O State

 Man this OU team is really bad. In my opinion the worst Sooners team since the John Blake era, which is equal parts good and also appalling. Brent Venables has come in and completely taken the wheels off of this team. He makes Alex Grinch look like Buddy fucking Ryan. Dylan Gabriel is pretty awful. Yes he makes plays occasionally, but more often than not he misses open guys, and I mean so open the blimp-cam has a hard time getting a defender on the screen with the receiver. There is little positive to say about this team. At this point, I'm just hoping the losses keep piling up so we can all move on from the Venables era and get a good coach back in there. 

Offense

At this point its basically Eric Gray or Eric Gray. Every other talented player is too dependent on DG to get them the ball. But, I will go with Braden Willis anyway. Maybe they'll run him out of the backfield a bit, or maybe Gabriel can complete a 5 or 6 yard pass to him and he can make things happen on his own. Why not?

Defense

Not a chance.

Score

Clearly the Vegas odds makers are knee deep in a serious crack addiction as OU is -7.5 today. I really think I might throw some cash at this one for OSU. Yes, they've looked pretty bad, but we just lost to WVU and everyone knows Mike Gundy has the biggest boner for beating OU. Still, for the sake of tradition I will pick OU at home 27-24.

Boomer to the Motherfuckin' Sooner

Oklahoma Sooners vs. West Virginny

 Hello Sooner fans. Here's today's missed deadline BLUF:

The Sooners need to pick themselves up after a tough loss at home last week.

I'd like to see the offense use a lot of play action. Get Dillon Gabriel on the run where he has a choice to tuck and run or get something easy in space where mismatches exist for Brayden Willis and Eric Gray. Also, and critically, take care of the ball. 

The defense, well, they need to toughen up. 

The Sooners will lose handily if they show any sign of a hangover from last week. They need to show some gumption and, if they do, I think they can win something like 38-31.

Boomer to the motherfuckin Sooner

West Virginia

 This Sooners football team simply is not good. If anything the defense is worse than the last few years and the offense most definitely is. Years of watching football has taught me that is not a good recipe for winning football. The really discouraging thing is that there hasn't been any improvement on defense. If anything, they've gotten worse as the season has gone on. I realize these aren't Venables guys, but they were good enough to be recruited by and play for a perennial top 10 team. If he is the defensive wizard everyone says, they should be getting better. They should at bare minimum be close to average. In a nutshell, I'm not impressed. Nor am I encouraged. It feels as though some dark days may be ahead of us. 

Offense

To their credit, the offense has looked better. And on a team lacking in bright spots, Eric Gray has certainly been one. He looks worlds better than he did last year. I'm not sure if this is scheme, or he's just figured it out but he's a nightmare in the open field and more than serviceable between the tackles. In turn, I am picking him as my OPG.

Defense

Just nobody even approaching decent here. 

Score

I know nothing about West Virginia, moreover I have no interest in learning about them. Sooners manage to do enough on defense to win. 41-35.

Boomer to the Motherfuckin' Sooner 

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

Baylor

Following a one week hiatus I'm back, relax. After a pendulum like start to the season where our Sooners looked equal parts dominant and completely inept, they seem to have settled in to something likely more realistic. Which is to say, they are mediocre. The type of team that will play a bowl game where about half of the seats go unsold. It's a far cry from our usual level of eking out a conference title and then wringing our hands about whether we're going to get into a playoff we have no business being in. I'm not sure which is worse, I suppose the current version. I at least feel far less inspired about my fandom. And with today's game against Baylor relegated to ESPNs subscriber only online network, the national interest is spelled out right there. 

I know nothing about Baylor other than they were initially ranked, as we were, and later proved that was wildly undeserved. I suspect if I knew more about them I would have a much more gloomy outlook on this one than I already do. But, after managing to beat a highly overrated KU team and slightly underrated ISU team I don't really know what to think. A blowout loss would  not surprise me any more than a win. 

Offense

Dylan Gabriel's play has mirrored that of the team in my opinion. At times he looks very capable and others he looks absolutely horrible. But, I will place enough of my faith in him that I will pick Marvin Mims this week. Eric Gray has been a very pleasant surprise this year, and I think he will make some great plays as usual, but I think Mims gets back on track today with a big game. 

Defense

I am not picking a defensive player. They are just so bad in all phases. I will however pick Billy Bowman's neckerchief as daintiest accessory of the game. 

Score

For no particular reason, I will pick OU to win today 31-27. Let's close out this lost season with a nice win streak and play spoiler to some of that teams that have done that to us in the past.

Boomer to the Motherfuckin' Sooner

Oklahoma Sooner vs. Iowa State Cyclones

Good morning, Sooner fans. Warmest of greeting and salutations to you on this fine Saturday. Today our Sooners travel to Ames, Iowa to take on the Cyclones in what will hopefully be a pretty entertaining game.

We last saw our Sooners two weeks ago against Kansas. The situation was bleak at best and dire at worst. The Sooners had to win it and a path forward was difficult to find. Well, the Sooners beat the spread and eked out a 52-42 victory over the Jayhawks. Thankfully, the home faithful did not storm the field, but it did feel like a massive relief mixed in with a little bit of hope for something positive the rest of the way.

The Sooners follow that up with a well-timed bye and now face the surprisingly hapless Cyclones.

CUE GUS JOHNSON VOICE

It's the Battle for the Bottom in Ames!  

OFFENSE

It turns out that competent quarterback play is important and, against the Jayhawks, Dillon Gabriel put on his best performance as a Sooner. The offense looked, dare I say, modern and more often than not had the Jayhawk D grasping for straws and trying shit that you just don't see football teams do like play a prevent defense in the red zone.

The Cyclones will be much better, in spite of their record. The Sooners have to keep Gabriel comfortable. The backfield combo of Eric Gray and Javontae Barnes is becoming pretty lethal and opening things up for Marvin Mims and Drake Stoops. Gray, in particular, has made a leap and the Sooners need to find six ways from Sunday to get him the ball. 

Eric Gray is my OPOG but the offensive line needs to play their best game of the season so far to really give the Sooners their best chance of winning. DG doesn't take many sacks and his TD:INT ratio is fire at 13:1. Good things happen when DG is not getting terrorized. 

DEFENSE

The bye week could not have come at a better time for this unit. They have been getting their asses kicked for the better part of almost two months both on the field and off. They looked better against Kansas and still allowed 42 points. 

Billy Bowman still appears to be out for the Sooners and he might be the piece that makes this unit go just as DG does so for the offense. In his stead, Key Lawrence has been the most competent but is inconsistent.

The other story thus far is the lack of pass rush. Maybe that changes today since quarterback play seems to be a weak point for ISU.

The key, though, is the Sooners selling out to stop the rush. They have to get back to basics against a quarterback that is prone to turning the ball over. There can't be any bailouts on obvious running downs or first downs on "white flag" long down running plays. 

I'm not going to pick a DPOG because they are playing like such shit but I have a feeling that the off week gave some younger guys a chance to get some reps in practice and the staff is really separating wheat from chaff. 

Why not spend the rest of this season working on cohesion amongst guys you see as future pieces? Today is the perfect opportunity to identify the pieces that give you the best chance the rest of the way.

THE SCORE

The Sooners are favored by 1.5 and ESPN gives Iowa State a 65% chance to win. That...doesn't seem good. It's predicated on the idea that the Cyclone D will give the Sooners fits and that the Sooner D can't contain a wet fart and also ISU has been close to beating the Sooners in recent years while coming up just short.

It's mostly about the Sooner D though and I am truly interested to see if this coaching staff can take advantage of the bye week and is able to solve any of the issues that have plagued it ever since the Nebraska game.

Obviously, I have faith they have and, as such, I like the Sooners today in a somewhat surprisingly dominant fashion.

I like the Sooners 34-17

Boomer to the motherfuckin Sooner

Oklahoma Sooners Vs. Kansas Jayhawks

 Hello Sooner fans and welcome to another gorgeous Saturday for college football. Gird up your loins and prepare yourself mentally for it to be another disastrous day for our Sooners. Our boys are fresh off a historical defeat against the rival Texas Longhorns, are losers of their last three games and are inexplicable favorites against the #19 ranked Kansas Jayhawks, a team that is almost certain to play over its head today in Norman. 

The way I see it, three things need to happen for the Sooners to secure a victory. All are big ifs. 

First, what crowd is on hand for the Sooners needs to be engaged and positive as long as possible. This team does not need the collective palpable anxiety of 90,000 weighing it down.

OFFENSE

Secondly, Dillon Gabriel needs to be set up for some early success. There has to be a scheme that takes advantage of what he does well (run) and what he does not (throw deep downfield). There are endless ways of doing this that do not include Gavin Freeman reverses. 

DEFENSE

Third, the Sooners D needs to feed off the success of the offense. I want to see effort like we had at Nebraska. While these guys have been historically bad, it doesn't help that the offense can't stay on the field.

David Ogbegwu is my DPOG

SCORE

There is a very good chance the crowd is flat, Dillon Gabriel is below average and the sails on the defense lay slack. This would not bode well. 

If the crowd is in it and stays in it after early success maybe the Sooners can string 60 minutes of competent enough football to beat the vaunted Kansas Jayhawks. 

It takes all of my crimson colored glass optimism to say the Sooners can put up 31 and hold the Jayhawks to something less than that. 

Sooners 31, Jayhawks 30

Boomer to the motherfuckin Sooner