The time is here. By far the most difficult game of the regular season is here. I'm both nervously terrified and anxiously excited. Either way. I can't wait. Let's hear your goals and predictions for the game.
Goals: We need to dominate the line of scrimmage. Quinn Ewers will not be able to win the game with his arm alone. The running game is absolutely crucial to their offense. We shut that down, we have a chance. But Texas also has a dominant defensive line. If ever there was a time for our offensive line and running backs to have a breakout game, this would be it. Finally, we need to fix our issues in coverage. One consistent theme with our pass defense recently is we are leaving HUGE holes in the zones which allow quarterbacks nowhere close to Quinn Ewers ability to torch us. Alabama has a stellar defense and we saw what he did to them. Our passing game on offense will be just fine. But dominating the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, plus having tight coverage the whole game, will give us the best chance to win.
Score prediction: I am a firm believer that there is no way of being able to accurately predict this game. Both teams could be 0-5, 5-0, one could be winless while the other is undefeated, one could be #1 while the other is unranked. This game almost always comes down to the last play.
That said, I'm going to optimistically predict a score of 27-24, OU wins
Limit the run game and OU will dominate this game. We'll see how our cheetah position and/or LB crew handles Tejas' TE game. But if we can limit Texas' running game and force Ewers to throw...I think OU wins by 10+. But this is also the RRR, so who the hell knows.
With that said, OU needs to establish SOMETHING of a running game themselves. I feel we've kept about 30% of the playbook hidden just for this game...we'll see if Lebby has anything up his sleeve for Texas' Defense.
I'd REALLY like to pick OU in this game...and if OU wins I'll be pleasantly surprised...but right now my predictions is:
OU-23
Texas -27
I DO think we'll be getting payback in the Big XII championship game, much like in 2018.