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Posted: 11:27 PM Nov 16, 2006
Last Updated: 11:27 PM Nov 16, 2006
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11-17-06 - A surprising loss by a rival has given Oklahoma new life in its pursuit of a Bowl Championship Series bid.
With the Big 12 title still a possibility, the No. 16 Sooners look to continue their dominance of Baylor on Saturday.
Oklahoma (8-2, 5-1) defeated Texas Tech 34-24 last Saturday, and stayed in contention for the Big 12 South Division title when then-No. 4 Texas suffered a 45-42 loss at Kansas State.
The Longhorns have one conference loss, but own the tiebreaker over Oklahoma thanks to their 28-10 win over the Sooners in the Red River rivalry on Oct. 7. To win the division and earn a date with Nebraska in the conference title game, Oklahoma needs to win its remaining two regular-season contests and have the Longhorns lose at home to Texas A&M on Nov. 24.
"There's a lot of possibilities," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. "My whole focus has been, though, you shouldn't need a carrot out there to be excited to compete and play. My whole deal all year has been keep improving, keep getting better, enjoy practices, know you're getting better.
"Let's do our part to win and be as good as we can be. If things work out, they'll work out. I'm not much on paying a ton of attention to things that aren't in my control."
Oklahoma has never lost to Baylor (4-7, 3-4), taking all 15 meetings, including seven matchups at Waco. The Sooners have outscored the Bears 140-16 in their last three visits to Floyd Casey Stadium.
Last season at Norman, the Sooners gained 474 yards of total offense and held the ball for more than 41 minutes, but needed overtime to defeat Baylor 37-30. Running back Jacob Gutierrez had career highs of 30 rushes, 173 yards and two touchdowns while filling in for injured Sooners star Adrian Peterson.
Gutierrez now finds himself in the mix again with Peterson (collarbone) and backup Allen Patrick (ankle) both sidelined, but Stoops turned to freshman Chris Brown down the stretch last week against Texas Tech.
Playing in just the second game of his career, Brown ran for two critical fourth-quarter touchdowns and finished with 84 yards on 16 carries.
Stoops said Peterson will not return this week but Patrick, who ran for 440 yards in three games replacing Peterson before sitting out last week, returned to practice Monday.
Sophomore wide receiver Manuel Johnson will not play against Baylor after being knocked out of last week's game on a helmet-to-helmet hit.
"The things we've gone through, whoever's in there we're going to win with them," Oklahoma quarterback Paul Thompson said. "That's our mind-set. We've got confidence. If something happens no one's freaking out."
Thompson and the Oklahoma passing game performed well against the Red Raiders. He completed 24 of 31 passes for 309 yards and two first-half touchdowns, one of them a 40-yarder to sophomore wideout Malcolm Kelly, who had a career-high 11 receptions for 153 yards.
Kelly caught five passes for 41 yards against Baylor last year.
This contest will conclude Baylor's season, as last Saturday's 66-24 loss at Oklahoma State eliminated the Bears from bowl consideration. The defeat also clinched the 11th consecutive losing season for Baylor, which has not appeared in a bowl game since 1994.
Last week, the Cowboys scored five touchdowns off six Bears turnovers and gained 510 yards of total offense -- 387 on the ground. Baylor has been outscored 152-66 during its three-game losing streak, and has given up 31 points or more in six straight games.
"We didn't show up again," linebacker Maurice Linquist said. "It's frustrating. We had a lot of goals for this season and realizing that everything we wanted to accomplish is over now."
Redshirt freshman quarterback Blake Szymanski completed 24 of 41 passes for 262 yards, two TDs and three interceptions in his second career start. He is replacing senior Shawn Bell, who was lost for the season after tearing the ACL in his right knee during a 31-21 defeat to Texas A&M on Oct. 28.
"I think the more he plays, the more the better he is going to be," Baylor coach Guy Morriss said of Szymanski. "Right now he's struggling a little bit."
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