Forget the circumstances. Forget the spread in Vegas.

When was the last time Oklahoma dominated a marquee opponent THAT thoroughly?

Saturday night brought a matchup between the No. 7 team in the nation and a team fighting for bowl eligibility. And if you hadn’t known any better, you’d have figured that the No. 7 team in the nation was the squad wearing crimson, not white.

As Brent Venables said in his postgame press conference, there was nothing fluky about that victory. And there wasn’t. It was stunning. It was a smackdown. An Oklahoma team that has developed a penchant for making the simplest things difficult, a team that has consistently been unable to sustain momentum or stay out of its own way, absolutely manhandled mighty Alabama for 60 minutes of football.

The Oklahoma defensive front terrorized Jalen Milroe, harassing him into three interceptions. The Sooners’ offensive game-plan was shockingly simple all night long; they simply resolved to run the ball down Bama’s collective throat. And the Crimson Tide was powerless to stop it. Jackson Arnold went 9-for-11 for 68 yards, a stat line straight out of the annual Army-Navy Game. By the end of the night, thousands of fans had flooded the playing field at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, reveling in the glory of the Sooners’ first field rush since that landmark victory over No. 1 Nebraska in 2000.

Many a Sooner fan no doubt woke up this morning wondering, Did that really just happen?

Amidst a season rife with turmoil, adversity and disappointment, Oklahoma needed a victory like this. Brent Venables needed a victory like this. But this was the type of victory you might have expected against one of the streaky middle-tier SEC programs like Auburn or Missouri or LSU.

The Sooners just housed Alabama.

The last time the Crimson Tide were held without a touchdown? You have to go all the way back to 2011, and one of the more memorable regular-season games of the 21st century. No. 1 LSU knocked off No. 2 Alabama 9-6 in overtime, which preceded a BCS title-game rematch between the two programs that the Tide won 21-0.

The final Saturday night at Owen Field was 24-3, and truthfully, it didn’t even feel that close. It doesn’t make any sense. The Sooners hadn’t beaten an FBS team since Sept. 28, when they knocked off Auburn 27-21 on the road. When I walked out of Jordan-Hare Stadium that day, Alabama was No. 1 in the country and led Georgia 28-0.

Any Given Saturday.

— This is not a game worth nitpicking. I will briefly note three things that happened within the span of mere minutes, all of which were bad, and then we will move on. To dwell at length on the negative after a win of that ilk is to be a willful cynic. First, Taylor Tatum fumbled again. He is one of the most gifted OU backs I’ve ever seen, and his ball security might be the absolute worst I’ve ever seen. Quite a dynamic.

— Bauer Sharp dropped a touchdown pass. He was so wide open that he could have sat down for a picnic after catching the ball and casually strutted into the end zone after finishing dessert. It was thoroughly inexplicable and indefensible.

— Immediately after Sharp’s drop, Zach Schmit shanked a field goal. He gets a pass because it was his first miss of the year and it didn’t have any impact on the outcome, but it was certainly reminiscent of the 2023 version of Zach Schmit, the Zach Schmit that sprayed field goal attempts as erratically as a broken sprinkler head.

— Eli Bowen is already one of the best cornerbacks in college football. That’s not an exaggeration after last night. Across the landscape of the sport, there are few assignments as daunting as a one-on-one matchup with Ryan Williams. And say what you will about Williams’ 38-yard touchdown catch that was nullified by a penalty, but Bowen put the clamps on the Alabama superstar wideout all night. Williams entered the game with 730 yards and eight touchdown catches on the year. Against Bowen? Two receptions for 37 yards. Oh, and of course Bowen jumped that screen pass early in the third quarter to record his first career interception, a play that in hindsight appears to have been the real turning point for Oklahoma. That was the play that convinced the 84,000 people in the building at Owen Field that the Sooners could actually pull this off. To think that there were many who dismissed Bowen’s recruitment as a favor to his five-star older brother. The kid is unreal.

— Xavier Robinson entered the season as RB6. There were five running backs listed on Oklahoma’s first depth chart of the season and none of them were named Xavier Robinson. And yet it might not be a prisoner-of-the-moment take to suggest that he’s already the best running back on this roster. Gavin Sawchuk has 22 carries for 50 yards on the season. Kalib Hicks and Sam Franklin are nonexistent. Jovantae Barnes is a certified stud when healthy, but injuries have continued to hamper his consistency, and he was unavailable Saturday. And of course, Tatum can’t shake his case of fumble-itis. The Sooners needed Robinson in the worst way against Alabama, and boy, did the true freshman deliver. Coming into the game, he had 15 carries on the season. On Saturday, he carried the rock 18 times for 107 yards and two touchdowns, joining forces with Arnold to create a one-two power punch that the Tide simply couldn’t handle. And when the coming-out party happens against Alabama, you really have no choice but to legitimize it. You can’t chalk it up to chance or wave it off as fluky. Xavier Robinson arrived on Saturday night.

— How about that senior class, especially the OG group that didn’t arrive via the portal? They’re not going to be remembered as a group that won anything of consequence. The trio of Ethan Downs, Danny Stutsman and Billy Bowman has never so much as played for a conference championship. They’ve had to suffer and battle through the two worst campaigns of the 21st century at Oklahoma. Individually, they’ve certainly excelled. Bowman was a preseason All-American honoree and probably should have won the Thorpe Award in 2023. Downs is a three-year starter and a second-team all-conference selection in each of the last two seasons. Stutsman has a case for the Butkus Award and just passed Rick Bryan for ninth among Oklahoma’s all-time leading tacklers. But that trio represents the first class since the class of 1996 that will depart Oklahoma without at least one conference title to speak of. Even so, their collective legacy is secure. They represent the core leadership group that stuck it out through an unexpected coaching change, that saw the Sooners through the transition to the SEC, that laid the foundation for the Brent Venables era. They will be remembered not for the success of the teams they played on, but for their role in setting the table for the success of the teams that came after them. And it was really, really cool to see Woodi Washington — the Granddaddy of ‘Em All — get a pick on senior night. It was his first interception in over two years. That dude has been a Sooner for so long that he guarded Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase in the 2019 Peach Bowl. He’s paid his dues, he’s been a leader and a mentor, and he’s meant a great deal to this program over his six years in an Oklahoma uniform.

In this portion of the column, Parker’s father, a known OU football cynic and Uncle Rico-esque former high school quarterback, weighs in with in-game observations on behalf of the fans who tend towards a pessimistic perspective on the Sooners.

Dad before the game: Listen… It’s going to be ugly today… My prediction is 42-14 Alabama

Dad at halftime: I mean… There’s still a half of football ahead of us

Dad in the third quarter: Well… this is not what I expected

Dad after the game: What happened is very simple.. Our D played like we knew they could… We finally called plays that worked and KEPT DOING THEM BECAUSE THEY WERE WORKING… And, we got +2 turnover margin… And we capitalized on momentum when it mattered… That’s the game