Boone Pickens Stadium - Stillwater, Okla.    Oct. 31, 2009     Attendance: 58,516

STILLWATER (Okla.) — Just prior to kickoff of the Texas-Oklahoma State game, a party outside Boone Pickens Stadium featured a group of karaoke singers doing a poor rendition of  “I am a Man of Constant Sorrow,” a bluegrass tune written in the early 20th century and popularized in the Coen Brothers film, “O Brother Where Are Thou?”

It seemed a strange refrain before a game in which the home-town team — readying for perhaps the biggest game of its season and maybe the most-anticipated contest in the school’s football history — was to do battle against the third-ranked Longhorns, a team they’d beaten only once in the 11 times the squads have squared off since the formation of the Big 12.  

Those warblers must have known something the rest of us didn’t, as that song was stunningly apropos. Indeed, there was nothing but sorrow for Oklahoma State as the Horns — continuing to ride a stifling defense and an offense that did its job when needed — ambushed the Cowboys 41-14 before 58,516 onlookers, the largest football crowd ever in Stillwater.

Texas provided tricks rather than treats on this Halloween night, besting the 13th-ranked Cowboys with two interception returns for touchdowns and a resurgent Colt McCoy — as if he ever went away — before a national television audience in its second consecutive “statement” game on the road.

If the Horns can take care of business over the final third of the regular season — and they’ll be favored to do so against the likes of Central Florida and Kansas at home and Baylor and Texas A&M on the road — and win the Big 12 Championship game against a team from the woeful Big 12 North, they can book their tickets to the BCS National Championship game without ever having to leave the Lone Star State.

“We have to take it one at a time,” defensive end Sergio Kindle said. “There are teams out there every week who lose to a nobody, so we don’t want to even think about the championship game until we get there.”

In what is perhaps the game’s most meaningless statistic, Oklahoma State, which lost its first conference game of the season, actually outgained the Horns by two yards, 277-275, on 15 more snaps. The Cowboys’ plan was to keep UT’s offense off the field as much as possible, and that worked — except for the four times the Horns intercepted OSU quarterback Zac Robinson.

“Honestly, it felt like we had only three or four drives tonight, but we made the most of the time we were on the field,” McCoy said. “Our defense put us in a good position to win.”

Texas won despite the fact that one of its top defenders, sophomore cornerback Aaron Williams, was injured in a collision with teammate Earl Thomas while breaking up a potential OSU touchdown pass in the first quarter. The Horns went to a three-safety set — putting Thomas at the nickelback — and the move paid dividends.

First was an interception and 77-yard return for a touchdown in the second quarter by cornerback Curtis Brown, who’s been improving each week in practice and getting more playing time each game as the season has progressed. Then in the third quarter, Thomas sat back and waited for Robinson to test the middle of the field and swooped in and intercepted a pass on the dead run, hauling the mistake back for a 31-yard TD that all but broke the Cowboys’ collective back. It was Thomas’ sixth pick of the season.

It was the first time since the Horns’ 2003 season opener against New Mexico State that Texas returned two interceptions for touchdowns, when current NFL players Michael Huff and Derrick Johnson accomplished the feat.

The two interceptions for scores added to the Horns’ tally of non-offensive touchdowns in 2009 — Texas now has nine such TDs this season, which leads the nation and is the most for UT since it had nine in 2003. Texas has now forced 26 turnovers this season, 10 more than the 16 they forced during the entire 2008 season.

“Our goal is three turnovers per game,” Thomas said, “and we’re ahead of that pace after eight games. When Oklahoma State was down late, we knew they had to pass the ball, and we made plays.”

“Our defense is continuing to score, and our offense is getting better,” coach Mack Brown said. “We didn’t score on special teams tonight, but being able to do so in all three phases of the game gives you a chance to be really good.”

Texas’ defense scored as many points as Oklahoma State’s offense, but that effort was augmented by a balanced attack by McCoy and his unit. Two Cody Johnson touchdown runs — from one and two yards — were wrapped around a pretty 11-yard TD throw and catch from McCoy to Malcolm Williams, who looked like he has the best set of hands and feet since Jordan Shipley.

Hunter Lawrence added field goals of 25 and 40 yards to continue his consistent play this season.

“We have a lot at stake on the national scene, and we want to be the best team in the country,” Brown said. “We’ve just got to keep the hammer down and keep pressing.”

Meanwhile, OSU coach Mike Gundy might have been mumbling the final refrain of “Man of Constant Sorrow” after this miserable affair: “If I’d known how bad you’d treat me / I never would have come.”