"Are you kidding me?!"-Jim Mora, wouldn't even be able to describe NFL Championship Sunday 2011-12.

Yesterday’s Championship Sunday in the NFL may go down as one of the most memorable Championship Sunday’s off all time. From the way it began all the way to how it ended.

Starting the day off the world was awoken to the news that Joe Paterno died of cancer. After being reported falsely by CBSSports.com late Saturday night that he died family members came out saying that the reports weren’t true and that Paterno was still fighting. However, come Sunday January 22^nd Joseph Vincent Paterno had passed away.

Moving on from Paterno’s death the Baltimore Ravens would take the field at Foxboro, Massachusetts to take on the New England Patriots. It was a back and fourth game from the start but the scoring would be put on hold after the Patriots took the lead off of a Tom Brady touchdown early in the fourth quarter giving the Patriots the lead 23-20.

However despite not being able to score sooner, the Ravens with 29 seconds remaining had a chance to win the game; until it happened. It was a 2^nd and 1, ball on the 14 yard line when Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco stepped back, fake, then threw into double coverage to wide receiver Lee Evans, touchdown! The announcer exclaimed. However Patriots safety, Sterling Moore would knock the ball lose forcing Evans to drop the ball, ending in an incomplete pass and no touchdown.

Though it wasn’t over yet as it was 3^rd down with 22 seconds left and the Ravens still had one more timeout. Flacco would try to complete a pass to tight end Dennis Pitta however it would end up incomplete as well. Though, it still wasn’t over as the Ravens were in field goal range and they were down by two.

It was a 32 yard field goal, an easy one, a gimmie, right? All Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff had to do was just step back and kick it as he was faced with a kickers dream. Instead it happened again. Cundiff’s kick was up and wide left. The home crowd was lifted by a sea of cheers as the New England Patriots were going to the Super Bowl.

Next up was a showdown between the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers. It was another back and fourth game that the 49ers were leading heading into the fourth quarter when they made another stop on defense forcing the Giants to punt. It appeared that with the 49ers getting the ball back again, that the Giants Super Bowl hopes were dwindling as with 11:17 left on the clock and trailing by four things just didn’t look good. But then, it happened again.

It was a punt that was almost blocked by the 49ers that ended up traveling close to 50 yards until being waved off as a fair catch by returned Kyle Williams. However, Giants wide receiver Mario Mannigham who came running down the field picked the ball up and continued running until he reached the end zone where he signaled that the ball hit Williams’ knee. After looking at a replay, it did appear that the ball did hit Willimams’ knee which meant Giants ball at the 20 yard line.

Then seven plays later after the Williams turnover, touchdown Giants, 17-14 Giants lead. However unlike Evans and Cundiff, Williams was luckily bailed out by the 49ers great defensive play and kicker David Akers as he would kick the game tying field goal to send the game to overtime.

Then in overtime after stopping the Giants offense yet again, the 49ers would force them to punt. However it happened again. Instead of calling a fair catch like he did last time, Williams, caught the ball and began running until falling to his feet. But that wasn’t it as when he was falling, he lost the ball and after reviewing the play, it was a fumble, Giants ball.

Despite being in field goal range the Giants ran the ball a couple times to assure the win as they too heard about the Cundiff miss and didn’t want it to happen to them. However, it would happen again. Though not another crazy screw up or a miss, but Patriots, Giants, Super Bowl rematch…the improbable prediction, would happen again.

Bill Belichick a magnificent coach with a ton of tricks up his sleeve.

On Saturday the New England Patriots put an end to the “Tebow Mania” and put an end to the Denver Broncos as they defeated Denver, 45-10. As for the other AFC Divisional match-up, the Baltimore Ravens would defeat the Houston Texans 20-13 in a game that the Ravens almost let slip away.

So now come this Sunday, the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens will take the field to play for the AFC Championship and a spot at the Super Bowl. However, the New England Patriots have already begun playing, as they’re playing the famous mind game. The Patriots are known for doing this as you see it always from Belichick and Brady, however this time they’re going all out.

Brady started out by praising the Ravens defensive players by saying, “There’s no one that’s going to overlook a team like that. It would be impossible to do,” Brady said in his weekly interview on Boston sports radio station WEEI. “They present a ton of challenges in all three phases of the game. You watch them yesterday, they’re physical, they’re tough, they can cover. They’ve got some of the best players in the history of the NFL at their position, in (Terrell) Suggs and Ray Lewis and Ed Reed and Haloti Ngata. You’ve got phenomenal players there.”

Brady would go onto add

“We’ve really got our work cut out for us. We’ll be excited about the challenge. We’ll use the week to prepare like we always do, and really try to be at our best — hopefully be better than we were this past Saturday night, said Brady.”

Some of the best players at their position in history? Okay now don’t get me wrong, Terrell Suggs, Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, and Haloti Ngata are all great players and great players at their posistions, but the best players in history at their positions? Come on Brady that’s a stretch. With all do respect Ngata is not in the discussion, as for Suggs he’s not even a top five linebacker in the NFL right now, let alone history? Come on he’s good but not the best ever in his position. As for Lewis and Reed they’ve good arguments but they’re not the clear cut favorite.

Brady would continue to praise the Ravens defense as he would single out Safety Ed Reed and Ray Lewis who have combined picked off Brady two times, recorded 67 tackles, and two sacks against the Patriots through out their careers.

“I love Ed Reed. If I could be a defensive player, I’d be Ed Reed — or Ray Lewis — between those two guys,” Brady told WEEI. “We’ve got guys that are getting banged up, too. I’m sure Ed will be there. This game means everything to our season. If he has any chance of playing, which I’m sure he’s got a chance of playing, he’s going to be there. And he’ll be playing good. I can promise you that.”

Brady who’s probably fearing this Ravens defense is trying to get in the heads of the Ravens defense and he’s doing it the smart way, by coming at the leaders of the defense (Lewis, Reed, Suggs, and Ngata). However it won’t work as chances are their not even paying attention to what Brady is saying anyways and if they’re, they’re probably just taking it all in with a smile.

Now it wouldn’t be a true mind game, if head coach Bill Belichick didn’t join in as he said, “They’ve won a lot of games, and I think that’s the big thing. A quarterback has to do what his team needs him to do to win, and Joe has done that. I don’t know how to improve much on 11-5 and 12-4, and they just keep doing it. He’s been a solid guy since his rookie year in terms of managing the game and using the clock and making good decisions and those types of things. He’s been able to throw the ball obviously to his backs, to his tight ends and down the field to whether it’s [Torrey] Smith or [Lee] Evans or [Anquan] Boldin or whoever it happens to be. I think he can make all the throws that you need a quarterback to make. He can run the team and manage it well. He can make checks and decisions that the offense needs to have a good flow and take advantage of defensive alignment. I think he’s certainly over four years improved in all those areas incrementally, but he did them at a pretty high level to begin with and he continues to do that.”

Now Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco has been consistently criticized and marked as the weak point of the Ravens franchise as he’s always making the mistakes. However Belichick marked him as the guy and the player that they need to watch and that’s just what he does he changes the mindset and flips the wrong with right.

Belichick would go onto say that the Ravens are the best defensive team that they faced all year. However the Ravens really aren’t the best defensive team as the Pittsburgh Steelers were the best team that they faced, which was week 8 during the NFL season. The Steelers won that game 25-17.

“It’s got to be a one-day-at-a-time thing,” Patriots special teams captain Matthew Slater said. “You don’t win a game on Sunday, you win it throughout the course of the week. Giving ourselves a chance to have success, it starts today.”

“You win it throughout the course of the week.” A tactic that Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots have used for years and they call it the mind game.

Hue Jackson is out in Oakland.

Over the past couple years the Oakland Raiders have been just terrible or as NBA analyst Charles Barkley would say “turrible.” However this 2011-12 NFL season, the Raiders looked like they had a chance to be good. Starting the season off with a 23-20 win over the Denever Broncos the Raiders at 1-0 looked like maybe 2011 was their year.

However after losing quarterback Jason Campbell for the remainder of the season due to a broken collarbone the Raiders would go out and acquire Carson Palmer from the Cincinnati Bengals in exchange for two draft picks (A first round pick and a possible first round pick if the Raiders make it to the AFC Title game in 2011-12 or 2012-13).

Of course before the Palmer acquisition the Raiders would suffer a huge loss as owner Al Davis would die at 82 years old on October 8^th, 2011. However after the loss of Davis the Raiders would respond winning their next two games improving to 4-2.

Though despite such a great start, the Raiders would have a great downfall as after their week 8 bye week they would lose five out of their last nine games. And if they were to win just one of them, then they would’ve made the playoffs which would’ve changed a lot of things, starting with the Pittsburgh Steelers loss and the Denver Broncos win.

Say the Raiders won just one more game during that last stretch, then we wouldn’t have saw the Broncos defeat the Steelers, we wouldn’t have saw that overtime 80 yard touchdown from Tim Tebow to beat the Steelers 29-23. Which might have meant that not as many people would’ve went to church that following day and which would’ve meant that Tebow wouldn’t have had the tweets per second record of 9,420 tweets.

As a result to that, if the Raiders won just one game during that stretch maybe the Steelers would still be in the playoffs as who knows if the Raiders would’ve won that game? However who cares about all the ifs ands or buts as what happened, happened and as a result to an 8-8 season head coach Hue Jackson was fired.

On Reggie McKenzie’s first day as Raiders general manager, he decided to fire Hue Jackson and make a fresh start. “There comes a time when change is necessary,” McKenzie said Tuesday. “For the Raiders the time is now. The Raiders organization, with respect and deference for all its tradition and history, is about to embark on a new era.”

A new era, that may had never started if the Raiders won just one more game, an era that may had come at a different time or an era that may had been written a different way such as a surprising Super Bowl win from the Oakland Raiders in this 2011-12 NFL season if they just got that one more win.

Arian Foster runs for a touchdown.

In the first round of the NFL Playoffs the Cincinnati Bengals and the Houston Texans faced off in Houston where the winner of the game would face the Baltimore Ravens. Striking first the Cincinnati Bengals would take the lead off of a one yard touchdown run from Cedric Benson.

It was a drive that was lead by rookie quarterback Andy Dalton who was trying to one up the other rookie on the opposing sideline; T.J. Yates. However Yates would respond striking back on the next drive which he would set up running back Arian Foster for an eight yard touchdown.

Both teams would go onto score field goals in the second quarter, however with less than a minute to go in the first half Dalton would throw a pick to J.J. Watt who would take it all the way to the end zone for a score. It was a costly turnover right at the end of the half that was the turning point of the game that may have cost them the game.

Coming out in the second half it would be all Houston as there was no problem as the Texans would score twice knocking the Bengals out of the playoffs, 31-10 your final.

In game two of the day was the NFC Wild Card matchup between the Detroit Lions and the New Orleans Saints. It was a game that was set for a shoot out as both teams had high powered offenses lead by high powered quarterbacks who both (Drew Brees and Mathew Stafford) threw for 5,000 plus yards on the season (Stafford 5,038 and Brees 5,476).

The Lions who received the ball first, would score on the opening drive off of a 10 yard Will Heller touchdown reception from Stafford. However as we saw in the first game, scoring first in the game didn’t necessarily mean that the game was going to result in a win.

Stopping the Saints on their next to drives, the Lions would lead 7-0 at the end of the first quarter. Opening up the second quarter the Saints would score off of a two yard Darren Sproles touchdown tying the game at 7-7. Though, the Lions wouldn’t settle as they would respond with a 13 yard touchdown reception from Calvin Johnson thrown by Stafford, 14-7 Lions lead.

Holding the Saints scoreless on their next drive and to a field goal on their last drive the Lions would head into the locker room up, 14-10. That first half deficit was the second first half deficit at the Super Dome this season for the Saints as the only other time that it happened was against the Houston Texans 16-10. Luckily for the Saints, they would go onto win that game 40-33.

Starting the second half off the Saints would go 78 yards on just four plays to score on a 41 yard touchdown reception to Devery Henderson thrown by Brees, 17-14 Saints. Though the Lions wouldn’t respond as the Saints stopped them and continued the beating in the making as they would score again off of a three yard Jimmy Graham touchdown thrown by Brees giving them a 24-14 lead.

The Lions would respond with a score cutting it to three however once the fourth quarter would start, the Lions would just collapse as the Saints would go onto win 45-28.

The Houston Texans will face the Baltimore Ravens next week and the New Orleans Saints will face the San Francisco 49ers.

Picture of the dealership that plans to give out free cars in the luck of Packer shut out.

Attending sports games usually always have an extra benefit or some benefits of attending that given game. For example, free tacos at a Syracuse University game if Syracuse scores a certain amount of points. As for other teams it may be different or they may not have it all, however for Chicago Bears fans, or people in the Chicago area get a better benefit that involves them not even having to show up for the game.

Sawicki Motors in Rochelle near Interstates 88 and 39 in Chicago is offering free cars to anyone if the Chicago Bears shut out the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night. However there’s a catch; the buyer needs to buy the car first before the game and if the Bears shut them out then the buyer will be rewarded with a free car as the dealership will reimburse them.

The dealership says that they’ll give up to $1 million in free cars if the Bears host a shut out.

And just incase your wondering the last time the Bears shut the Packers out was in 2006 and another fun fact; the Packers have never been shut out when they’ve had Aaron Rodgers as their quarterback.

So with those two things being said, the odds look very slim as chances are the buyer who buys the car is most likely going to pay for it, unless something crazy happens, like the Packers benching their starters. Which is just it, the Packers may bench Aaron Rodgers as there has been some rumors stirring around the media over the past couple days.

Now if that would be the case, back up quarterback Matt Flynn would get his first start since December 12^th last year. The Packers lost that game 27-31 and Flynn completed 24 of his 37 passes for 251 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception.

So if Matt Flynn did magically get the start in the act of the Packers benching Rodgers, then this shut out deal for a free car would have to be considered. However the only bad news for Bears car buyers is that Matt Flynn has never been shut out either.

So Bears fans, Chicago community members, and to whom ever it may concern, pick a car any car, maybe you’ll get it for free in the luck of a Bears shut out, or else you’ll be paying the full price. But you never know it would be Christmas day so who knows what could happen, maybe there really is a Santa Claus?

Sitting down with Jim Boeheim.

Mike Ortiz: What are your thoughts for this upcoming season?

Jim Boeheim: Well I think the biggest thing is that we have so many veteran guys and good young guys so we have to try to fit these guys together. You know get them to understand what their roles are going to be and the fact that we have so many good players we’re going to have to figure out how to utilize everybody.

Ortiz: What’s your take on the move to the ACC?

Boeheim: Well you know we’re in the Big East, that’s all we’re thinking about. The ACC can’t wait until after the season and then we can talk about it.

Ortiz: What do you think of the incoming freshman?

Boeheim: I think we have three talented young kids and we have to think about how they’ll fit in.

Ortiz: How do you replace center Rick Jackson?

Boeheim: You know Ricky was so good defensively and rebounding wise that are big guys are going to have to step up…they’re really going to have to step up and take care of the middle area defensively and rebounding wise. Especially, when they get their opportunities to score, their going to have to convert. Ricky was a huge player, huge plus for us last year, had a tremendous year, and are big guys are going to have to step up this year.

Ortiz: What do you think you’re going to have to do to win a National Championship?

Boeheim: Well I think to win anything…you have to be a complete team, are defensive has got to be good, we have to continue to work on our defensive, get better defensively, offensively I think we have the ability to be a very very good offensive basketball team and you have to work on those things. We know we’re going to be a good team, whether we’re going to be a great team, you never know that until you get well into the season.

Ortiz: Now you have achieved a lot of milestones throughout your career, so when you think of 1,000 wins, do you think it’s possible?

Boeheim: You know I haven’t thought about numbers in a long time. I think about this year and having a successful season this year and I don’t think beyond that and I don’t think past, I just think about this season.

Brandon Roy is one of the many rumored players to be used by the amnesty clause this season.

As you all know the NBA lockout is over and there will be a season this year. However there’s going to be some changes. One of them that stands out the most is the amnesty clause. The amnesty clause is used for teams that wish to waive a player and remove them from their team and pretty much pretend like he was never there.

Here’s a closer breakdown of the amnesty clause:

• Each team permitted to waive 1 player prior to any season of the CBA (only for contracts in place at the inception of the CBA) and have 100% of the player’s salary removed from team salary for Cap and Tax purposes.
• Salary of amnestied players included for purposes of calculating players’ agreed-upon share of BRI.
• A modified waiver process will be utilized for players waived pursuant to the Amnesty rule, under which teams with Room under the Cap can submit competing offers to assume some but not all of the player’s remaining contract. If a player’s contract is claimed in this manner, the remaining portion of the player’s salary will continue to be paid by the team that waived him.

Now teams don’t have to use their amnesty privilege this season as they can wait and use it at any point during this collective bargaining agreement so it does come with a little bit of strategy.

So for example, guard Brandon Roy of the Portland Trail Blazers has been one of the many players rumored to be used by this amnesty clause agreement, so let’s go through what would happen if he did. Once being waived from the Trail Blazers Roy could then be picked up by any other team as long as that team is under the salary cap. So it’s not just a free ticket out and that player get’s to decide where he wants to go. Now after clearing the waivers the team that selects Roy would get the rights to him, but the Trail Blazers would remain paying his contract.

Now even though the Trail Blazers would be paying his contract it wouldn’t show up under their teams salary cap. So overall the amnesty clause like many things in life has its ups and downs. Personally it would’ve been cool if teams could trade amnesty clauses too instead of just draft picks and players.

Turkey and football a wonderful combination.

Green Bay Packers (10-0) at Detroit Lions (7-3) 12:30: The undefeated Green Bay Packers travel into Detroit’s Ford Field to take on the Lions. It’s going to be a loud atmosphere for the Packers as for once the Lions are actually good and for once the Lions are good on Thanksgiving.

Coming into this Thursday’s game the Detroit Lions have lost seven consecutive holiday games and they have lost them by an average of 22.9 points. As for their overall record on the holiday of Thanksgiving games, is 4-27.

Now despite always losing on Thanksgiving Day the Lions aren’t worried as the past is the past, “From what it’s been in the past to now, it’s different,” said Detroit defensive lineman Corey Williams to ESPN. “For us to be doing as good as we’re doing right now, it’s real exciting. Then we’ve got Green Bay coming in — the big, 10-0 Green Bay. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be like a mini-Super Bowl, I think, atmosphere-wise.”

So with that being said now it’s time to pick a winner; Detroit. The reason why I believe the Lions are going to win is because of the crowd; it plays a big factor in games and this Ford Field crowd especially on prime time games gets really loud. So loud that it does effect play. Remember the Monday Night game against the Chicago Bears in week five? The Bears had nine false start penalties and lost 35-13. Though fast forward too week 10, the Bears played the Lions again except at home and they beat Detroit 24-13.

So that just goes to show you that crowds can play a role and that the crowd of Ford Field plays an even bigger one. Also when you add in that the Packers defense not playing well plays a factor too with this Lions team who averages 30.1 points per game.

Prediction: Detroit wins.

Miami Dolphins (3-7) at Dallas Cowboys (6-4) 4:15: Do I even have to say it? Like come on seriously, you’re really asking who’s going to win between the Miami Dolphins and the Dallas Cowboys? I mean just three weeks ago this team was DE-feated and in the Andrew Luck sweepstakes. But because they beat the Kansas City Chiefs (4-6), the Washington Redskins (3-7) who the Cowboys already beat twice this season, and the Buffalo Bills (5-5) that there all of sudden good is just plain out ridiculous.

The Dolphins are 1-4 on the road and as for the Cowboys their 4-1 at home so that right there pretty much sums it up. However if that’s not good enough for you then we’ll continue; Matt Moore he’s your starting quarterback. Jason Taylor; he’s still on your team? Shouldn’t he be vacationing with Brett Favre or something?

Now yes Reggie Bush has been doing a lot better since he started seeing Kim Kardashian again, but that doesn’t mean that his team is going to be good too. Kim only helps him, not the team…at least as we know it’s only Reggie.

I have two words for the Miami Dolphins…game over.

Prediction: Dallas wins.

San Francisco 49ers (9-1) at Baltimore Ravens (7-3) 8:20: Its brother versus brother, and mother and father versus 49ers apparel or Ravens apparel. But all jokes aside it really is and for the first time in NFL history there will be a game where two brothers as head coaches will face each other. That right there makes this game alone a great one to watch but because the 49ers at 9-1 are having such a great season for the first time in years, makes it a great one as well.

With Ray Lewis’s status still up in the air for Thursday’s game really plays a factor in determining who will win because he’s the general of that unstoppable Ravens defense. Now saying Lewis does play, that give the Ravens a great edge. Now saying Lewis doesn’t play could mean a lot of trouble for the Baltimore Ravens.

It could mean trouble in the fact that Frank Gore is the 49ers main ingredient to success on the 49ers offense and without Lewis; the Ravens did awful against the run. Last week without Lewis, the Ravens allowed Cincinnati running back Cedric Benson to score two touchdowns.  Which means that Gore would most likely do the same if not better as let’s face it Gore is a lot better than Benson.

Though don’t underrate this 49ers team as Gore isn’t the only good thing on their team as they wouldn’t be in this position if he was the only option. Their defense has been the other ingredient for them this season as well. Allowing not one opposing running back to score a touchdown is a great stat and very hard stat to have and with Ray Rice being such a key factor for the Ravens, this too could also play a role in determining a winner.

So with that being said if Ray Lewis can’t go and if Ray Rice is held scoreless and shutdown then expect the 49ers to win this football game. However if Lewis plays which he’s listed as a game time decision then the Ravens have a big edge in this game as stopping Gore will be a lot easier. This will make the 49ers have to pass the ball putting the pressure on quarterback Alex Smith which is something the 49ers don’t want to do as last time that happened was in Dallas which as you all know resulted in a loss.

Prediction: 49ers win.

Go Chargers go.

The San Diego Chargers, a team with a loaded offense with quarterback Phillip Rivers, running backs Ryan Mathews and Mike Tolbert, wide receivers Vincent Jackson and Malcom Floyd, and last but not least tight end Antonio Gates. Don’t forget a mediocre defense to go with that. However the San Diego Chargers usually Super Bowl favorites every year to win it are 4-6 and tied for last in the AFC West.

Though who would’ve thought that in week 11 of this NFL season that the Chargers would be in this situation; 4-6 and tied for dead last in the AFC West? No one would, especially after starting off 4-1 with that only loss coming to them by the New England Patriots. However after having that tremendous 4-1 start they headed into the bye week and came back out a different team as they have now lost five straight.

Losing to the New York Jets 27-21, the Kansas City Chiefs 23-20 in overtime in a game that should’ve been won but because of a fumbled snap between Rivers and center Nick Hardwick, the Chargers lost. Then losing to the Green Bay Packers in a game that appeared to be over but a late comeback by the Chargers wasn’t enough to pull off the upset (45-38, Green Bay). Then in week 10 they would lose to the Oakland Raiders 24-17 and then this week in a game that they really needed a win, they would lose to the Chicago Bears 31-20.

So at 4-6 and tied for last in the AFC West the San Diego Chargers in pretty much a must win situation face divisional opponent and second place Denver who has been 4-1 since switching to quarterback Tim Tebow.

Which brings up the question; what’s wrong with this San Diego Chargers team? For starters; injuries, Gates missed three games, Mathews one game (resulted in a loss), Tolbert one game (resulted in a loss), and Malcom Floyd three games (all resulted in losses). Next up; turnovers, Rivers has thrown a career high 17 interceptions and has tied a career high six fumbles. Though he’s not the only one as Mathews tied his career high in fumbles as well. Lastly is the loss of running back Darren Sproles. Sproles rushed for 267 yards off of 50 carries last year but that wasn’t all as he played a key factor in the passing game as he caught 59 passes for 520 yards and two touchdowns. Another key note was that Sproles only fumbled the ball once.

So if the Chargers expect to turn this season around they’ll need to get control of those three things. Now obviously injuries aren’t really avoidable but preventing turnovers and finding another Sproles can be done. For instance running back Jacob Hester could be that “Sproles” type guy IF he can catch the ball.

The Chargers have six games left in the 2011 regular season against the Denver Broncos (5-5), the Jacksonville Jaguars (3-7), the Buffalo Bills (5-5), the Baltimore Ravens (7-3), the Detroit Lions (7-3), and the Oakland Raiders (6-4). They’re two games back out of first place and in a situation where they could most likely win at least four out of their last six games; their chances of making the playoffs looks slightly good.

The Iowa State Cyclones will celebrate this win for a while.

When Alabama lost to LSU 9-6 in overtime on November 5^th, the Oklahoma State Cowboys’ National Championship hopes came alive. Due to the Alabama loss, the Crimson Tide would drop to the number third team in the country and since the Cowboys beat the Kansas State Wildcats 52-45, they would move to number two in the country.

It was a spot many people would’ve never have thought that the Cowboys could make it too and if they were to win out, they could shock the world even more as come January they would be playing in the BCS National Championship game.

In their first game as the number two team in the country the Cowboys would travel to Lubbock, Texas where they would face the unranked Texas Tech Red Raiders. The Cowboys would score early on a two yard Justin Blackmon touchdown pass from Brandon Weeden and they wouldn’t look back. The Cowboys would go onto score 59 more points and defeat the Red Raiders 66 to 6.

“There is pressure. Each week I know you can feel it” said Gundy. “But it’s our responsibility to manage it.”

The Cowboys would improve to 10-0 on the win and for the first time in Oklahoma State history, the Cowboys were 10-0.

The Cowboys had two games left on their schedule and if they won both, that meant that they were going to the BCS National Championship game. Those two opponents; unranked Iowa State and number five ranked, Oklahoma. Unranked Iowa State appeared to be a very manageable win for the Cowboys as they didn’t really matchup well. But Oklahoma would appear to be a lot harder and a true test for the Cowboys as many thought that that game would determine their season and their BCS Championship hopes.

Though no game is ever a for sure win as that’s why you play the game so on Friday night, the Cowboys would face the Iowa State Cyclones. The Cowboys would jump out to an early 10-0 lead before the Cyclones would respond with a touchdown of their own. But the comeback wouldn’t last long as the Cowboys score two straight touchdowns extending their lead to 17 (24-7). However the Cyclones wouldn’t lie down as they would score 17 straight points and because of a Cowboys missed field goal the game would go into overtime.

Then in overtime both teams would score sending the game to a double overtime. In double overtime the Cowboys would get the ball first but not for long as their first pass was intercepted; Iowa State ball. After getting the ball off of an interception, the Cyclones would score off of a 4 yard touchdown run and would go onto win 37-31.

Due to the loss to Iowa State the Cowboys BCS National title hopes would be crushed as Alabama beat Georgia South 45-21. It was unbelievable turn of events as the Iowa State Cyclones fought back from a 17 point deficit to win in double overtime.

“I hate it for the guys. But it’s real simple. If you lose the turnover battle in such a big fashion, it’s extremely hard to win a game, especially on the road,” Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said.