Bedlam is upon us...

It's finally Bedlam week... the annual match-up of the two major Oklahoma schools... Every year it seems is bigger than the last, and every year(recently), Oklahoma State has lost. As an oSu fan, it has been a tough road. Hopefully this year will be different. Here are my keys to an Oklahoma State win:

Hit Landry early and often
Landry has had a propencity to get a little rattled and start making mistakes. Without his security blanket(Ryan Broyles), he seems to have reverted back to Landry of his first 5 starts in an OU uniform. Hopefully the trend continues Saturday.

No Special Teams TDs or mistakes
Special Teams errors are always a key in games. Especially games of the magnitude we'll see Saturday. This season Ok State has made a few costly special teams errors(kickoff for a TD against Texas, onside kick at Iowa State, many fumbled punts), but only the Iowa State mistakes bit them in the butt. They need to be careful with the ball and make sure no big returns are broken. KICK IT THROUGH THE ENDZONE!!!



> 100 yards rushing
According to a stat I saw on twitter(sorry, forgot the source), in the 3 close games oSu has had(A&M, Iowa State, and Kansas State), they've averaged less than 60 yards rushing. In all other games, the average is over 200 yards. The difference was not only running the ball when up, but running the ball early(in spots) with a high success rate. Running the ball early in many of the blowouts allowed Oklahoma State to keep the opponent off balance and pass with much more efficiency. Hopefully a good mix will be discovered early in the game and keep that Sooner defense off balance.

Ignore the LSU vs. Bama discussion
As a team, the players need to stay focused. So far they seem to have done that. Gundy went to the extreme and said RIGHT NOW Bama deserves to be above Oklahoma State. While I disagree with the way he did it, hopefully it helps keep everyone focused on what's just ahead of them.

But, just because Gundy and company need to ignore it doesn't mean that the fans should ignore it. The fans need to be lobbying for Oklahoma State. A lot of the lobbying has already been done, so I'll keep it short.

First, oSu needs an convincing Bedlam win. Second, Mike Gundy HAS to lobby for his team. HAS to. He has already done damage by essentially admitting Alabama is better... he needs to lobby hard after the game is over. Third, oSu needs roughly 25% of the 2nd place votes. With 25% and a strong computer ranking(most likely a unanimous #2 after the OU game), it is possible for oSu to overcome Alabama. This could lead to a tense BCS show sunday evening!

Why do I think this might not happen? There seems to be some monkey business going on in the human polls. #5 in the human polls? No one in their right mind could say Va Tech is better than Ok State. Some voters have Oklahoma State as low as #14 in the AP poll. I think that and more has to be going on in the Coaches or Harris poll. I think some SEC types are ranking oSu low to make sure they don't overtake Alabama.

To finish out my case, here is an infograph published by @pistolsguy on pistolsfiringblog.com:

With a win against OU, oSu will also have one more Top 25 win. The already impressive resume against Alabama wides up even farther...

My prediction? I'm going to say 42-28 good guys. And 10 to 1 odds I freeze to my seat Saturday evening...