Now that’s more like it.Except for all the penalties. And maybe that nothing-happening second and third quarter.

Fine. It was Bedlam, Oklahoma beat the three-touchdown spread and closed with a flourish, but you’re still right.

The Sooners’ next complete game will be their first and only one more chance remains, be it in San Diego at the Holiday Bowl or San Antonio at the Alamo Bowl.

But now that I think about it, after what went down Saturday afternoon at Owen Field, it sounds picky.

Even while it took the Sooners to stop the Sooners most of the day, this was no hold-your-nose victory.

Rhett Bomar played well, Adrian Peterson, eventually, ran really well, the offensive line, eventually, blocked really well and the Sooner defense was pretty darn strong for the duration.

Indeed, even as OU failed to play its first complete game, it did not fail at all where the task was completely dominating one bad bunch of Cowboys.

And was it me or did Mike Gundy look a little like John Blake standing down there on the sideline, headphones in place but still looking terribly uncertain, like the events of the day were swirling around him, yet hardly being affected by him?

The Sooners picked up 17 first downs. The Pokes picked up seven. The Sooners finished with 560 yards of total offense. The Pokes, even with a single play that covered 56, finished with 139.

Yada, yada, yada.

So this is how the regular season ends?

Really, not bad at all.

I’m still happy for Mike Leach down in Lubbock, but it’s true, the officials took it away last Saturday. It wasn’t all them, it never is. But it was all them at the end..

So make it 7-4 with an asterisk for a team beaten by TCU, made to look bad by Tulsa, that couldn’t give the ball away fast enough at the Rose Bowl and that was just plain dominated at the Cotton Bowl.

It may be heresy in these parts, but call it another good season under Bob Stoops. Because there’s no other way to put it. Even with four losses. Even with all the penalties and letdowns and breakdowns and youthful mistakes.