Sooners bid Colorado farewell with 43-10 rout that leaves plenty of time for wondering

The final scheduled ballgame between these old rivals was a laugher, won 43-10 by the Sooners, offering plenty of time for wondering.

* Would the Sooners get any BCS help with more upsets of unbeatens? (No, not after the expected falls of Michigan State and Missouri earlier in the day.)

* Is Broyles the greatest receiver in OU history? (I’m thinking the answer is yes.)

* Is the Sooners’ finishing stretch — road games at Texas A&M;, Baylor and OSU, with a home game against Texas Tech slapped in the middle — as rugged as it now appears? (Yes. Reaching the Big 12 title game, much less winning it, is a perilous goal).

Just like OU’s 52-0 blanking of Iowa State two weeks ago, this one will count as a victory and no more. Routing the beleaguered Buffs does not in any fashion prep the Sooners for the Big 12 South cauldron that remains.

It was fun for the guys — Broyles had nine catches for a school record 208 yards; Landry Jones completed 32 of 46 passes for 453 yards, just 15 shy of Sam Bradford’s school yardage record — but Colorado is nothing like what’s coming.

The Buffs can’t throw much. Just because Cody Hawkins beat the Sooners three years ago — how did that happen? — doesn’t mean he’s a Big 12-caliber quarterback.

Awaiting the final two weeks are Baylor’s Robert Griffin, who beat Texas on Saturday to keep the surprising Bears atop the South Division, and Oklahoma State’s Brandon Weeden, who played a superb game Saturday at Kansas State without star receiver Justin Blackmon.

And next week comes Texas A&M;, which has decided to play a quarterback who doesn’t throw the ball to the other team. New QB Ryan Tannehill started in place of Jerrod Johnson and threw for a school record 449 yards (Jones beat him by four) Saturday against Texas Tech.

"Going on the road to the South Division teams, it's tough," Stoops said. "We get it. It's never been easy. We always know how tough the South is, know what you're up against ... I've had great respect for Baylor."

OK. We get it. But can we at least admit Baylor is doing something special this season? Can we admit a trip to Waco once was an automatic victory but is no more? Can we admit that in the past, beating Texas was the major hurdle in a Sooner season, and in 2010 that most certainly is not the case?

The OU defense was salty against Colorado, allowing just 12 first downs, but the Buffs were no threat. A&M;, Baylor and OSU are.

Worse news for the Sooners. All those games are on the road. OU is invincible at home — Mack Brown has lost more home games in the last 36 days than Bob Stoops has lost in his 12 Oklahoma seasons — but shaky on the road. OU is 22-18 away from Owen Field since the calendar flipped to 2005.

All of which means it’s best to focus on the Big 12 and forget the national picture. Oregon survived Southern Cal, Auburn blasted Ole Miss and Utah nipped Air Force. The Sooners, and a lot of other one-loss teams, needed some help in those games to get back into serious BCS contention. And didn’t get it.

Colorado needed some help to corral Broyles. Jones, like always, started out throwing sideways passes, many of them in Broyles’ direction.

Then in the second quarter, Broyles faked a sideline route and caught an easy 16-yard touchdown pass. Then he speared a deep pass, with good coverage, on the dead run for an 81-yard TD play. In the third quarter, Broyles repeated the streak route for a 65-yard scoring play.

"We started off going sideways, then we told the coaches what we saw out there and switched," Broyles said.

Broyles is a ballplayer. The best receiver in the Stoops era (sorry Mark Clayton) and I guess it’s time to admit better even than Eddie Hinton. The 1960s wingback would have done serious damage in the 21st century, but I’m not sure he was this good.

"People compared me to Mark Clayton from the beginning," Broyles said. "I just wanted to come in and make a statement."

The Sooners ask an awful lot out of Broyles, so no reason to stop now. They need some more of those big plays when the opponents and the venues get much tougher than what OU saw Saturday night.

Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at (405) 760-8080 or at btramel@opubco.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok.com/berrytramel.