No Sooner had a bigger game than Travis Lewis

As his Sooner teammates celebrated a championship at midfield, he stood alone on the goal line. The junior linebacker spread wide his arms, threw back his head and soaked up the cheers.

Make three of the biggest plays in the season's biggest game, and you deserve that kind of love.

On a night Oklahoma rallied to defeat Nebraska 23-20 and win its seventh Big 12 championship, no Sooner was more important than Lewis.

“You've got to celebrate little moments like these,” he said. “A moment like this, it's a moment you'll remember for the rest of your life.”

It's one Lewis won't soon forget.

No one on this defense will. The Sooners scored a second-half shutout against the Huskers.

Whodathunk it?

After Nebraska scored the first 17 points of the game, a game hyped as a showdown seemed headed toward a blowout.

Even after OU scored a touchdown, the Sooners seemed on the verge of falling in hole too deep to dig out. The Huskers marched down the field, converted a fourth down and moved inside the Sooner 10-yard line. Score a touchdown, and OU might not be able to come back.

But when Husker quarterback Taylor Martinez started scrambling around on a third-and-goal, Lewis saw his chance.

“I was kind of baiting them into throwing at me,” he said, “and he threw it.”

He chuckled.

“These hands ain't what they used to be,” he said, “but I caught it.”

But Lewis wasn't done. After a Sooner field goal, he pounced on a Husker fumble caused by Demontre Hurst.

Those two turnovers led to 10 OU points, and like that, the Sooners were back in the game.

“He was all over the place,” Sooner safety Quinton Carter said. “He played really hard all four quarters. He stepped up the way we needed him.”