MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Two years ago in Norman, Oklahoma got a 29-yard field goal from Gabe Brkic on the game's final play to escape with a 16-13 victory over West Virginia.
 
It was the Sooners' only lead of the game.
 
Last year in Morgantown, Casey Legg's 25-yard field goal with no time on the clock gave West Virginia a come-from-behind, 23-20, victory.
 
It remains to be seen if Saturday night's game in Norman comes down to the wire as well.
 
Despite winning only once at Oklahoma's Memorial Stadium back in 1982, Don Nehlen's third season coaching the Mountaineers, West Virginia has had some very competitive performances there.
 
In 2013, Dana Holgorsen's third season at WVU, the Mountaineers lost a 16-7 defensive struggle. Two years later, it was a three-point game with 58 seconds left in the third quarter before Oklahoma erupted for 17 unanswered points.
 
Two years ago, West Virginia had leads of 7-0, 10-7 and 13-10 before the Sooners kicked two field goals in the fourth quarter to pull out the victory. In that game, change-of-pace quarterback Garrett Greene gave the Mountaineers a spark by scoring the team's only touchdown, a 2-yard run.
 
Last year, Greene played a much more significant role in West Virginia's victory – its first against Oklahoma since joining the Big 12 in 2012. Greene was responsible for all three Mountaineer touchdowns, two with his legs and the other with his right arm. The sophomore finished the game running for a career-best 119 yards on 14 attempts while completing 12 of his 22 throws for 138 yards.
 
It was during that time of the season when Neal Brown reassumed more control of the play-calling duties and opted to turn the offense over to Greene. Since then, West Virginia has won eight of its last 12 games heading into Saturday night's clash in Norman – likely the final game between these two schools for the foreseeable future.
 
"(Oklahoma is) a team that has really taken on the personality of their coach, Brent Venables," Brown said. "He's a high-energy guy. He's a guy that has a lot of passion. His defenses are known for pressure and attacking; and you see that in all three phases."
 
Facing Venables' aggressive style, particularly on defense, the antidote to that is a mobile quarterback. Because Greene has had some success against them, you can bet Venables and defensive coordinator Ted Roof are going to spend a lot of time this week working on the quarterback run game. 
 
In those instances when a mobile quarterback has been effective against Venables' defense when he was Clemson's defensive coordinator, he made the necessary adjustments the following year.
 
If that occurs on Saturday, West Virginia's ground game must pivot to running back CJ Donaldson Jr., who did not play against Oklahoma last year, or to emerging true freshman running back Jahiem White, coming off a career-high, 146-yard rushing performance last Saturday against BYU.
 
Nevertheless, avoiding third and long situations will be the key to West Virginia's offensive success on Saturday. According to MSN analyst and sideline reporter Jed Drenning, Oklahoma ranks among the nation's TFL leaders with 71 because it gets teams into third-and-seven or longer situations 57% of the time. 
 
"Defensively, they give you a lot of different looks. They mix up their man and zone coverages, they like to pressure, and they make it hard on your quarterback," Brown said.
 
On the other hand, because Oklahoma (7-2/4-2) plays such a fast tempo offensively, the Sooners have already defended 53 more snaps than West Virginia's defense (648 to 595), or what amounts to one full game more than the Mountaineers.
 
The cumulative effect of defending extra snaps undoubtedly played a role in OU's last two defeats, a 38-33 loss at Kansas and a 27-24 loss in the Bedlam game at Oklahoma State last Saturday.
 
Those two losses have dramatically changed the trajectory of Oklahoma's season, taking them from being a College Football Playoff contender two weeks ago to now trying to remain in contention for the Big 12 Championship game.
 

West Virginia, after midseason stumbles against Houston and Oklahoma State, has recovered to win its last two games and at 6-3/4-2, is now bowl-eligible at the earliest point of the season during Brown's five-year tenure in Morgantown.
 
"They've been playing really good football the past few weeks," Venables said Monday. "Coach Brown has said numerous times that this is his best team at West Virginia. They're really running the ball well and are super-efficient. 
 
"They could be first in the league right now. They're running the ball very well with very few negative plays," Venables said. "They passed for 400 yards against Houston with what was the go-ahead touchdown. Houston pulls it out on the last play, and if that doesn't happen, they're sitting there in first for the conference."
 
"We've got to play a lot better on special teams," Brown added. "Against BYU, we played at a high level in two of the three phases. Offensively and defensively, we played well, but special teams were just not good enough, and it hurt us. We can't go to Norman and not play well in all three phases and expect to win the game.
 
OU and WVU are among seven teams still in contention to get to Arlington, Texas, on Saturday, Dec. 2, so Saturday night is essentially an elimination game.
 
The team that wins it remains on the heels of Texas and Oklahoma State, while the loser is playing for the best bowl game possible.
 
"Offensively, we've got to take care of the football. We've got to find a way to run the football against these guys – and they're going to make it hard," Brown said. "We've got to be more efficient in the pass game.
 
"Defensively, we've got to get lined up to their tempo. They've got elite athletes, and we're going to have to tackle them in space and on special teams, we've got to do a much better job in our coverage units," Brown added.
 
A 7 p.m. kickoff has been assigned for Saturday night's game, to be broadcast nationally on FOX (Jeff Levering and Mark Helfrich). It's the eighth time in 10 games this season that West Virginia has had a kickoff at 6 p.m. ET or later.
 
Mountaineer Sports Network coverage with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning begins at 6 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the WVU Gameday app. The GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate Show kicks things off at 4 p.m.
 
Oklahoma owns a commanding 11-3 record in the series and has won seven of eight in Norman.