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The OU Sooners did exactly what they had to do to give them a shot at another Big12 Championship; beat the OSU Cowboys. The final score was 27-21 and it was way too close for comfort for this Sooner fan. I was so nervous that I couldn’t watch the end of the game in fear that my beloved Sooners would find a way to lose it at the end.

The Sooners relied heavily on the run in this game and they were not disappointed, Alan Patrick returned to the lineup after missing a couple of games due to a foot injury. He had a great game including a 65 yard touchdown and had a total of 163 yards on 23 carries and freshman Chris Brown who played the two games that Patrick missed had 74 yards on 19 carries and two td’s.

Paul Thompson had an efficient game at QB (7/11 for 77 yards and 1 td.) and he guided the Sooners on long drives that ate up the clock.

With this win, their 10th of year the Sooners won the Big 12 South and will play Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship and an automatic BCS bowl game.

The annual clash between in state rivals Oklahoma Sooners and Oklahoma State Cowboys will take place in Stillwater, Oklahoma inside Boone Picken’s Stadium. This will be the 100th meeting between rival schools and the Sooners own a huge advantage in wins and losses  77-16-7, including a 34-6-5 in Stillwater.

This game has always been a battle and usually produced the most excitement for the two school every season. No matter what the records, the Sooners and Cowboys always have this game circled on the schedule. This year however, the Sooners find themselves with much more to play for than just bragging rights; a possible Big 12 South Championdhip. This became possible when the Aggies of Texas A&M shocked the Texas Longhorns yesterday, this gave the Longhorns their second straight conference loss and if the Sooners can beat the Cowboys they will be the Big 12 South Champs and play Nebraska for the Big 12 Championship. This will also give them an automatic bid to one of BCS Bowl games.

The Sooners will be going for their 7th straight win, including 6 without our superstar runningback Adrian Peterson, who has been sidelined with a broken collarbone and is expected to return for the Sooners bowl game. Fortunately for the Sooners they have been getting production from the backup running backs; Alan Patrick, Jacob Guiterrez and now true freshman Chris Brown. In Peterson’s absense the Sooners are averaging more yards per game on the ground and the Sooners appear to be well stocked with runningbacks in case Adrian Peterson decides to leave after this year for the NFL.

So with the added sense on urgency, the Oklahoma Sooners will go into todays game ready to play and win.

Prediction: The Sooners will run all over the Cowboy defense and Paul Thompson will have a good game throwing the ball and the Sooners will win 35-10.

Congrats to the #48 team and JImmie Johnson for winning the Nextel Cup Points Championship.

All of the eyes of the NASCAR world will be on Homestead-Miami Speedway this afternoon and running of the Ford 500. This is the finale of the 2006 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup season and the end of NASCAR as we knew it. I say that because next season we will see the emergence of the Car of Tomorrow from the drawing board to the race track ar Bristol and that will signal the end of Stock Racing in NASCAR.

Now back to the discussion about this the final weekend of racing for the 2006 season, who is going to win the race and then the ultimate orize; the Nextel Cup. With Jeff Gordon safely out the picture, I can actually embrace any of the final drivers that still have a shot at winning the championship. Not that I am a huge Jimmie Johnson fan by any means, but he will have at least earned the championship, if that is indeed what is in the cards.

I will be pulling for my driver (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) even though he is a long shot, but he has a shot none the less. I think Kenseth or Johnson will end up with the Nextel Cup when it is all said and done, but I think we NASCAR fans will be treated to a exciting race and it will go down to the wire to crown the champion, unless Jimmie Johnson encounters trouble and finds himself way back in the field and that will Dale Earnhardt Jr. chances of a title back into play.

Prediction: Kasey Kahne will win race and Matt Kenseth will win the championship and Jimmie Johnson will be a bridesmade again.

Kevin Harvick out lasts Jimmie Johnson on Sunday to keep his hopes alive for a Nextel Cup championship at Phoenix International Raceway. Unfortunately, with the second place finish Jommie Johnson will only have to finish 12th place or better at Homestead in the conclusion of the 2006 Nextel Cup season.

The win was Harvick’s 5th of the season and second win at Phoenix this year, but it still wont be enough to overcome the consistancy that Jimmie Johnson has demonstrated all year. To the chagrin of most fans and driver, the points awarded by NASCAR at every race has always benefitted the most consistant drivers and not always the ones that win the most races in a given season.

After all, if the Jimmie Johnson capture the Nextel Cup Championship without a win at Homestead this coming Sunday, he would be tied with three other drivers with 5 wins and one shy of the Kasey Kahne’s 6 wins this season and he would still win the Nextel Cup trophy. This is because he has finished in the Top 10 23 out of the 36 races in the season including 13 Top 5’s and 5 wins and only one DNF (did not finish the race).

Dale Earnhardt Jr. continues drive well, but he still loses ground again to the points leader Jimmie Johnson. With a ninth place finish at Phoenix Earnhardt loses two positions in the standings and also falls back 35 points (-115) behind points leader Jimmie Johnson heading to the finale at Homestead. It just goes to show you that it is not good enough to finish in the Top 10 when it comes to the Chase for the Nextel Cup format.

Despite a good run at Phoenix and finishing in the Top 5 (4th), Jeff Gordon has been officially eliminated for a shot at the Nextel Cup and his 5th overall Points Championship. He fell behind the points leader by 165 points which is beyond the total number of points any driver can gain after a single race. It has to be obvious to all Gordon fans by now which Hendrick driver is getting all of the best equipment at Hendrick Motor Sports; Jimmie Johnson. After all until Jimmie came along Jeff Gordon was king rooster at HMS and now that Johnson has been having all the success and Jeff Gordon has been uncharacteristically down .

A saving grace for Jeff Gordon this season if Jimmie Johnson goes on to win the Nextel Cup at Homestead he will be a championship car owner (in name only), because he is the registered owner of the #48 car.  

In another development, Tony Stewart locked up the 11th position in the points standing and he will receive the bonus from NASCAR for finishing just outside of the Chase for the Nextel Cup. The bonus will bring his end of season check to a cool million dollar. He leads 12th place Carl Edwards by 323 points and he cannot finished futher back than 11th.

The Detroit Tigers picked up another big bat for their lineup in 2007, Gary Sheffield was obviously not very happy in New York and he was traded to the Tigers for three minor league pitcher’s. According to manager Jim Leyland he will be the DH primarily, but he will be put in the outfield occasionally.

It seems that Sheffield will be a good fit with the Tigers and he has a connection to the Tiger manager and the GM Dave Dombrowski; 10 years ago Sheffield played for Leyland when he was the manager of the Florida Marlins and Dombrowski was the GM.

The negative of the deal has to be the fact that we lost three young arms from our farm system, unfortunately that is all too common among GM’s throughout the major leagues. These same people turn around and complain that the pitching isn’t very good. One very good reason for that is that the young pitchers are constantly moving around and it is tough situation for them get better.

 

Tony Stewart proved to be the class of the field and cruised to his 5th win of the season (3rd of the Chase and second in a row). He outlasted Jimmie Johnson to take the checkers at Texas Motor Speedway and solidify his hold on the 11th place position in the points standing.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was needing a great finish to help gain some ground on the leader and he had to over come a couple of obstacles if he was going to have that great finish. The first obstacle was the flu, he spent most of his non driving time at the track in the Infield Care Center getting fluids and the second one was the wall. His pit crew earned their keep after the late pancaking the wall that required 7 trips to pit road to repair. With not many laps to go Dale Jr. climbed from 32th position to finish 6th and with that 6th place finished he moved up one spot in the standing and gained 6 points in his drive for the Cup.

The post race festivities were marred by an unnecessary attack on Kevin Harvick and his wife Delana by a crew member of the #10 Valvoline car. The two were walking back to the garage area and a unidentified crew member of the #10 car pushed Harvick and they both were knocked to ground, causing Delana to twist her ankle. The crew member was angry because he was too stupid to watch the replay that shows the Kevin Harvick didn’t make contact with Riggs (#10) car until he had already lost control of the car. Many angles showed that Harvicks car got close behind Riggs causing the wind off the spoiler of the #1o car causing him to get loose and start to come around and that is when Harvick made contact with Riggs.

NASCAR called all parties involved to the hauler to investigate the circumstances surrounding the attack on Harvick and penalties should be handed out tomorrow.