Texas Tech

Welcome back to another week of the Steamroller. The Sooners go down to Lubbock for a tilt with Kliff Kingsbury and the Red Raiders. The Sooners D looked halfway decent last week. I'm not sure if this due to the new system paying dividends or a really putrid K State offense, but I'm inclined (read: negatively conditioned) to think the latter. Regardless, it was nice to see the defense get stops and keep the OU offense on the field. Let's remember, with the OU offense, the '85 Bears aren't needed, just something other than paper cutouts of football men. 

This week will certainly provide a tougher test. I read an article on Thursday talking about the 2016 matchup. At the time I was incredibly irritated (hope you were sitting down) by the horrid defense, but it was pretty amazing to watch the offensive exhibition by both teams. I'm grossly paraphrasing but, the article quoted Bob Stoops as telling Riley to keep his foot on the gas because, essentially, he had zero faith that the defense could stop Tech. I think that says a lot about his faith in brother,Mikey's D.

The Tech offense is going to be tough. It's going to score fast against the D and it's going to score more than any Sooner fan would like. Fortunately, I believe the OU offense will score a good bit too. The atmosphere will be intense; Tech is solid and a Saturday night home tilt against a top 10 team will bring out the crowd. There are a slew of huge games this Saturday, OU can't get caught scoreboard watching (as I will be doing), just beat Tech and keep the train rolling.

Offense

Another week, another surprise at RB. After writing off Trey Sermon last week, he came out and put both of his cleats squarely up the collective Wildcat ass. Which is tough because kicking with both feet is physically impossible, but humor me. I temper my excitement again because it was a dreadful K State team, but it looked like the running game may finally be rolling again after a long adjustment of missing Rod Anderson. Kyler Murray is so fun to watch too and CeeDee Lamb is breaking out as a dominant receiver. With all of those weapons, it makes zero sense that I'm picking Kennedy Brooks this week. He runs so hard, and I have visions of him catching a screen or short dump off and taking it all the way to the house.

Defense

I think the defense gets exposed again this week for the first time since that godawful texas game. My hope is that it isn't that bad again. The OU secondary hasn't been good, which does not bode well for this matchup. And while the lack of pressure sans blitz has been demoralizing, I think that's the difference today in that Amani Bledsoe come up with at least one huge sack/forced fumble that turns the momentum to OU for good.

Score

OU was -13.5 last I looked and the O/U is 78, so the pros agree that this will be high scoring. I like the offense to move the ball well and I think the defense does enough in a tough road test. I'm taking the over (barely) and OU to cover (barely), Sooners take it 48-31. 

Boomer to the Motherfuckin' Sooner.