For most of the season, the No. 1 Sooners' defense has been overlooked because of the numbers the OU offense has produced.

Saturday night in OU's 27-24 victory over Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship game, most of the focus and discussion was on the outstanding play of the defense.

"Our defense is really the story of the game," OU football head coach Bob Stoops said. "What our defense did was pretty special."

The Sooners held the Kansas State offense to 239 total yards, 185 yards less than its average. In addition, the Sooners forced 10 punts, one turnover and only allowed 14 first downs.

"To be able to hold them to239 yards in a championship game is strong," Stoops said. "Our defense stepped up again as it has the past five or six weeks."

The Wildcats were the fifth-ranked scoring offense in the nation, averaging 40.8 points per game, and were held to scoring only 17 offensive points on the Sooner defense, despite three OU turnovers.

"We can't predict or control what the offense does," junior Rocky Calmus said. "We can just control what the defense does, and we showed tonight that we have a great defense."

Calmus led the Sooners with nine tackles, one for a loss of yards, and said winning the Big 12 Championship feels good.

Calmus, along with senior linebacker Torrance Marshall and sophomore strong safety Roy Williams, was instrumental in shutting down the Wildcat run game in the second half.

Marshall finished the game with seven tackles, two for a loss of yards; a forced fumble, and a pass deflection. Williams had eight tackles and the first fumble recovery of his career.

"It was a team effort today," Marshall said. "The first half they did a good job of running the ball, and in the second half we just regrouped."

Kansas State had 92 rushing yards in the first half and 133 yards for the game. Heading into the Big 12 Championship, the Wildcats were averaging 203.5 rushing yards per game.

In addition to shutting down the Kansas State running game, OU kept senior quarterback Jonathan Beasley in check for most of the day. Beasley finished with 106 passing yards and40 rushing yards.

"They played hard, and they did a great job of stopping us on offense," Beasley said of the Sooner defense. "Give a lot of credit to Oklahoma. I hope they bring the National Championship back to the Big 12. The way they played, they deserve to win."

Another important statistic for the Sooner defense Saturday night was its performance on third downs. The Sooners allowed Kansas State to convert on three of their 14 third down situations.
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