ESPN College Football

NORMAN, Okla. -- You have every right to doubt Oklahoma in January.

Given the Sooners' poor BCS showings of late, that's perfectly understandable. But six days into September, they sure look awfully good.

In two games, their offense has scored 109 points. Throw out the opener against Chattanooga if you want, when Oklahoma had 50 points at halftime. It's much harder to dismiss Saturday's effort, a 52-26 shellacking of Cincinnati at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

This Bearcats team won 10 games last year and plays mostly juniors and seniors. It features two All-Americans (tackle Terrill Byrd and cornerback Mike Mickens) on defense and one of the best secondaries in the country.

The Sooners still racked up 572 yards, with 395 of them coming through the air. They had 30 first downs, their most since 2003. They averaged 7.2 yards per play.

"We did respect their defense, and we knew they were good," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. "But we feel we have a lot of good personnel, too. I was like, 'Hey we're going to be challenged, so we need to go in and make our plays.'"

How do you stop the Sooners? Sam Bradford completed 29 of his 38 passes for five touchdowns. He hit nine different receivers, including Ryan Broyles, a redshirt freshman bound for stardom, and tight end Jermaine Gresham, who caught two touchdowns. In the third quarter, Bradford pump faked and then hit Juaquin Iglesias in the corner of the end zone after Iglesias badly beat Mickens, one of the best cover corners anywhere.

The running game, meanwhile, gashed Cincinnati for 197 yards. DeMarco Murray had 88 of them, often turning nothing into something with his vision and cutback moves. The gigantic offensive line, where all five starters are back from last year, opened holes big enough for the Sooner Schooner to gallop through.

"I think the biggest problem defensively is, to spread people out and use them all," Stoops said. "And then it's hard to double-cover anybody. If you spread it out too much, then run the ball. If you hunker in too much, there will be a lot of one-on-one matchups."

Oklahoma ran 82 plays Saturday and never huddled once, as part of its new hurry-up offense. At times the Sooners would line up five-wide with an empty backfield, then switch to a power formation without ever bringing in substitutes. Early in the game, Cincinnati's defense got caught still trying to line up at the snap, and the Sooners' first three scoring drives all lasted less than two-and-a-half minutes, even though each one required at least a 62-yard march.

"We're really versatile, and we can go to a lot of personnel and formations," Bradford said. "I think that puts a lot of stress on the defense. I thought our tempo was really good. For the most part, we kind of found our rhythm and the speed we'd like to play at."

The defense performed equally as well. Cincinnati runs an efficient spread offense that's averaged more than 30 points a game in Brian Kelly's short tenure. On Saturday, the Bearcats were held to two offensive touchdowns until the game's final play when backups were in. (Their other score came on a kickoff return, an area Oklahoma badly needs improvement).

Playing in the Big 12, where they face the likes of Missouri, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State, the Sooners know all about the spread. This one didn't bother them too much, as Cincinnati compiled 326 total yards and only 81 after halftime. The Bearcats tried some trick plays, like a double pass, a Statue of Liberty run and a fake punt. None worked.

"We don't get too worried about any offense," defensive end Jeremy Beal said. "We know if we go out and play our game, we'll be a dominating defense."

Of course, Oklahoma always dominates at home, where it's now 56-2 under Stoops. And it's too early to get overly excited about anybody. Stoops cautioned a reporter who asked if this year's bunch resembled the 2003 team, which scored the most points in Oklahoma history and went 12-2, losing in the BCS title game.

"I'm not going there yet," he said. "It's only our second game."

You can reserve judgment as well until the Sooners snap their recent BCS funk. But there's no doubting how good they look right now.