texas

The Sooners travel south for the annual rivalry tilt with texas today. Insert interesting: driving distance from each campus, split stadium fanbases, and corndog/fried item story here. Now, let’s get down to football.  Last year, texas won this matchup by playing stout defense and ball control offense, i.e. the perfect game plan. And with the rusty screen door defense OU had, the latter was fairly simple. This season, OU has seemingly improved its defense and texas is missing some key parts of its secondary. This appears to bode well for the Sooners but as we all know, this game is fairly unpredictable. 

What worries me most is the inexperience on the Sooner Offensive Line. It’s been easy to hide against lesser opponents that have athletically inferior defensive fronts. Texas is not that front. They’ll bring speed, size, power and athleticism and they’ll be creative in doing it. If the younger guys get crossed up it could be trouble. Nothing hides a weak secondary better than a pass rush. 

Offense

This is clearly the toughest test for the offense up to now. In fact, it is likely the toughest they’ll face all season. I expect OU will put up points, but I also expect they’ll be stopped far more than they have so far. But, with Hurts ability to run, throw, and improvise I think OU will still score quite a bit. That’s why I’m not trying to get cute this week and overthink it. I like hurts today to extend plays, make some big throws and carry the offense. 

Defense

We finally get to see what the defense is made of. The numbers look much better this year but against pretty weak competition. That said, in past years they couldn’t even limit weak competition, so there  is reason for optimism.  I like big Kenneth Murray in this one today. I think he gets after ehlinger on the blitz and limits him when ehlinger tries to scramble. These games are made for a big player stepping up right in the middle of things and it’s Kenneth Murray’s time. 

Score

After splitting last year, with OU losing on this stage, both teams have “something to prove”. Texas is eager to get back atop the big 12 and to their national contender status. OU is looking to step on their biggest rival and conference challenger and maintain their place in the national title conversation. I’m nervous, this is going to be a tough one. The spread is 10.5 favoring OU, I’d take texas on that wager, but I think OU takes the game. Sooners play enough defense and get out of Dallas with an unblemished record, 37-34. 

Boomer to the Motherfuckin Sooner