Fiesta Bowl 2012: 4 Reasons the Stanford Cardinal Will Beat Oklahoma State

The college football regular season may have come to an end, but now is when the good stuff begins. The college football bowl schedule was just released, and there are a ton of great matchups. There should be several great games with a bunch of intriguing storylines.

The 2012 Fiesta Bowl is one of those great matchups; if you like scoring, this will be the game for you. It will feature the Big 12 champion Oklahoma State Cowboys and the Stanford Cardinal, who earned an at-large bid. Both teams are fantastic offensively and should keep viewers and fans very happy with a bunch of points scored.

The game may take place nearly a month from now, but that leaves us plenty of time to preview the matchup from all angles.

Here are four reasons why the Stanford Cardinal will beat the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

Offensive Line Will Dominate

There's a reason why quarterback Andrew Luck has been so great and it has to do with a lot more than the talent he was born with. It's the fact that he is protected by one of the top offensive lines in the country.

Stanford has only given up nine sacks on the year, which is the best in the Pac-12 and tied for fourth in the country. There are several members on this line that will eventually be playing on Sundays for some lucky NFL teams.

Oklahoma State has a solid 28 sacks on the season, but they can forget about getting to Andrew Luck in this game.

This will give the Stanford quarterback plenty of time to carve that horrible secondary apart.

Andrew Luck

Speaking of Andrew Luck, he is going up against a defense that is ranked 107th out of 120 teams in yards allowed. He has to be licking his chops.

Sure, you argue that the OSU defense has forced 41 turnovers this season, but how long can they rely on turnovers to bail them out?

That would also mean that Andrew Luck will have to throw interceptions, and he's only thrown a total of 21 in 1,033 pass attempts. That's one pick every 49-and-a-half throws.

Good luck.

I'll take my chances with a Heisman candidate and eventual No.1 overall pick against a defense that gives up tons of yardage.

Front 7 Will Slow Down the Running Game

Oklahoma State does a solid job of running the football, as they average 170 rushing yards per game, which is 43rd best in the country. They have two running backs that have rushed for over 500 yards in Jeremy Smith and Joseph Randle.

The problem is, they're going up against a very good defensive front seven that only allows 90 rushing yards a game. That's the best in the Pac-12 and the fourth best in the country.

Stanford should do a solid job at stopping the run and forcing quarterback Brandon Weeden to make more plays with his arm. 

The Letdown Factor

Let's be honest. The Oklahoma State Cowboys wanted to play in the national championship and were very close—but that loss to Iowa State really messed everything up.

Stanford may have wanted to play in the championship game as well, but they didn't get their hopes up after losing to Oregon a few weeks earlier.

It's going to be very difficult for the Cowboys to wake up for this game because they feel they're in the wrong bowl game. Mike Gundy is going to have a very difficult time trying to get this team focused on this game and they may very well lack motivation.

We've seen it time and time again: A disappointed team comes out flat and ends up getting destroyed by the opposing team.