#8 Oklahoma vs. #17 Miami Recap

The Sooners jumped to a quick lead and looked like they were going to control the contest. QB Landry Jones was efficient completing 18 of 30 passes for 188 yards but managed to only put 20 points on the board.

The contest was even in all aspects. Each team had 21 first downs, the time of possession difference was only 1:24 and the total net yards was separated by a single yard. The story reads like turnovers must have been the difference; that wasn’t the case as Oklahoma won the turnover battle. The key difference was third down efficiency. Oklahoma was 5 of 15 for 33% while Miami was 8 of 13 for a whopping 62%.

The very tight loss will most likely eliminate any chance of Oklahoma making a return to the National Championship game. Given the current BCS system, what does Oklahoma gain from playing at Miami? The answer is nothing, in fact they lose everything. The Sooners would be better served playing the cupcake out of conference schedule like the Gators of Florida do. With that strategy you can suffer a defeat and still make it to the title game.

Oklahoma may have Sam Bradford back as they open conference play in Norman against Baylor on October 10 th.

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By Scott Dryden
DFN SPorts Senior Staff Writer

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