Oklahoma's Balance on Offense Keeps Sooners Dangerous in Big 12 Race

If Oklahoma's offense was dead and buried against Texas, these last two weeks have been one incredible resurrection.

One week after putting up its best offensive performance of the season in a 55-0 road destruction over what was a good Kansas State team, Oklahoma stepped up its production Saturday in a 63-27 home rout of Texas Tech.

Oklahoma recorded 617 yards of total offense against the Red Raiders and broke the 60-point mark for the first time since its 2012 win over Texas. The Tulsa World's Eric Bailey noted that the last time the Sooners experienced "back-to-back 50-point games" was in 2012:

Sure, Saturday's outburst came against the Texas Tech defense—which entered Week 8 at 123rd nationally in total yards allowed per game—but the timing of Oklahoma's big performances is what is most important right now for the Sooners.

Since Texas held Oklahoma to 278 yards and 17 points in their annual-rivalry showdown, the Sooners have put up their best offensive numbers of the season against Power Five competition in back-to-back weeks.

They'll have great chances to make it a possible four straight games over the next couple of weeks as they face Kansas and Iowa State. Then it's off to the treacherous three-game run of currently undefeated squads Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma State.

Simply put, Oklahoma's offense is heating up at the right time, and it may reach nuclear levels by the time it visits Baylor for what could be a shootout for the ages.

Jackson Laizure/Getty Images

One major reason behind this offensive resurrection has been the revitalization of the running game.

While much of the pregame focus was on starting quarterback Baker Mayfield's first game against his old team, Oklahoma ran wild on Texas Tech, posting a season-high 405 yards on the ground.

Samaje Perine had his best game since his all-time record-breaking performance against Kansas last season, recording 201 yards and four touchdowns on just 21 carries. Mayfield described Perine as the country's "best running back," according to the team's official Twitter account:

Joe Mixon chipped in an impressive 156 yards and two touchdowns of his own, and third-stringer Alex Ross recorded his first career touchdown to wrap up the beatdown of Texas Tech.

It seems first-year offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley is finding the perfect formula between his Air Raid assault and a talented rushing attack that had plenty of success before he arrived in Norman. Per the team's Twitter account, Mayfield expressed optimism regarding the team's offensive progressing, highlighting the running game as a critical component of the Sooners' success:

Oklahoma hadn't averaged more than 3.5 yards per carry against a single Power Five opponent heading into the Kansas State game, and the Sooners only had 67 yards on 37 carries against Texas.

Now Oklahoma has rushed for almost as many yards in the last two games as it had through its first five contests of the 2015 season.

As Joshua Friemel of the Dallas Morning News noted, Oklahoma's combination of Perine and Mixon is proving that it can lead the way and give the Sooners something Baylor and TCU don't quite have on offense:

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The two showed that they're able to carry the load for the Sooners. The passing game this year has been adequate, but nothing outstanding. Mayfield to Sterling Shepard or Durron Neal isn't as electric as Seth Russell to Corey Coleman or Trevone Boykin to Josh Doctson. Those guys have dominant passing attacks. But both Baylor and TCU don't have two backs that can be as dominant as Perine and Mixon were today.  

"

That newfound balance is extremely important for this Oklahoma offense as it heads into a November that will decide a wild Big 12 race.

Baylor allowed 232 yards on the ground Saturday against Iowa State without top defensive tackle Andrew Billings.

TCU's banged-up defense has allowed 18 rushing touchdowns on the season, which was tied for seventh-most in college football heading into Saturday.

And considering Oklahoma State has the nation's 22nd-best pass defense—which has more interceptions than allowed touchdowns this season—running the ball could be the key to success in Bedlam this season.

Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press

Oklahoma's recent success on the ground has generated more points on the scoreboard and opened things up even more for Mayfield, who only threw seven incompletions in a two-touchdown performance Saturday.

"It makes my job easy," Mayfield said after the game, per Oklahoma's official Twitter account. "That means I can check to run plays whenever we need. If we get that going and score 60 points per game, I'm happy."

By maintaining its same amount of explosion with more balance in the play-calling, Oklahoma should have plenty of offensive momentum heading into matchups against some of the nation's best offenses at the end of the regular season.

The Texas loss might have taken a lot of life out of Oklahoma's playoff push, but the Sooners have shown they're very much alive on offense and in the Big 12 championship race. 

Game statistics courtesy of StatBroadcast. Unless otherwise noted, other statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com.

Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.