Bill Snyder proved a couple of things. In the division of the Big 12 Conference nobody appears to want to win, he's coaching a team that wants to win. And the program he took from dust to dominance is on the way back indeed.

Back in Manhattan, Kan., Wildcat fans are decrying the 21 points they believe their team spotted the Sooners.

But for that, they're thinking, Kansas State wins.

Yet for all of that, they have to like the trajectory of their program. Coming into the game, the Wildcats' leading the North Division was the shocker. On the way out, the shocker will be their not winning it.

That's one half of the story told Saturday night at Owen Field. The other half is Oklahoma, the eventual 42-30 victor, the team of the fast start, slow middle and sudden finish.

The team that did so much of what it's done wrong all season. The kinds of things that have contributed to a trio losses by the grand sum of five points. The kinds of things that have had the Sooner Nation pulling out its collective hair.

Like 91 yards in penalties.

Like the kind of inconsistency that allows for 21 points over the game's first 101?2 minutes, yet only seven more until the fourth minute of the fourth quarter.

But occasionally, things done wrong are precisely the point. Sometimes, it's not about the good stuff, but overcoming the bad.

"Answering back," OU coach Bob Stoops said. "They stole the momentum and the offense answered back."

It took a while.

Still, it was emphatic.

Just maybe, it included the greatest answer in the history of Sooner football, when 50 of OU's penalty yards broke out on the same drive, the big comeback coming when Stephen Good held on to what appeared to be a 35-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Broyles. So, after Broyles was called for a dead ball taunt, OU found itself first-and-45 from its own 37.

DeMarco Murray ran for 2 and caught for 18, leaving the rest to Broyles after catching the ball in the right flat, still about 20 yards from the first down marker. But he made three Wildcats miss and the Sooners had finally overcome themselves.

Perhaps not only in the moment, but period.