Bedlam 2019: Here are 10 Storylines for the Biggest Game of OSU’s Season

There will be #content. There will be loads and loads of content this week as you travel to wherever you’re traveling and spend time with friends and family over Thanksgiving. We will talk about Mike Gundy. We will talk about Lincoln Riley. We will talk about Jalen Hurts and Dru Brown. Alex Grinch and Jim Knowles. We will look at this game and this week from every single angle you can look at it from (and then we’ll invent some new ones and look at it some more).

If you can’t tell, we’re pretty fired up about Bedlam week over here at PFB, and we need to get it all kick-started with the 10 biggest storylines of this end-of-year tilt (maybe the last end-of-year tilt for a while). OSU heads into Saturday’s game as a 14-point dog (a familiar place for them) as OU tries to keep its slim CFP hopes alive by winning out and taking a fifth-consecutive (!) Big 12 crown.

Here are our storylines going into the week.

1. Gundy + Bedlam ?

Has it been good? No. Does it seem like it’s getting better? Also no. Is there at least hope for the future for a coach who is 2-12 in his career against an in-state powerhouse? [Checks length and terms of Lincoln Riley’s contract] Afraid this is no as well.

Gundy has been awesome in the second half of the season. After a year and a half of wandering in the desert a bit, OSU has seemingly righted the ship. And if he gets the blame when things are sliding south, then he should also get the credit when OSU is improbably zipping toward 10 wins for the seventh time in 10 years.

But Gundy’s OU issues are undeniable (ties were kept in these calculations, and no animals were harmed in the creation of this blog post).

OSU’s all-time winning percentage: 52 percent
OSU’s all-time Bedlam winning percentage: 19 percent

Gundy’s all-time winning percentage: 68 percent
Gundy’s all-time Bedlam winning percentage: 14 percent

Gundy has been far better overall than OSU in its history, but he’s been slightly worse against OU. The Sooners have actually been (quite a bit) better during the Gundy era than they’ve been overall in their storied history, which at least explains the disparity. But it’s still tough to look at what he’s done in Stillwater and what he hasn’t done against the team against which it matters most.

2. Heisman Standoff

We will likely be seeing two of the final five or so Heisman finalists on Saturday in BPS. Unless OU loses its last two games, Jalen Hurts will be in NYC with Joe Burrow and Justin Fields. And with a magnificent performance on national TV on Saturday, Chuba Hubbard could join them all. OU pumps out transfer Heisman finalists like I pump out blog posts, and Hurts has been spectacular. He essentially single-handedly won OU the Baylor game a few weeks ago and has a real chance to join the 3500-1500 club, which is currently a member of one (Lamar Jackson) this century.

Chuba has the entire city on his back. He put up 68 percent of OSU’s offensive production against West Virginia, and as star (Tylan) after star (Sanders) has gone down around him, it’s simply meant that he’s had to shoulder more of OSU’s load. Thus far, he’s been up to the task. Another world-class performance (that includes 168 yards to get him to 2,000) and he should be in New York regardless of the outcome of this game.

3. OSU Defense vs. OU Offense

Statistically-speaking, this is probably Oklahoma State’s best defense since maybe the best defense in school history back in 2013. It has a points-per-drive number under 2.0 — which hasn’t happened since it allowed just 1.29 per drive in 2013 — and OSU is willingly putting games in the collective hands of its defensive unit.

That’s probably music to OU’s ears because — at least going into the TCU game on Saturday — OU’s points-per-drive numbers on offense were ahead of Baker Mayfield’s pace in his Heisman season and pretty close to those of Kyler Murray last year.

Hurts is obviously problematic (watch the second half against Baylor), and I’m not sure OSU’s defense can get enough stops to give its offense a real chance. The other factor here will be pace of play. OSU will try to turn this into a Big Ten game. Like, a Rutgers-Iowa game, not an Ohio State-Michigan State game. The fewer possessions the better as the Pokes try and control the pace and limit how many times Hurts touches the rock.

4. Turnovers Story

OSU and OU both have 14 turnovers in Big 12 play. That’s normal. It’s an average number. It’s fine. What’s intriguing, though, is that OSU has turned other teams over 15 times in conference games (third overall), while OU has turned teams over just four times. OU just doesn’t gain possessions against other Big 12 teams. OSU didn’t until about four weeks ago, and all of a sudden they have 10 in the last four games. That will be one of the primary ways it can upend OU.

5. Chu (and Dru)

I’m hopping around the shed thinking about the sorcery Chuba has saved up for Saturday evening. Quite possibly his last college game with an OU defense that started hot but has given up five yards a carry in each of the last three games to Baylor, Iowa State and TCU. He’ll eat, but will OU sell out and tell his backfield mate to beat them?

#OKstste is 32nd in defensive efficiency. They are going to give Jalen Hurts problems.#Sooners 45th in defensive efficiency. Alex Grinch has done an incredible job in year 1. OU’s defense has improved as much as LSU’s offense, yet no one nationally discusses it.

Bedlam awaits.

— Carson Cunningham (@KOCOCarson) November 24, 2019

And if they do, can he? OSU’s history of Bedlam backups slaying the dragon is actually pretty impressive (and unexpected), but Dru Brown is no Josh Fields or Mason Rudolph. He’s good … but is he good enough? That’s a big one for me as he tries to cement himself as a folk hero in Stillwater where often the only thing we remember is what you did in that last game of the year (RIP Tyreek’s legacy).

6. Sooner … Magic?

I’ve been way into the last three OU games for OSU-to-the-Big-12-title purposes, and they have not been impressive. Twice I’ve turned their games off (Iowa State and TCU) only to check the score before bed and have my eyes bulge out of my head at how they ended. The Baylor game was obviously the opposite, but it has felt for several weeks like they’ve been begging to give one up late, and there would be no better time than Saturday night.

Nothing is going to be funnier than when OU fans celebrate Oregon losing for their CFP chances … only to lose by two touchdowns in Bedlam next week

— Kyle Boone (@PFBoone) November 24, 2019

7. ??

He’s a problem. After sitting the Baylor game, he put up his 14th TD against TCU on Saturday. He has four Big 12 games of 130+ receiving yards, and honestly, he might scare me more on punt returns than anything else. It will be interesting to see how Knowles loads up against Hurts and whether he tries to let A.J. Green or Rodarius Williams go heads-up with maybe the best receiver* in the Big 12. The bummer here is that we don’t get to see two of the best of the last decade go at it with their QB1 counterparts.

*The best receiver in the Big 12 is out with an ACL injury.

8. CFP Hopes

Oregon and Penn State went down on Saturday, which means OU will be sniffing around the top four come next Saturday. (This probably goes without saying but) Gundy has never beaten OU when OU has had real title hopes hanging in the balance. OSU can’t keep OU from a Big 12 crown, but they can put a dagger into OU’s final four aspirations just as the drama begins to truly unfold.

9. Gundy’s Intestinal Fortitude

Listen, I know the last decade and a half has not been the greatest. But OSU has played two straight classics against OU. After years of Gundy taking up residence inside a shell the size of OSU’s practice facility, he finally unfurled the mullet and started dealing against Lincoln Riley in 2017.

Maybe Bob Stoops was paying rent inside his dome or maybe he finally got sick of us bloggers hollering about how he was more conservative than the NRA’s Facebook page. I don’t know. But I do know that I now go into Bedlam expecting him to coach like he’s a camo-wearing underdog with nothing to lose and a home crowd frothing at the mouth for a victory instead of whatever is the exact opposite of that.

10. Big-Time Games

Boone Pickens Stadium has become one of the premier spots nationally (nationally!) for big-time, in-the-spotlight games late in the season. Fireworks on and off the field and 60,000 people thumping their seats and the walls of the arena. It’s a show.

You’re not getting that at West Virginia or Texas Tech or Iowa State like you are at Oklahoma State. When I think primetime November football with teams that are collectively 18-4, it’s easy to envision BPS lit up with Chuba flexing on Parnell Motley and Trace Ford going blow for blow with No. 1.

If last Bedlam in Stillwater was any indication (probably the best college football atmosphere I’ve ever seen), then Saturday night should be a great one. And while OSU can’t win a conference title, it can still get to 10 wins and do what it has done just one time since 2003, beat OU in Stillwater. Even better: They have everything to lose.