Dec. 21—NORMAN — The difference was evident Saturday.

As good as OU’s offense has been this season, the Sooners’ defense carried them to a 27-21 win over Iowa State to give OU its sixth consecutive Big 12 title.

OU’s defensive front had Brock Purdy scrambling all day, and the Sooners slowed down Cyclones star running back Bryce Hall like no one had all season.

A couple hours later in Atlanta, Florida played Alabama in a scorefest that would’ve seemed at home in the Big 12 a few years ago.

The Gators virtually matched the Crimson Tide score for score before falling 52-46 despite more than 400 passing yards by Kyle Trask.

The tables sure have turned.

Heading into the Cotton Bowl, where the No. 6 Sooners will face No. 7 Florida at AT&T Stadium on Dec. 30 (7 p.m., ESPN), it’s Florida with the electrifying offense and OU with the defense that has grown into one of the nation’s best.

“I think in any league whether you’re talking about maybe more offense in the SEC or more defense in the Big 12 or whatever, I think it’s just the constant evolution in competition,” Sooners coach Lincoln Riley said. “You do what you’ve got to do to win and to have a chance to win championships so I think you’re always constantly evolving, looking for those things and that’s some of the fun of it to see how things do continue to evolve.”

The Sooners will face an SEC opponent in a bowl game for the fifth consecutive season.

But this one will be quite a bit different — even outside the differences in playing styles from many of those other bowls in recent memory.

Typically, teams in New Year’s Six game have three weeks or more to prepare for their bowls and traveling to a bowl is a week-long event, with practices at unfamiliar spots and events for players and coaches in the host city in the lead-up to the game.

This season, it’ll be much more like a regular road or neutral site game.

There’s just 10 days between Sunday’s bowl announcement and the game and the teams are likely to travel the day before the game.

Riley said he’s watched Florida a few times on TV, calling Gators quarterback Kyle Trask “impressive.”

“They’ve got a tremendous scheme that really features what he does well,” Riley said, noting the improvement that Trask has made since taking over as the starter last year.

Gators coach Dan Mullen chuckled at the thought that the Sooners have become a more defensive team.

“Looks like Lincoln’s still putting up an awful lot of points right there,” Mullen said. “I don’t think they’re having a lot of offensive woes there and it’s become a three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust deal.”

And OU’s offense is still potent, averaging 41.8 points and 475.8 yards per game. While Florida has the edge in yards per game, the Sooners are just better in points, with the Gators averaging 41.6 points per game.

But while Florida fans flooded social media with complaints about defensive coordinator Todd Grantham during Saturday’s SEC title game, Sooners defensive coordinator Alex Grinch is riding high, even emerging as a potential head-coaching candidate at Arizona.

OU is allowing just 14.25 points per game over their last four games, the fewest the Sooners have allowed in a four-game stretch since allowing an average of 12 points in the first four games of 2013 and the fewest they’ve allowed in four consecutive games against Power 5 opponents since 2009.

The Sooners are in the top 10 in sacks and just outside the top 10 in tackles for loss. Grinch’s defense has forced 11 turnovers in the last five games — the same number OU had total in both 2018 and 2019.

“When you can get pressure like we can, you’re going to have opportunities (for turnovers),” Riley said after Saturday’s game. “And then our secondaries, our linebackers, we’ve made some great plays on the ball this year, just created more opportunities and we have taken advantage of them and it’s been obviously a difference-maker for our team.”