No. 6 Oklahoma needs to win the next three games and have one of the five teams ahead of them in the polls lose to make the College Football Playoff.

The Sooners dodged a bullet last Saturday with a razor-thin Bedlam victory (48-47) over Oklahoma State in Norman. The Cowboys marched up and down the field on the OU defense yet it was a tremendous play at the end to stop a two-point conversion that preserved the OU win.

“We just have got to get better,” OU coach Lincoln Riley said of his defense. “We are making enough plays to win right now but we certainly know that we can play better. We have to play better team defense. We had a couple of critical penalties early in the game that gave them some momentum. We have to do a better job of defending the big play, which is something a few games ago we were doing very well with.

“It’s going to continue to be a challenge but we’ve got a good run there. We’ve got guys who are motivated. You see the character. Those guys are making big plays – the two-point stop, the fumble recovery at the end. We have to build and get better going forward.”

The OU defense surrendered 640 yards to the OSU offense while the Sooner offense gained 702 yards. That’s a total of 1,342 yards for both teams.

“You always look back and see how I can do better,” said OU defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill. “Not the kids, but what could I have done better to help them? As far as the kids, the most impressive thing is their fight. They had some tough plays. You have to give Coach Gundy and his team credit, but our kids kept fighting for the second week in a row.

“Wins are hard. I said it last week. Wins are hard. What I think about is how I can help them more.”

OU quarterback Kyler Murray, a Heisman Trophy candidate, had another great game. He was 21 of 29 passing for 349 yards and on score. He ran 14 times for 66 yards and he had 415 yards of total offense.

“As a team, we’ve just got to keep playing. We’ve got to play better all-around football,” said Murray. “Offensively limit mistakes, limit costly penalties, negative plays. Defensively, you’ve talked to them all night. We all know what we need to get better at and know what needs to happen.”

OU receiver Marquise Brown had eight catches for 142 yards and a touchdown. OU running back Kennedy Brooks rushed for 165 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries (11.0 average). OU running back Trey Sermon scored two touchdowns with 124 yards rushing on 16 carries (7.8 average).

“The issue you have is that you can’t contain him,” OSU coach Mike Gundy said of Murray. “He just makes a lot of things happen and he’s faster live than he is on TV.

He buys so much time, so we’d have to look and see, but we stressed this week to stay in coverage and not come off coverage and I think we did OK. We got more (pressure) than I thought we could get on him. But, in the first half we’d have it on him several times and couldn’t get ahold of him.”

OU is a 36-point favorite over Kansas (3-7, 1-6 in the Big 12) Saturday. The game is at 6:30 p.m. in Norman and will be televised on Fox. Kansas lost to rival Kansas State 17-21 last Saturday.

The winner of the 7 p.m. game between No 6 Oklahoma and No. 9 West Virginia on Friday, November 23, has a good shot at making the four-team College Football Playoff but only if that team wins the Big 12 Championship on December 1 in Dallas.

If OU beats Kansas, as expected Saturday in Norman, and West Virginia holds off Oklahoma State next Saturday in Stillwater, OU and West Virginia could meet a week after November 23 for a rematch for the Big 12 title.

If OU beats No. 9 West Virginia twice in a row, it would help their standing with the playoff committee. The same goes for the Mountaineers should they beat the Sooners twice.

OSU must beat either West Virginia Saturday or TCU in Fort Worth November 24 to get to a bowl. So far, OU, West Virginia, Texas (7-3, 5-2) and Iowa State (6-3, 5-2) are the only Big 12 teams that are bowl eligible. OSU (5-5, 2-5), Baylor (5-5, 3-4) and Texas Tech (5-5, 3-4) are one win away from a bowl. Baylor and Texas Tech meet on November 24 – so one will become bowl eligible. Baylor has a game against TCU (4-6, 2-5) Saturday in Waco while Texas Tech can get to a bowl by beating Kansas State (4-6, 2-5) this Saturday. TCU must beat both Baylor and OSU to get to six wins and Kansas State must defeat Texas Tech and Iowa State to go to a bowl.

This probably means that only seven Big 12 teams will go to a bowl game.

How does it look for the Sooners chances?

“I feel great about them,” said Riley. “That’s the team we’ve got, and I think we know what they’re capable of.

“And so, it’s looking at the whole team. I think this team’s proven it can separate from some people, it’s proven that we can win tough games, it’s proven that we can handle adversity – those are all things you have to do here at the end of the season.”