oklahoma's presence in the Big 12 title game was a topic of hot debate. By virtue of owning the coveted No. 2 ranking in the BCS standings, the Sooners edged rival Texas and upstart Texas Tech in a three-way tiebreaker for the Big 12 South title.

BCS bashers bemoaned the conference championship matchup, pointing to Texas' 45-35 victory over Oklahoma on a neutral site earlier this season.

That relentless criticism evidently inspired Oklahoma and Bradford, who made his final Heisman bid by completing 34-of-49 passes.

"We were tired of listening to everyone talk about how we didn't deserve to be in this game," Bradford said. "Nobody's given us a lot of credit for what we've done this year, so we wanted to come into this game and make a statement."

The Sooners made a statement on the scoreboard, scoring on 10 of their 11 possessions and reaching the end zone eight times. Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel left the game convinced that Oklahoma is a major force.

"They're really good," Pinkel said. "I'm not going to compare teams. I don't think that's my role to do that. They're one of the best football teams I've seen."

Bradford, who has thrown for 4,464 yards and 48 TDs this season, hopes that this latest blowout victory helped convince the college football world that Oklahoma is for real.

"(The criticism) was a big part of what got us motivated for this game," Bradford said. "We heard all the media talking about how we didn't deserve to be here."

"San Bradford, again, no one throws it better than him," Stoops added. "Just incredible accuracy, incredible on third downs when you have to have it. And I thought our running game was great."

Chris Brown and Mossis Madu combined for 236 rushing yards and six TDs on the ground for Oklahoma, which raced to a 38-7 halftime lead in a game that quickly deteriorated into a laugher.

Missouri (9-4), which won the Big 12 North despite a disappointing season, lost for the 19th time in its last 20 meetings with the Sooners.

The Tigers made recent headlines by intimating that several of Oklahoma's wins in this series have not been legitimate - words that obviously got under Bradford's skin.

"We had to listen to Missouri talk about how the last few times we beat them was a fluke," Bradford said. "They said they were going to beat us tonight. So to come out and play the way we did was a great feeling."

Missouri provided some early resistance to Oklahoma, pulling within 10-7 on Chase Daniel's 27-yard TD pass to Jeremy Maclin early in the second quarter.

But Oklahoma scored touchdowns on its last four drives of the first half. Bradford threw an 11-yard TD to Juaquin Iglesias, and the pair hooked up again on an 11-yarder to make it 24-7.

Madu capped a 15-play, 89-yard drive with his first TD of the game, a 12-yard run, and Oklahoma regained possession with 1:34 remaining in the first half when Brian Jackson intercepted Daniel and reeled off a 20-yard return to Missouri's 28-yard line.

Two plays later, Brown scored on a 6-yard run to make it 38-7.

Iglesias finished with 125 yards on nine receptions while tight end Jermaine Gresham hauled in eight catches for 82 yards for the Sooners, who were without starting running back DeMarco Murray for the majority of the contest.

"We have so many different weapons on offense," Bradford said. "I think it's really hard for a defense to double-cover one guy."

Murray, Oklahoma's leading rusher, suffered a knee injury on the game's opening kickoff return and missed the remainder of the contest.

But thanks to Brown, who ran for 122 yards, and Madu, who chipped in with 114 on the ground, the Sooners' rushing attack did not miss a beat.

Daniel finished 27-of-43 for 255 yards, three TDs and two interceptions. Maclin had 180 all-purpose yards for Missouri.

"You can't win a game against a team like that turning the football over," Daniel said. "The lopsidedness of it - it's just disappointing."