#1 Oklahoma has no trouble with Baylor

In a classic “lookahead spot” to a game next week against #5 Texas, Oklahoma definitely didn’t look like a time that had its focus elsewhere as it dominated Baylor en route to a 49-17 victory that wasn’t as close as the lopsided score indicates.  The Sooners jumped out to a 28-0 first quarter margin and never looked back as they solidified their claim on the #1 ranking in college football.

It didn’t take long for OU to find the end zone, as Sam Bradford found Manuel Johnson for a 53 yard TD pass with just over a minute elapsed in the game.  Bradford would add a rushing TD before the end of the quarter, and Demarco Murray and Mossis Madu added a rushing TD apiece to stake the Sooners to their huge first quarter advantage.  Baylor chipped away at the lead with two Robert Griffin rushing TDs in the 2nd quarter, but was not able to make any significant headway as Bradford threw his second TD pass of the day before halftime.

Chris Brown scored from 3 yards out early in the third quarter to extend the Sooner lead to 42-14, and Oklahoma essentially coasted the rest of the way.  A Baylor FG late in the third and another Demarco Murray rushing TD midway through the 4th resulted in the final margin.  OU’s dominance was complete and clearly reflected in the stat sheet—they had 32 first downs to 17 for Baylor, 594 yards of total offense to 269 with a huge disparity in passing yardage (377 to 75) responsible for the bulk of the damage. 

The Sooners have yet to be challenged this season, winning all five of their games by an average margin of nearly 35 points.  That should change in the next two weeks as they host #5 Texas at home next Saturday and #16 Kansas the week after.  They’ll then travel to 3-2 Kansas State on 10/25.  Baylor dropped to 2-3 with the loss and will have a chance to get back to .500 as they host 2-3 Iowa State next weekend.  The Bears then hit the road for two tough games against #21 Oklahoma State and Nebraska.