@BPrzybylo - So what to make of the second matchup? After being incredibly off about the first go-round between Oklahoma and Texas, the Sooners (and your Scoop staff) get a chance to get it right with the Big 12 championship.
Texas’ offense has never looked as good as it did that October afternoon. And what keep going back toward is just how different this Sooners defense is now. Not necessarily better, but different. Where before you had names like Justin Broiles, Ryan Jones and Mark Jackson, now you’re seeing Caleb Kelly, Ronnie Perkins and Robert Barnes.
This is where everything bottomed out, and Lincoln Riley knew he had to make a change. The 48 points scored is the most by Texas in a Red River Rivalry matchup, and there are many who believe the Longhorns can put up that much or even more Saturday.
OU’s offense is humming as perhaps like never before. The Sooners looked good in Dallas, but when you add in the way the offensive line has played in the second half of the season and the emergence of Kennedy Brooks as the No. 1 running back, there are reasons to feel 45 points is aiming a bit too low.
Kyler Murray is never going to want to win a college football game more than Saturday. All that (fun) off the field stuff with Murray and Sam Ehlinger goes out the window once the game gets started, and Murray is going to have to play clean.
The two turnovers were costly last week in Morgantown just like the two turnovers were crucial at the Cotton Bowl.
Murray has gone back-to-back games throwing an interception to start the third quarter. That cannot happen this time around.
It won’t.
OU makes it case for the college football playoff with a solid win over Texas, featuring another big outing by Marquise Brown and forcing two turnovers that would offset any missteps made by OU’s offense.
OU 55
Texas 38
@Eddie_Rado - Revenge. Rebuttal. A chance to run it back. Call it whatever you want, it's an opportunity. And, oh, what a mighty one indeed.
The Big 12 Championship returns to Arlington this weekend and with it comes the first OU-Texas in-season rematch since 1903. Everything about this one seems different. It'll be the first time OU-Texas has been played away from the Cotton Bowl since 1923. Yes, that's a first of my lifetime.
I won't say I had a dream about it (mostly because I'm not a loser or a ghost) but Kyler Murray delivers (as he usually does) in the fourth quarter. Oklahoma gets enough stops to make you think they resemble a defense. I just can't pick Texas to beat the Sooners twice in a season. But I've been wrong before.
Oklahoma 52
Texas 47
@Josh_M - When I look at this game there are so many ways to look at it but the two things that I keep coming back to are two things I find to be fairly consistent.
1) It's really tough to beat a good time twice. I know it's a coaching cliche, but most cliches are cliches because they've been proven right frequently.
2) The best player on the field usually wins. And while I think Sam Ehlinger has made huge strides this year, Kyler Murray, he isn't.
Oklahoma's defense will struggle but the switches that Bob mentioned above all should be better for the matchup with Texas than their predecessors. With Kelly and Perkins you get experience and physicality, respectively, on the edge while with Barnes you get a more capable downhill (see: run game) defender.
Another change has been the play of the cornerbacks last week and the chance for the trio of Tre Brown, Parnell Motley, and Tre Norwood to build on their first strong performance in quite some time.
That being said you can bet that Texas will try to see where Brendan Radley-Hiles is and get him lined up with Lil'Jordan Humphrey to see if they can find more of the same joy West Virginia found.
They will find plenty but I think Oklahoma will come up with enough stops of a fairly modest offense (after finding several on the road against an elite unit just last week) to get out Dallas with a win.
Oklahoma 52
Texas 41
Texas’ offense has never looked as good as it did that October afternoon. And what keep going back toward is just how different this Sooners defense is now. Not necessarily better, but different. Where before you had names like Justin Broiles, Ryan Jones and Mark Jackson, now you’re seeing Caleb Kelly, Ronnie Perkins and Robert Barnes.
This is where everything bottomed out, and Lincoln Riley knew he had to make a change. The 48 points scored is the most by Texas in a Red River Rivalry matchup, and there are many who believe the Longhorns can put up that much or even more Saturday.
OU’s offense is humming as perhaps like never before. The Sooners looked good in Dallas, but when you add in the way the offensive line has played in the second half of the season and the emergence of Kennedy Brooks as the No. 1 running back, there are reasons to feel 45 points is aiming a bit too low.
Kyler Murray is never going to want to win a college football game more than Saturday. All that (fun) off the field stuff with Murray and Sam Ehlinger goes out the window once the game gets started, and Murray is going to have to play clean.
The two turnovers were costly last week in Morgantown just like the two turnovers were crucial at the Cotton Bowl.
Murray has gone back-to-back games throwing an interception to start the third quarter. That cannot happen this time around.
It won’t.
OU makes it case for the college football playoff with a solid win over Texas, featuring another big outing by Marquise Brown and forcing two turnovers that would offset any missteps made by OU’s offense.
OU 55
Texas 38
@Eddie_Rado - Revenge. Rebuttal. A chance to run it back. Call it whatever you want, it's an opportunity. And, oh, what a mighty one indeed.
The Big 12 Championship returns to Arlington this weekend and with it comes the first OU-Texas in-season rematch since 1903. Everything about this one seems different. It'll be the first time OU-Texas has been played away from the Cotton Bowl since 1923. Yes, that's a first of my lifetime.
I won't say I had a dream about it (mostly because I'm not a loser or a ghost) but Kyler Murray delivers (as he usually does) in the fourth quarter. Oklahoma gets enough stops to make you think they resemble a defense. I just can't pick Texas to beat the Sooners twice in a season. But I've been wrong before.
Oklahoma 52
Texas 47
@Josh_M - When I look at this game there are so many ways to look at it but the two things that I keep coming back to are two things I find to be fairly consistent.
1) It's really tough to beat a good time twice. I know it's a coaching cliche, but most cliches are cliches because they've been proven right frequently.
2) The best player on the field usually wins. And while I think Sam Ehlinger has made huge strides this year, Kyler Murray, he isn't.
Oklahoma's defense will struggle but the switches that Bob mentioned above all should be better for the matchup with Texas than their predecessors. With Kelly and Perkins you get experience and physicality, respectively, on the edge while with Barnes you get a more capable downhill (see: run game) defender.
Another change has been the play of the cornerbacks last week and the chance for the trio of Tre Brown, Parnell Motley, and Tre Norwood to build on their first strong performance in quite some time.
That being said you can bet that Texas will try to see where Brendan Radley-Hiles is and get him lined up with Lil'Jordan Humphrey to see if they can find more of the same joy West Virginia found.
They will find plenty but I think Oklahoma will come up with enough stops of a fairly modest offense (after finding several on the road against an elite unit just last week) to get out Dallas with a win.
Oklahoma 52
Texas 41
