Week 14 College Football Picks: Oklahoma State Will End Bedlam Losing Streak

Last year's Bedlam game was one of the most entertaining games of the 2010 college football season. Oklahoma State and Oklahoma went back and forth all night, but the Sooners managed to pull away late to earn a 47-41 win.

It was a shootout in every sense of the term. And given the way the Cowboys and Sooners are looking this year, we can expect the 2011 Bedlam game to feature more of the same.

According to Bodog, the Pokes are favored to win by 3.5 points. If they win, they will have beaten Oklahoma for the first time since 2002. Additionally, Oklahoma State's very thin hopes of making it to the BCS National Championship Game will get a boost. At the very least, a win will put the Pokes in the Fiesta Bowl.

If the Sooners win, however, the Big 12 is theirs, and they will be the ones headed to the Fiesta Bowl. Make no mistake, they have just as much incentive to win this game as Oklahoma State.

But they won't. Though there's not a doubt in my mind that this game will turn into a shootout, I have much more faith in Oklahoma State's ability to win a game like that than I do Oklahoma's ability to do the same.

My reasoning for this has a lot to do with Oklahoma's struggles in recent weeks, which have taken place on both sides of the ball. Offensively, the Sooners haven't been quite as sharp in their last two games, and this is especially true of Landry Jones. He hasn't thrown a touchdown pass in either of Oklahoma's last two games, and has been picked off three times. Such struggles are unheard of for a quarterback of his quality.

A lot of this has to do with the absence of Ryan Broyles, who tore his ACL against Texas A&M in early November. He was Jones' top target, and Jones clearly misses him.

Defensively, the Sooners are more than vulnerable against the pass. We saw as much when Robert Griffin III carved them up on Nov. 19, and Texas Tech's Seth Doege did the same back in October. They're solid enough on defense, but their secondary has a tendency to lose track of receivers.

Against Brandon Weeden, Justin Blackmon and the high-powered Oklahoma State offense, it's a good bet that this trend will continue. The Pokes have arguably the best passing attack in the country, and they're going to use it to put plenty of points on the board.

True enough, the Pokes struggled last time out against Iowa State, scoring just 31 points and losing in double overtime. However, the Pokes have had an extra week to prepare for the Sooners, and they should look a little more lively playing in front of their home crowd in Stillwater.

As for Oklahoma State's own defense, there's no point in denying that it's not the most impenetrable unit in the country, and it did struggle mightily against the Sooners in 2010. I think it's slightly easier to have faith in the Pokes this year, though, as they have shown at least a little improvement defensively and they will be going up against an Oklahoma offense that is not at full strength.

The only way the Pokes are losing this game is if they come out and look as flat as they did against Iowa State. That's a possibility, but not a likely one. They know they have the goods to beat Oklahoma, and they know they may be playing in the title game if they do.

If not, well, the Fiesta Bowl will have to do.

Oklahoma State 41, Oklahoma 34