Texas vs Oklahoma, On Short Notice

I do not have a lot of time to devote to this particular post because I have one of those pesky exams these college kids are having to deal with all the time, this particular one is on statistics. Yippie. Anyways this will be an interesting game no mater what, not just because of the rivalry and the history, but because of the history of both of these teams over the past couple of years. A lot of the kids on the Texas side of the ball don’t know what it is like to get your ass handed to you over and over by your biggest rival, which is what happened on the first Saturday in October for the majority of this decade. So it stands to reason that there is a quite confidence in Texas these days, even if it isn’t particularly well founded. But the Longhorns have enjoyed the Lions share of the success in the Big 12. You know with that pesky little national championship
, and that 10 win season last year. Meanwhile, in roughly the same time period the Sooners were unable to capitalize upon one of the most prodigious talents ever to don the Crimson and Cream and succeeded instead, to run Adrian Peterson into the ground. Now he is thriving in the NFL, where the coaches don’t deem it prudent to run him 37 times against Baylor. Texas will have some confidence, even if Texas fans themselves don’t have a lot of confidence in their offense as currently being deployed. And judging by the look of things there is a growing sentiment for the prodigious talents of John Chiles relative to the calm, collected efficiency of Colt McCoy, or rather the efficiency of the Version 2006 Colt McCoy, and I tend to agree with it, to a point. And that would be the point where you bench your starting QB in favor a guy who has completed 1 of 6 passes at this level. No worries though, those Longhorns are Soulja Boys, they can handle anything.

Of last weekends losses Oklahoma’s was by far the most shocking of the two. Texas had been skating since the first week and it was just a matter of time before someone put the axe to Texas. Most people, myself included, had concluded that Oklahoma was going to be the team to do just that right about when Texas had found itself in a dog fight with the sturdy Golden Knights of UCF. Oklahoma on the other hand had an epic second half meltdown. Their problems were basic tactical, executional and judgmental errors, things that are very correctable. Texas has the talent, and therefore the inherent ability to put their cleats on the throat of everyone they play but seem strangely unwilling, or unable to do so against anyone but Rice. Texas hasn’t corrected their issues, they still run an offense ill suited to the talents of the QB at hand, and because of that are unable to put the ball in the hands of their play makers with a chance to make plays. These are questions that popped up in week one and are still just as valid six weeks later. No one knows how Oklahoma will react, but something tells me it will be very well, their questions are newer, and fresher, and thereby less worrisome because they have not yet evolved into persistent problems. Under Stoops Oklahoma has been 13-2 coming off a loss, I think that it will be 14-2 after Saturday.

I Say: Oklahoma 31; Texas 20