Oklahoma Sooners vs. Baylor Bears

Hello Sooner fans. It is a glorious day for some fall football in Soonerland. Today the Sooners take on the Baylor Bears in Norman. I'm excited for this one as I think it's going to be a very good measuring stick for the progress and promise of this Sooners team. 

OFFENSE

The Bears are a well coached, defensive minded football team. It's going to be up to Jeff Lebby to scheme ways to hang on to the ball and be able to run. Eric Gray and Dillon Gabriel are the keys for the Sooners but they cannot have success if Marvin Mims isn't on his game. Last week Mims had some inexplicable drops. He needs a bounce back and he's my OPOG.

DEFENSE

The Sooner D is showing signs of life. The Bears, athletically, will present a pretty even matchup. This is going to be a huge test and benchmark for the Sooners. Can they be in position and can they execute. The Bears are obviously beatable. But it comes down to fine details and execution for the Sooners. 

They need four quarters of focus and intensity. I like their chances with a home crowd and I like the baby steps the defensive line took next week. Hopefully they can build on that and someone from that front four can put some pressure on the Baylor quarterback.

THE SCORE

As I mentioned, today is a measuring stick game. Can the Sooners move the ball against a chess playing defense? Can a Sooners defense that sometimes looks like they struggle playing Chutes and Ladders  keep the Sooners in the game?

I think this is going to be a low scoring, well played game by both sides. The score will be tight. The line is -3.5. I think the Sooners can get to 27.

I'll take the Sooners 27 and the Bears 24.

Boomer to the motherfuckin Sooner

Oklahoma Sooners versus Baylor Bears

 Welcome welcome Sooner fans. The Sooners presumably made the most of the 'Rona bye week and are poised to dismantle the hapless Baylor Bears in Norman this lovely Saturday night. Let's get right into it you guys.

OFFENSE

I'm all aboard the Rhamondre train and if he's playing (apparently an if on account of Covid-19) he's my OPOG. Baylor has no answer and he'll go for 150. 

If you are looking for a sleeper pick and, let's face it, who isn't, then keep an eye out for this Mikey Henderson fella. He's listed as an H-Back but looks like a WR/TE and can run or catch with speed to burn. He's a menace waiting to be unleashed.

DEFENSE

Uh oh someone found a defense. I will not pick a DPOG today. However, I want to see Bookie not act like a dumbfuck. That would be a major step forward. Dude brah single handedly ruined momentum against the Cowboys and gave the Pokes life they never deserved to live. 

THE SCORE

The folks at the Oklahoman seem to think this one will be close but I'm not buying. Sooners roll big time. 42-14. Boomer to the motherfuckin Sooner.

Big 12 Championship

The Sooners put together arguably their most complete game of the 2019 campaign with a yeaoman-like performance in Stillwater last week. Jalen Hurts did not turn the ball over, the Sooners utilized a punishing running game that didn't exclusively feature Hurts and the defense played very well. I may likely regret saying this but could the Sooners be peaking at just the right time?

The right time, for now, is the Big 12 Championship and a rematch with the Baylor Bears. To recap that first matchup the Sooners played maybe their worst defensive half in the first half before stepping up and playing their best half in the second. Jalen Hurts turned the ball over three times. CeeDee Lamb didn't play. The Sooners imposed their will in all phases of the game in the second half while overcoming a 25-point deficit. They shouldn't have been there in the first place and would be wise to avoid it in this second meeting.

OFFENSE

The Sooners never really had any issues against the Bears en route to a 31-10 halftime deficit. They (nee' Jalen) just shit down the pants legs upon entering the red zone. Two turnovers resulted in 14 quick points for the Bears. That sort of thing really changes the algebra.

Now, as ever, the Sooners need to value the football. I like to pick on Jalen because of his Alabama piss excellence pedigree but he's simply not the qb that Baker or Kyler are. He was first flummoxed then sacked by a three man front. He runs when he should hand off, stays in the pocket when there's nothing but grass in front of him and dances around instead of gettting rid of the ball. He's maddening and yet maddeningly efficient.

I like the idea of both Kennedy Brooks and Rhamondre Stevenson in the backfield. I like this Brayden Willis, a brick shithouse FB, who looks and acts like O.J. Howard catching balls. Riley can keep it simple for Jalen and take some of the decision making out of his hands. Stevenson and Willis can both play like receivers and help get the ball out of Jalen's hands quickly. Jalen just needs to go for broke on deep balls and let CeeDee and Charlston Rambo make plays.

For my OPOG I'm going Kennedy Brooks. He glides and he's been getting the ball a bunch. He needs to keep getting fed.


DEFENSE

I've seen some pretty heady stats come out this week about this unit. They were last in the Big 12 last year in total defense and they are currently 1st. They are 3rd in defensive efficiency. The last five games they've given up 48, 41, 31, 24 and 16 points. That's trending in a positive direction.

The Sooners offense was really their best defense against the Bears in the first meeting. But when the Sooner D was on the field in the second half they shut down the QB run game that had absolutely gashed them in the first half. So they apparently have a pretty good blueprint to work off.

I'm riding the hot hand this week and going with hero-cum-goat-cum-hero Parnell Motley. No one makes more plays when the Sooners have to than him and played his best game last week. Keep it up my dude.

THE SCORE

OU dominates the Big 12 Championship. I think the Bears, though, have more fortitude than some past opponents. This one is closer than many of the past but the Sooners prevail behind offensive balance and a defense that is peaking (or their version of it).

Sooners 49 Bears 28

BONUS PREDICTION

The Sooners make their case for the playoff and get hosed in favor of Utah. College football is still a sport decided by voters and these voters have OU fatigue.

Boomer to the motherfuckin Sooner

Oklahoma Sooners versus Baylor Bears

The only thing that matters from last week is the Sooners won. But.. the defense was horse shit. The tackling was vintage 2018. The Sooners, collectively, are big time in the hole when it comes to turnover margin (12-6).

And yet, with a win against undefeated Baylor, the Sooners are in position to retake the lead in the Big 12 and keep their slim playoff hopes alive.

OFFENSE

The last few weeks have felt a little bizarre. At times the Sooners fall in love with one area of the offense. They still score 40+. Plenty of points to allow a marginal defense to make things comfortable for you. Alas.

The Sooners have to protect the ball better. As noted, in a reasonable universe the Sooners should always be on the plus-side of turnover margin. This is not a reasonable universe. The Sooners simply have to win this phase of the game today. That means Jalen Hurts his best version of himself. He's my OPOG.

DEFENSE

Past needs to be past today, not prologue. These fellas need to put on their big boy pants and straighten their shit out. This is not an amazing Baylor offense. The Sooners need to start with better tackling. Do that and only that.

Then, maybe, they can get lucky. Intercept a ball that bounces off someone's hands. I've seen that five times this week across the NFL and college. What can't this happen for us? Why?

Anyhow, let's go Neville Gallimore today. My favorite player in a big one.

THE SCORE

I don't see how the Sooners don't get 38 if Hurts takes care of the ball. All the ball control in the world from Baylor can't prevent it.

I like the Sooners 38-35. Still no turnovers (sad face).

Boomer to the motherfuckin Sooner

Oklahoma Sooners vs. Baylor Bears

You won't see the fanbase of a 4-0 team much more glum than this one. Sooner nation is gearing up for the defensive let down that feels inevitable. I don't know if the Army game was an embarrassment but it was beyond frustrating. It's tough to prepare for an offense you will only see once and aren't conceived of to defend. In the end the Sooners made some plays and hung on.

With that tepid butt patt for the D I welcome the Baylor Bears, the very offense the Sooners are conceived to defend. Feelings of doom will be justified if the Bears put up more than 28 today. The Bears are maybe the 5th best team in the Big 12 running this offense and the first on the slate.

OFFENSE

Marquise Brown was inexplicably quiet last week. He gets back on track this week as Lincoln starts to flex the offense. Related, the running game is likely to look different this week too. The Sooners need to get that aspect rolling and fast. Kyler as the leading rusher is not going to cut it.

DEFENSE

It's not every day you get 24 tackles and find yourself completely overshadowed. That's what happened to Curtis Bolton when Kenneth Murray racked up 28 tackles. I wouldn't be surprised if those two were reflexively tackling bicyclists on campus this week.

I don't think they'll get quite that level of action this week. The secondary might though. I was going to take Parnell Motley for DPOG but I don't want to jinx him. I'll take Bookie instead. I honestly can't name the other starting safety.

THE SCORE

Hopefully the game will be less disjointed than this blog post. The Sooners should get to run more than 15 plays on offense and will have ample opportunity on D to create some turnovers.

I'm not sure the Sooners can hold the Bears under 28. I'll go 42-35 Sooners. People are going to be antsy again.

Boomer to the motherfuckin Sooner

Baylor

Conference play for the Sooners opens up today down in Waco. Baylor comes into the game a paltry 0-3 and it appears the salad days are over. After Art Briles built Baylor into a perennial conference, if not national, title contender through some good coaching, recruiting and cultivation of a lawless, despicable culture his ouster seems to have brought the Bears back to earth. It isn't evident yet if Baylor will resume its role as a place to smear muddy boots for everyone else in the conference, but an 0-3 start doesn't portend an imminent upswing. On paper, today doesn't seem to be the launch-pad for a season turnaround either.

OU fell from #2 to #3 through no fault of their own last week. At this point, that fall is nothing to even bat an eye at. Frankly, I think it's deserving, Clemson went on the road against a pretty decent Louisville team (helmed by the reigning Heisman winner) and absolutely embarrassed them. That defense looks stout. Regardless, either #2 or #3 looks like a tough matchup for a Bears squad that lost at home to both Liberty University and The University of Texas...San Antonio, ouch. They do have Seth Russell still, who can definitely sling the ball, and although the next snap I see of Baylor this year will be the first, I feel confident that there isn't much of a supporting cast around him.

After a sluggish start last week that had 80,000 in Norman repeatedly saying "we're fine" amidst nervous laughs and non-sequiturs, the defense buckled down and Baker Mayfield did Baker Mayfield things and all was right with the world. I haven't seen enough of this team to know if that was this year's version of a "let-down", but if it is, then I'm going to have a 5-month chubby. To the picks!

Offense

CeeDee Lamb was on his way last week to creating the illusion that I knew what I was talking about for 2 straight weeks, before the referees observed him doing something along the lines of tackle football and kicked him out. Make no mistake, this sort of luck will not befall me again this season so sorry whomever I pick, the kiss of death may be back. Again, BD Mayfield is the easy choice, so naturally I'm not going to do that. Instead I'm going with a different weapon who stepped up last week and look really solid in Lamb's absence. I'm going with Marquise Brown, which a quick google search revealed he is from Hollywood, FL. You can't be from Hollywood, Anywhere and not be nicknamed Hollywood, so Hollywood Brown it is.

Defense

For the first time in a long time, the dart throw on this side of the ball is due to a plethora, rather than a dearth of options. That is one damn nice change of pace. I've gone DL, LB the first two weeks. I'm going to continue the progression to the secondary and resist the temptation no more by going with Parnell Motley. First of all, that's a fucking great name. Second of all, he has continued to live up to the billing each week and is on the verge of dusting off the Motherfucker moniker (stay tuned). Baylor will try to throw it all over the field, I think Parnell steps up and has fine game.

Score

The conference games are always tougher. There is history between the schools, familiarity with one another and the stakes of the conference championship to consider. In turn, the divide in talent is always lessened, particularly when the better team is on the road. But, I think the first quarter last week was a bit of a wake up call and I think the Sooners come out determined. Baylor will be fired up, three straight losses to open the year won't set well with them and the crowd will be fired up, no matter, the Sooners come out swinging a tire iron and beat some ass, 52-17.

Boomer to the Motherfuckin Sooner.

Oklahoma Sooners versus Baylor Bears

The Sooners have a big, big football game today as they head down to Waco, Texas to play the Baylor Bears. It's amazing how things change. Baylor has a shiny new football palace, they carry a number six ranking, they are the defending Big 12 co-champions and they operate the scariest offensive attack in college football. Oh, and they have also beaten the Sooners two straight times with the 2014 shellacking being particularly demoralizing. Sooners fans may never chase away the nightmare of watching Baylor throw quick outs repeatedly as they essentially laughed at the Sooner defense. It was one of the most embarrassing and frustrating situations I've ever seen unfold as a Sooner fan.

As my dad pointed out, this opener to a brutal stretch may also remind Sooner fans of a string of games way back in 1999. Instead of the Red October of Kansas State, Texas and Nebraska, the Sooners are looking at Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma State. Times change. And no big deal but if the Sooners win out they are in the college football playoff.

First things first, beat Baylor.

OFFENSE

The Sooner offense is rounding into form. Four straight games of 50 plus points. There's a nice balance of run and pass. Guys like Durron Neal and Mark Andrews are stressing defenses to cover more than Sterling Shepard. You can almost book 48 points out of these guys at this point.

I think they key with Baylor is going to be to continue with the hot starts and show them early that they have yet to see the likes of this offense outside of their own practices. I'm not necessarily worried about playing behind so much as they need to know what they're dealing with and their confidence needs to get shaken. Conversely, the earlier the Sooners can settle in and give Baker Mayfield some comfort in the pocket, the better off they will be.

To accomplish both of these things the Sooners will need to utilize all the skill on hand. In addition to Shepard and Semaje Perine they also need to get Joe Mixon extra touches. He seems to get 10-15 per game. He needs 15-20 today. And, as Nate pointed out last week, I have to tuck my boner into my waistband about Mark Andrews. Someone tell me why I shouldn't? The guy is a matchup nightmare. He's my dark horse super sleeper offensive pick of the week. Unleash the beast damnit.

DEFENSE

I mean what do you do against these guys? They average ∞ yards and it's pretty well split between the run and pass. Shock Linwood averages nearly eight yards per carry. Corey Coleman is on another level with 20 TD's and averaging 20 yards per catch.

It's a nightmare on paper and it will be a nightmare on the field. However, there are some glimmers of hope. Most notably the Sooners have the best defense in the Big 12. They hold teams at least two touchdowns below their average. With a freshman (albeit presumably wunderkind) quarterback this should hold true today. The Bears have seen nothing resembling the Sooner D so far this year.

Now, is the Sooner D vulnerable? For sure. But if the Sooners are firing on all cylinders then I think there's a real chance the Baylor offense gets rattled just a bit.

To rattle cages the Sooners have to pick a poison. I think the choice is take your chances covering Corey Coleman one on one with help over the top. If he goes for four scores and 200 yards so be it. If he's the only guy going off we win. Shut everything else down. Do not give any opportunities to run roughshod up the middle. Throw the kitchen sink at the young quarterback and give him blitzes from everywhere. The Bears have to get rattled.

In a game this yoooge I'm picking the big guy Eric Motherfuckin Striker. The defense is rounding into form a little bit and you could actually pick a few different guys here. The Charles's, Walker and Tapper, Dominique Alexander, Steven Parker. Hell, even either of the corners could turn the game with some picks.

THE SCORE

The biggest difference between these two teams are the defenses. If OU takes care of the ball on offense and the defense brings the kind of edge that, frankly, there is no excuse for not exhibiting after last year's de-pantsing, the Sooners win. The key word here is rattle. The atmosphere for this one will be electric. Everyone thinks the Baylor offense is unstoppable. The Sooners need to show they are also unstoppable on offense and they need to shake the confidence of the young quarterback and the Baylor faithful.

Bring your sniffing glue, your quaaludes and whatever else you need to get through it because it will fray the nerves but the Sooners will come through.

Sooners 45 - Bears 38

The real season starts... Now

Boomer to the motherfuckin Sooner

Baylor Bears

Whoa Doctor! This is a big one. As some of you may have heard, the Sooners travel down to the land of Branch Davidians for a massive tilt with implications to be felt from coast to coast. OK, really though, Baylor is good. They are unbeaten, they've (easily) beaten OU two times in a row (who'd have believed that 10 years ago?), and they lead the nation in scoring. Art Briles has certainly made the most of his Texas locale in luring top tier talent to Waco and maximizing that talent with an offensive system that racks up points on nearly everyone they play. The Sooners come in with a top ranked defense and an offense that has been doing a bit of scoring itself of late. Something has to give.

The national media has taken note as well. College Gameday is on hand, and Lee Corso will spread his beloved saliva all over the Baylor Campus as he clumsily pulls a stunt where he will either fire a (mercifully not loaded) shotgun or (hopefully) wrestle a live bear (...to his gruesome death). It's in primetime and ABC's top booth talent will be calling the game. Sooner nation is on high, to-do lists are wiped out early, chubby children in OU sweatpants eagerly shovel down fried chicken shapes drenched in ranch, all awaiting a drubbing of Baylor.  It's the biggest game for Sooner faithful in some time.

Baylor comes in starting a freshman Q. He put up prototypical Baylor numbers last week against KState. As I alluded to earlier, it's a system, and it works. Yes, they only put up 31, but this is more a result of windbreaker's minions plodding a ball control attack than a lack of Bear efficacy. But, what about that Sooner D? They've been very solid, but I fear it's opponent related as much as it is talent related. The front is solid, and it masks what I think is a shaky secondary. Baylor will absolutely score, and score often. Will Mayfield and Perine be able to do enough to match that pace? It looks to be a good one.

Offense

For all of the talk about Baylor and their high-flying offense, their D brings it as well. It will be a tough test for the offense. Mayfield is going to have to extend plays with his legs and do the same things that give our defense fits. But, that said, I think the run game is the key to winning this one. Their offense tends to score quickly, that means more time for their defense on the field. If OU can sustain drives, beat them up in the run game and wear them down, it might be enough to give them the edge in this one. I like Riley to lean heavily on Samaje Perine, and I like Perine to answer with a performance that will be talked about all week heading into TCU. Perine goes for 150+ and 2 scores. Boom.

Defense

Whew, this is where the rubber meets the proverbial road. OU absolutely has to get stops, particularly on 3rd down (hard hitting stuff here). I'm not sad that Seth Russell isn't playing in this one, too bad for the kid, but hey the Sooners need any edge they can get. The front has been excellent since the texas game. Their ability to get pressure and bottle up the run game will likely decide this game. The player I see stepping up in this one is Devante Bond. He's been a beast all season when healthy. I think he's flying all over the field tonight, coverage, penetration, and pressuring the Q. I think he's the difference maker and comes up with at least one sack off the edge.

Score

After losing to texas, this season felt hopeless. I all but bailed on the season, chalking it up to "same old Sooners" of the last several years. Since, OU has quietly done everything they needed to get back into the national conversation. Strangely, with Baylor, TCU and OSU coming up, they are still in the driver's seat for the conference (albeit with a steep road ahead) and if they can navigate their way through it unscathed, well...I just can't. None of what they've done matters if they take a dump tonight. They don't and the run starts today. Sooners win this one 38-35.

Boomer to the Motherfuckin Sooner.

OU vs. Baylor Or... Texas Tech Part the Deuce.. Maybe

Last game: The Sooners find themselves matched up against a team trying to make a statement and prove their lofty ranking was deserved. It was strength versus strength. Spread offense versus a defense designed to stop such a thing. The Nation found out the Red Raiders were overhyped.

This week: The Sooners find themselves matched up against a team trying to make a statement and prove their lofty ranking is deserved. It's strength versus strength. Spread offense versus a defense designed to stop such a thing. What will The Nation learn tonight?

The Baylor Bears, much like the Red Raiders, have played nobody leading up to this matchup. Buffalo has the best record of anyone the Bears have faced. The best Big 12 team they faced, K-State, is also the team that held them to a season low of 35 points. At the time of the Texas Tech matchup, the Red Raiders stiffest test had been TCU who held them to their lowest points of the season.

All of this to say that rankings and hype don't mean shit. This year's Oklahoma football team, while still a bit of a mystery and disappointment (oh, how spoiled are we?), have been tested. They've played in hostile territory and they've played against some ranked teams. You know at this point that there is a decent shot the Sooners are going to score 30. Maybe not much more than that but they can get there. You know they are going to hold someone under their scoring average (except texas damnit).

Baylor's numbers are off the charts. Their two leading receivers each have 30+ catches and average over 20 yards per. Their leading rushers each average over 8 yards per. It's PlayStation set on Rookie. But look at who they've played. It's real life set on Rookie. Wofford, Buffalo, Kansas, Iowa State.

Waco is probably the least intimidating place in the Big 12 to play. Besides the Cotton Bowl it's historically been the second best home away from home.

This need not be as scary as it is.

OFFENSE

No secret here it's all about controlling the clock, keeping Baylor off the field and making Baylor prove they can stop the run. Blake Bell just needs to be competent and Brennan Clay and Co. need to hang on to the football. Bell needs to take the easy passes when they are there but the offense needs to dictate the terms by shoving a potent ground game up Baylor's unproven ass.

For the love of all things holy I would like to put a good jinx on someone this week. I want, again for the love of all things holy, for Roy Damn Finch to step in and be Mr. Everything in Trey Millard's absence.

Speaking of Trey Millard can we pour a little out for our homey? WTF man? Godspeed in your rehab and thanks.

DEFENSE

Hoo boy. Everyone needs to double up on jock straps tonight. This is going to be a tester no doubt. It's nice having Frank Shannon back. That helps.

I can't find anywhere that says he isn't playing so I'm picking Eric Striker. He's the best blitzer by far and getting to the quarterback is the key to this Sooner squad getting off the field. This is my "Chess vs. Checkers" matchup to watch tonight and I like Ted Striker's chances.

THE SCORE

I am really counting on another paper tiger here. I am assuming that Baylor's defense is not only untested but also not up to the challenge. I am counting on the Sooners D being ready for the biggest test of their season. And I am counting on the Baylor offense to hershey squirt their britches a little bit when faced with a defense that is not made up of electric football figurines. Finally, I am counting on the Brothers Stoops and Josh Heupel to gameplan half as effectively as Art Briles.

A lot has to fall in place here. But it will and the Sooners make a statement of their own this week.

OU 42, Baylor 35

Boomer to the motherfuckin Sooner

Baylor

I come to you today, writing from my phone as the piece of shit Blogger wouldn't let me put up a post from the PC at my work for some reason. I'm happy about this. As a result, this may be shorter than normal (probably a good thing). 

There was a time when seeing Baylor come up on the schedule was a welcomed respite from the grind of a brutal Big 12 schedule. Oh how times have changed. What was once seen as a brief "lottery win" with the RG3 era, has turned into a legit program under the guidance of Art Briles. The rumors of him going to Texas have Sooner nation collectively scraping melted kit-kats from the inner linings of their jockey's. As it stands, he's made the Bears into legit contenders. I have strong doubts about tonight's contest. 

Mitch was (appropriately) worried that we'd be drubbed by Tech last week. Fortunately the Sooners were able to do enough to win that game. While solid, Tech is not going to be mistaken for Baylor, and we aren't in Norman. Make no mistake, this is the biggest game they've hosted in my lifetime, maybe ever. Big enough that they are taking the tarp off of the perpetually covered endzone seats to accommodate the ticket demand. This is bad. They are better than we are in nearly every facet, and I'm particularly worried that our decimated defense is going to be annihilated by their O. This is really bad. 

Offense

I'm feeling like our best chance in this one is to go with what we do best, run the football. Obviously because we are mush better at this than passing, it will (hopefully) keep their offense--and our defense off of the field, and if Baylor has a weak point it's stopping the run. Which sets it up perfectly for Heupel to get really fucking cute (see: OU v texas, 2013) and try to win a shoot out. That said, I'm hoping that common sense prevails and we hand it off early and often. It's our only chance really. I'm going with a hopeful pick. In light of his recent strong play vs Tech, I like Roy Damn Finch to be a spark that ignites our offense. 

Defense

I'm scared here, I don't really know how we're going to stop them. They do everything well on this side of the ball. We don't do much well. I know they pass and spread the field and score at breakneck speed. My vision though is that Seastrunk goes for about 200 and 5 scores. I hope I'm very wrong. I'm going to go with our best guy here. Big games call on your stars to step up and I think Aaron Motherfuckin Colvin does just that. I think he takes away half of the field, and makes some big tackles coming up in run support. 

Score

I'm nervous this could be 70-17 in favor of them. We've shat ourselves on the big stage for, oh, the last decade or so. None of this bodes well. I'm keeping the faith however (no reason to stop now), and taking the Sooners tonight. We play a grind it out game, get some lucky bounces and a win the turnover battle, Sooners "Miracle" this one with some old Sooner Magic: 31-30. 

Lets roll these punk bitches. 

Boomer to the Motherfuckin Sooner. 

Oklahoma v. Baylor

Since I couldn't care much less for today's matchup, let's talk Landry. Landry still does Lonnie things. I can't imagine how much money he cost himself by not going to the NFL last year. His whole career he's been leaving 150 passing yards on the table week after week. Last week was no exception. He'd have records no one could touch if he could keep his head out of his ass. His two INT's in the first half single-handedly kept things interesting. I think he might be, I'm sorry to say, the dumbest QB in the Stoops era. How else can you explain the fact that he has absolutely zero authority to check out of a play. Or that he never seems to survey the field prior to a play. He HAS to check the sidelines for everything.

Iowa State's QB, Steele Jantz, caught a blitz prior to a snap. What did he do? He made a change at the line, threw a quick pass to the WR covering the blitzer and made a decent gain. What would have happened if Landry was at QB. The entire offense would look at the sidelines, get a new play, the defense would also change and then something would happen. Might have been good, maybe bad. But Landry sure as hell wouldn't have made a call at the line and exploited the situation.

In other news, I'm happy for Brennan Clay. I've never been a huge fan as, prior to this season, Clay's only real usefulness was getting three yards a carry. He was a homeless man's version of Chris "Old Steady" Brown. He's taken a huge step forward and seems to have reduced Dom Whaley and/or Roy Finch to sideline observers.

My prediction of a career day for Clay was a wild guess only for its timing. When your career long gain from scrimmage is five yards and you suddenly start rattling off 15 to 20 yarders with regularity, you're due for a breakout. If it didn't happen last week it would have happened any of the next three.

OFFENSE

The wind is going to be howling today. Nobody respects the wind more than Bobby. Josh Heupel falls right in line. Ergo, vis-a-vis, to-wit, the Sooners will rely on short passes and the run game more than anyone woud like to see. So, whilst I'm tempted to ride the B. Clay train, I'm going to pick someone from the duo of Sterling Shepard or Jalen Saunders. I think the game plan is to get those guys in the open field and let them make plays. I can't talk myself out of Saunders.

The Baylor defense is god-awful. They are slightly better than West Virigina. The Sooners should run rough shod.

DEFENSE

Well I'm going Tony Motherfuckin Jefferson today. He's going to have his hands full patrolling the middle of the football field today. If he doesn't then Baylor needs to take a hard look at their film study situation. The Cyclones only had success across the middle and they had a pretty fair amount of it last week. Tony needs to make Baylor pay for testing this area of the field.

THE SCORE

So, maybe this is a revenge game for the Sooners. Maybe it's a trap game with West Virginia next week.

Surprise, surprise. I think it's a revenge game. I like the Sooners big today. Baylor gives up 40 a game. The Sooners can exceed that at home, even with sustained gale-force winds.

I'll take the Sooners here, 63-24

Boomer to the motherfuckin' Sooner

Baylor

Good morning fine ladies and gentleman. My post today comes to you from the sunny locale of Sedona, AZ. A far cry from my decimated home city of New York. Sadly, I'll be returning there tomorrow but for now it's sunshine and lollipops for Natey. The Sooners face a solid Baylor team this Saturday afternoon. Seems odd that a few short years ago this game had a W placed next to it sometime in April, or as soon as it was scheduled. Now however, it's not Alabama but it's no gimme either.

No one is forgetting last year's barn burner where the boys in Crimson neglectfully left their defense on the bus. This Baylor team is notably lacking one RG3, but let's hope that we line up 11 conscious players on the defensive side of the ball this time (looking at you Javon G.R. Harris)*. Baylor does score points pretty well, however the one thing they are better at than scoring points is allowing them.  Besides, in spite of two losses, it feels like our defense has been better than it was last season. At the very least, it doesn't get torched with regularity anymore.

*This G.R. is noting his moniker as Gas Rag which is bestowed for his propensity to be burned easily and with regularity. This is a unilateral move by me, but I'm sure Mitch won't put up too much of a fight. While Harris does make some nice plays on occasion, he makes some real dumbshit moves as well. I'll take consistently solid over feast/famine any day of the week. Read: I really dislike Javon Harris.

I like our chances today, the team looked good against a pesky ISU team last week and avoided a let down after the emotional Notre Dame loss. It seems as though we've got a pretty decent shot at beating the Baylor Bears. Provided we can make them earn their points with long, multi-play drives and we can keep their offense off of the field with a solid ground game I think we'll win.

Offense

Mitch continued his startlingly good, season-long impersonation of Nostradamus last week with a Brennan Clay bullseye. While I'll concede that Clay was the player of the game on offense last week, I didn't do too shabby with a (less impressive) Justin Brown pick as he went for 7 and 107 with 1 TD. Let's hope we both pick different players today, and that both players proceed to dominate as they did last week. You see, readers, having two really good players on offense statistically, is better than having only one (stay with me). Today I'm going with Jalen Saunders, if for no other reason than the guy is damn fun to watch out there. I like him for several great runs after the catch, and at least one TD.

Defense

This side of the ball has proven to be a bit of a crapshoot as not only has it been hard to pick a player of the game before the game, but it's not been easy to pick one after either. Today, I'm going with Aaron Colvin. He's really developed into a damn fine DB and one that seems to be as adept in the run game as he is in providing coverage. I'd love to predict that he forces a turnover today... so I will. Either a pick or a forced fumble, but I won't decide between the two (listen, I'm no Keith "Ms. Cleo" Mitchell over here).

Score

As I said before, the Baylor fellows can score some points. As I also said before, they can give up some points too. I like the Sooners today in a bit of a shootout. We control the ground game enough on offense and the passing game enough on defense to win. Sooners 38-24.

Boomer to the Motherfuckin' Sooner.

OU vs. Baylor

It's been a hell of a couple weeks. Since we last wrote in this space the following events occurred in college football: The Penn State Child Rape scandal, Mizzou's Gary Pinkel got a DWI, a Syracuse basketball coach got accused of being a pederast and a plane crash killed OSU women's basketball coach Kurt Budke.

"WTF"

On the football field, the Sooners lost their Offensive wunderkind, Ryan Broyles. Undefeated Stanford got smoked by Oregon. The Cowboys went ahead and looked like ass against Iowa State and got beat. In so doing, Brandon Weeden bequeathed his Heisman hopes (not too sad about it but I wish OU could have done this for him) and the Cowboys threw a serious wrench in OU's title game chances.

We are in the next to final act of the college football season. Act 1 was leading ourselves to believe there were so many good teams we might see 4 go undefeated and all the BCS speculation that goes along with it. Act 2 had some of those unbeatables losing and people believing that the shakeout was complete. There was anticipation in knowing that the remaining contenders would simply play out the string before meeting to decide it all. We're now in Act 3 which is the most fun. All the experts look like assholes because teams keep losing. It's the "Oh shit what's gonna happen" portion of our season where everyone has to win and everyone needs everyone else to lose and then we'll wait and see what the judges deem the best matchup. All of a sudden we've gone from possibly having 4 undefeated's to determining who's the best 1 loss team. It happens every year.

That's college football.

And now our 1 loss Sooners find themselves in Waco, Texas to face those wacky Baptists of Baylor. Prior to the season I was fairly nervous about this one. Last year I felt the Sooners really dodged a bullet when they played a Robert Griffin III-free Bears team. RGIII is a badass. His numbers this year are PlayStation esque.  Through his first 6 games he had some ludicrous stat like more TD's than incompletions. Unheard of.

He's come down to earth since. The Bears have gone on to lose 3 but  RGIII is still on many Heisman watch lists. He is, without a doubt, the heart and soul of the Bears. The Baylor offense is prodigious and the Sooners will have their hands full.

On the other hand (or, OTOH in text speak) the Sooners offense find themselves in the unenviable position of having to redefine themselves mid-season. Gone is the safety blanket of Broyles and the ho-hum reliability of his 14 catch, 170 yard performances. This loss is huge and cannot be understated. Lonnie Jones's world just got shaken and that's bad. Me no rikey nervous Lonnie. Kenny Fuckin Shitbag Stills is a Number 1 receiver on most any other team but Sooner fans are fooling themselves if they think the loss of Broyles will be completely made up for.

There is good news. It looks like the Baylor defense is pretty shitty so praise Jehovah the Sooners have what appears to be a fine opportunity to work out the kinks of this newish offense before Bedlam.

OFFENSE

Obviously the key is how does Lonnie play without his bosom chum and safety blanket? Which Wide Receiver(s) step up? To what degree does the offense change?

I think Lonnie will be fine the next two weeks. Kenny Fuckin Shitbag is a badass as we all know. Jaz Hands Reynolds has come on "in a great way" this year. It looks like DeJuan Miller will get the first crack at being the new 3rd wheel. If DeJuan doesn't work out there's always Trey Franks and Kameel Jackson.

My head tells me to pick a RB because I think the Sooners will come to rely on the ground game a bit more. But my head doesn't know what the hell it's talking about. The pick here is Kenny Fuckin Shitbag. He's clutch and has the swagger of a number 1 guy. Now there's no deferring to one of the all-time Sooner greats. The moment is his, the time is now.

The real wise pick might be the Belldozer. Dude brah is a force of nature.

DEFENSE

It's pretty simple. Stop Robert Griffin III. The hard part is stopping Robert Griffin III. It will take a total team effort.

Since I really have nothing else to add (This article is free. You get what you pay for) I'm going all heart here. I'm taking a page out of Navin's playbook and picking Big Frank Alexander. Blood flows to my groin region when Big Frank wreaks havoc on the football field. And he's wreaked a lot of havoc this football season. But I haven't picked him too much. So here it is.

THE SCORE

In my perfect scenario (read: Crimson Colored Glasses) I see the Sooners offense as a wounded and cornered animal. They lost their best running back. Now they've lost their best player. What's left is a group that must throw the kitchen sink at the opposing defense to be successful. Implementing the Bulldozer is evidence of this mentality. Now it's taken a step forward. So, it's conceivable we could see a pretty dynamic offense with no page of the playback left un-turned. That's my hope. In reality I think the Sooners look good these next two weeks in a false confident sort of way. By that I mean their opponents just aren't up to snuff. The offense looks like it hasn't missed a beat but they won't have really been tested. Who cares though. It's all about winning football games right now.

Defensively all I care about it making RGIII look human. Do that and we hold them under 30 points and we win.

OU 35, Baylor 17

Boomer to the motherfuckin Sooner

OU vs. Tech Post-Mortem and OU vs. Baylor

I'm about to write the easiest "piece" in the history of football. The only thing making it difficult is that I'm so drunk every sentence takes me about 10 minutes to hammer out.

I failed to write a column leading up to this Texas Tech game. If you co-write this blog you already know this. If you don't, then I'm just taking up 0's and 1's on the "Interwebs" and wasting my e-breath.

Had I written an OU-Tech pregame it would have said something about how Landry Jones (no nicknames; Solidarity) was certain to throw for 400+ yards and who knows how many touchdowns. Well, he had 5. Big fucking deal. I would have said DeMarco would be steady as a rock and how the defense would get some sacks and get some turnovers. Well, they did. Of course they did. It's a fucking joke how this team is all-world at home and first class pant-shitters on the road. I couldn't even enjoy this game because every time something positive happened I couldn't help but say to myself (or, because I may or may not have been inebriated, to every one in my purview), "OF COURSE THIS HAPPENED BECAUSE WE ARE AT HOME, NOT ON THE FUCKING ROAD!"

It's so easy to predict it's sickening. The Sooners can beat anyone by two touchdowns at home. I'd love to make it a challenge and look forward to the road games coming up (Baylor, OSU)  but it's not so much an anticipatory adventure as much as a fucking crapshoot.

Oh well, on to bigger and better things.

Baylor should be as close to a home game on the road as Texas is at the Cotton Bowl. I mean, all bets are off if the Sooners don't show up for this one. But Robert Griffin III is quite capable and to call us shaky on the road is like calling Tony Parker foolish for cheating on Eva Longoria.

But who gives a shit because you know why? I'm going to New York City to watch this one with my buddy and fellow co-blogger Navin. I could not be more pumped. I COULD NOT BE MORE PUMPED!

We'll be enjoying some adult beverages at a hole-in-the-wall, Sooner-themed bar in Manhattan where we'll, together, get to witness an OU road-game bed-wetting. Innocent bystanders might not be ready for the scene, even New Yorkers.

I'd like to say we'll have the wherewithall and inclination to do something maxo-zune-dweebie like co-blog or live blog the game and our experiences. But we are not assholes so unless something really strange happens (probably won't because we'll be so sober) don't count on it.

Quick picks before I hit the road.

Offense
It can only be one of four players. DeMarco, Ryan Broyles, Kenny Fuckin Shitbag Stills or Roy Finch. I feel like I pick DeMarco every week so he's out. Ryan Broyles only sets records at home because Landry gets confused when he isn't wearing a red jersey. So he's out. Ditto Kenny Fucking Shitbag. Roy Finch might not get on the field. Coaches Stoops and Wilson will explain it away like the Baylor scheme wasn't right for him or something nonsensical. Nonetheless, I'm stealing a page out of Navin's playbook and picking Roy.

Defense
Another crapshoot. Obviously someone is going to have to shadow Robert Griffin III. So whoever that is makes for a good candidate. But that person is probably a LB. That means Tom Wort (fuck no) and Travis Lewis (becoming the pick du jour a la DeMarco on offense). Shit. Well, I guess I'll go with Jamelle Fleming. Demontre Hurst never gets opportunities and Griffin III will throw to someone so it's Fleming by default.

The Score
Well, let's see if the Defense can defend the middle of the field. Let's see if they can keep Griffin III from running roughshod all day long. Let's see if the offense can keep from stepping on their own dicks. Of course I'm hopeful. But then of course I'm delusional.

OU 35 Baylor 21