While my Oklahoma State brethren are looking for me to write something and fire up most of the readers in the city where I’ve worked the last nine years, I’m finding myself having a hard time getting a read on where this weekend’s game may go.

On one hand, the Sooners come in off one of their ugliest performances in years, struggling in nearly every phase — outside of walkon kicker Patrick O’Hara perhaps — in a 41-13 loss at Texas Tech. Injuries keep piling up for OU, with starting center Ben Habern and linebacker Ryan Reynolds the latest to go down.

On the other hand, OU has been a different team at home this season. While their competition level hasn’t been great on Owen Field, they have taken care of all comers, and looked pretty decisive against Texas A&M two weeks ago.

Then you have the Cowboys. A 9-2 season usually is reason to jump for joy around Stillwater, and the Pokes have a chance to be in the BCS mix if they can win Saturday and get a little help in some other games nationally.

OSU is come off one of its shakier outings of the year also. The Cowboys beat Colorado, 31-28 at home, needing a big rally from third-string quarterback Brandon Weeden. Their starter, Zac Robinson, had his bell rung two weeks ago against Texas Tech, and we may not know until game time Saturday if he will be ready to play against the Sooners. While people have had their questions at times about Sooner backup Landry Jones, he’s had a lot more time than Weeden to this point and would have a big edge if they’re the quarterbacks.

OSU has only played three road games all season, all wins against pretty lousy opposition. They’ve played three really high-profile games — home against Georgia (a win), home against Houston (a loss) and home against Texas (a blowout loss).

OU is the toughest team theyve played away from home, and the Cowboys are the toughest team OU has hosted this year.

From where I’m sitting, it all adds up to confusion in being able to predict what will happen.

After getting over the shock of “what in the heck are they thinking,” I look back and realize that Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick made the right decision Sunday night.
Just in case you were under a rock, the New England Patriots went for a fourth-and-2 from their own 28 yard line with about 2 minutes left in a game they were leading 34-28 against the Indianapolis Colts. Quarterback Tom Brady’s pass was complete to running back Kevin Faulk, but he was stopped about a half-yard short.
The Colts got the ball back and drove for the winning score in the closing seconds.
The argument against going for it is the easy one. You punt, and Peyton Manning and the Colts have to go maybe 70 yards for the winning score instead of 30.
I’m more conservative in my play-calling, at least in John Madden football, as Glenn Beck. So I know I’d have punted.
But in this case, I’d have been wrong in doing so. Manning is playing as well as any quarterback in football, and I suspect he’d have figured out a way to take his team to the winning drive from 30 yards or 99.
Meanwhile, if Faulk gains one more yard, the Pats run the clock out and win. Making the choice they did put the game in the hands of one of the NFL’s best offenses, as opposed to a suspect defense.
It doesn’t look very smart now that it didn’t work, but it was the right choice.

In a day where too many athletes and other public figures are overly worried about making their public image look as good as possible, a refreshing story comes out of Cleveland.
Joshua Cribbs, a receiver and kick returner for the Browns, did quite a good deed for the son of one of his former coaches. The coach had been one of Cribbs’ mentors as he was coming up through the collegiate ranks. But he died four years ago of lymphoma.
His son played his senior night game Oct. 30 and in pregame introductions was accompanied onto the field not just by his mother but Cribbs as well. You can read the whole story here .
What I like best about this is the media wasn’t made aware of it until  a couple of weeks after it happened. It wasn’t at all one of these “look at me, look at the good I’m doing” moments a lot of people try do to publicize themselves. It simply seems to be a guy doing the right thing for the family of a fallen mentor.

Although the Norman Public Schools got shut out of this season’s playoffs, there still is plenty of good football to be seen around the area on the opening night of postseason.

Little Axe is in the playoffs for the first time in school history, and the Indians are hosting. They’ll take on John Marshall, a school that played in Class 5A until being split up with the opening of Centennial High School a few years ago. JM knocked off its district’s champion, Heritage Hall, a couple of weeks ago, while the Axe is on a four-game winning streak coming into the playoffs.

Undefeated Community Christian is back in the OCSAA state title game for the fourth straight year, but they’re seeking their first title since 2006. They face Rejoice Christian at Royal Field. CCS beat Rejoice 46-30 during the regular season.

Washington is used to being in the playoffs but had to fight back from a rough start to the season. They will go on the road to Plainview. Also as part of the 2A playoffs is Lexington, which had one of its best seasons in a long time, but has a tough trip to Kingfisher in the opener.

Purcell, in the 3A playoffs, will host an Elgin squad in what might be the toughest matchup of the 3A bracket’s opening round.

As far as the big schools, Southmoore is the lone playoff entry after winning their district title. They open with a 4-6 Lawton Eisenhower team that squeaked in with a last-week victory against Norman High. A SaberCat win brings Owasso or Bartlesville to Moore Stadium for the second round.

A former Oklahoma Sooner leads the NFL in tackles.
Can you figure out who it is without looking it up?
I admit, I was surprised to hear it, too, when the Morning Animals talked about it on the radio Thursday morning.
It’s Kingfisher’s own Curtis Lofton, former Sooner linebacker and now of the Atlanta Falcons.
Lofton has 84 tackles through the first eight games. He’s one of only four players in the league with more than 70. The 23-year-old also has two forced fumbles and has started 23 straight games at middle linebacker. Last year he recorded 94 tackles for the Falcons.
It says a little bit more about small-town Oklahoma high school football.

Phil Mickelson got the best of Tiger Woods over the weekend, halfway around the world. They played together in the last group of the HSBC Championship and Phil drilled Tiger, then held off Ernie Els for the title.

It couldn’t have come at a less noticeable time. With the tournament going on in China, live play happened in the middle of the night here, so nobody saw it happen when it happened.

Not to mention it’s a tournament that falls far short of the prestige of golf’s four majors.

But it is a solid step for Mickelson, whose 2009 season was fractured by the sufferings of his wife and mother, who both were diagnosed with breast cancer.

Reports are both are doing better, and so is Phil. A win over Tiger will do that, even if it is in a tournament almost nobody got to see.

Obviously the OU contingent isn’t too excited about a game where the Sooners only put up 3 points, and rightfully so.

But it sure was refreshing to see two defensive football teams look so dominant in this day and age of high-octane offenses and wild scores going on the board virtually every week.

The two defensive lines in place were as good as any you’ll see in college football. Pair it up against a couple of offenses that have had some rough patches and you end up with something like the 10-3 game we got Saturday in Lincoln.

Good defense is not dead, and for some of us, that’s good to see.

Oklahoma State’s Halloween night shot on the big stage turned into an all-out nightmare.
Five turnovers. Four of them Zac Robinson interceptions, two of which that were returned for touchdowns.
And on a night the Cowboys’ defense actually did a pretty decent job against Colt McCoy and his Longhorns, the result was frightful.
A 41-14 loss.
At home.
Now the Cowboys are left to ponder the “what-ifs” of a season that could have been more.
What if Kendall Hunter had been healthy?
What if Dez Bryant had told the truth to NCAA investigators and perhaps been available for the stretch run?
What if the defense had made a few more plays in an early-season loss to Houston?
OSU still has one of its best teams ever. But it’s just a “good” team that will go to a “good” bowl and again won’t be contending for any sort of championship.