With thirteen Big 12 championships over the last twenty years it would take up way too much time to pull a highlight from each one. Besides, some of those championships came at the hands of blowout wins over Colorado and Missouri and others were decided during the hiatus of the championship game. What we’ve done is narrowed down five moments that we believe are key moments in a championship game that will go down in Sooner lore as some of the all-time greatest moments. Are there some that we missed? Of course there are! Tell us about them in the comments section below!
#2 – Sooner Defense Overwhelms Nebraska In 2010
Oklahoma and Nebraska have shared some classic games throughout their storied rivalry so it just seems to make sense that the last time the two tangled on the gridiron it would be one to remember.
As the Huskers were about to head off to the Big Ten they wanted to take a Big 12 championship trophy as a parting gift. Standing in their way was Oklahoma who was gunning for a seventh Big 12 trophy. After suffering defeat, at the hands of Texas, on a last-second field goal the year before, Nebraska came out swinging in the 2010 edition of the conference championship game.
Building a 10-0 lead through the first fifteen minutes of the game, Nebraska ultimately held a 17-0 lead before the Sooners finally crossed the goal line with just over eleven minutes left in the second quarter.
Looking to boost the lead back to 17 again, Nebraska was driving and were inside Oklahoma’s 10-yard line when the game took a sudden change. Husker quarterback Taylor Martinez was picked off by Sooner linebacker Travis Lewis and the momentum shift was fully on.
Three more turnovers were coming to the Oklahoma defense by way of fumble, Lewis recovered two of them, and the Sooner defense pitched a shutout in the second half to walk away with a 23-20 win.
Appropriately, Jimmy Stevens kicked the game-winner, a 27-yard field goal, with 8:28 to left in the fourth quarter after Lewis’ third takeaway.
In addition to the four turnovers, Oklahoma’s defense also sacked Martinez seven times.
“This is a great feeling. This is my third Big 12 championship and this one’s definitely the sweetest. The fashion that we won this game in, we always pride ourselves that defense wins championships. I felt like we got rattled a little early, we gave up some big plays but we never panicked.”
Travis lewis
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