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October 13, 2007
Missouri at Oklahoma
Posted at October 13, 2007 02:09 AM in College Football
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| The Teams: | The #11 Missouri Tigers (5-0) visit Gaylord Family-Memorial Stadium to play the #6 Oklahoma Sooners (5-1) | |
| When: | Saturday 10/13/07 at 5:30 PM Central | |
| Television: |  | |
| The Playmakers: |
QB Sam Bradford: Outperforming all expectations, 1423-18-4 passing RB DeMarco Murray: RS-Fr has earned more carries than the senior, 444-9 rushing RB Allen Patrick: Murray is emerging as a great back but Patrick is no slouch, 411-5 rushing WR Malcom Kelly: A deep threat that commands a double team, 22-454-8 receiving WR Juaquin Iglesias: Bradford's favorite target, 35-558-3 receiving, 300-0 kick returns TE Jermaine Gresham: Will find favorable matchups over the middle, 16-178-5 receiving DE Auston English: The primary pass rusher will need to rattle Daniel, 19 tackles (10 for loss), 6 sacks | |
| The Matchup: | Missouri has lost 16 straight road games against Oklahoma. On top of that, Missouri has lost 13 straight road games against ranked opponents. With a win here, the Tigers will quickly sort out the jumbled Big XII North hierarchy. And what better way to exorcise the old Sooner demons than by doing them in their house and effectively killing Oklahoma's national title hopes and dreams. The Missouri offense, ranked 5th in the NCAA in total offense, has simply been unstoppable. Unfortunately the Tigers will be without leading rushing Tony Temple. In his place will be Jimmy Jackson, who has only carried the ball 12 times this season. Against the stout Sooners defense, which is only allowing 1.89 yards per attempt, Jackson will end up being a sacrificial lamb in the effort to run just enough to keep the defense honest. The bulk of Missouri rushing will need to be by Chase Daniel scrambling when he sees an opening. And expect the Tigers to take advantage of Oklahoma's speed with Jeremy Maclin's big play ability on reverses. Provided Daniel receives decent protection (and so far this year he has), Missouri should be able to move the ball in the passing game. Last week Texas found a way to get the tight ends involved and found many matchups with linebackers who just couldn't keep up. With Rucker and Coffman both presenting excellent threats the Sooners will be forced to bring the safeties in on the coverage or they'll get picked apart over the middle. Missouri has good wide-outs so the Sooners will have difficulty covering everyone. Pressuring the QB will be Oklahoma's best defense and Auston English will need to spend a lot of time in Daniel's face to slow Missouri down. Missouri's defense is not good. They aren't terrible either, but being not good is not good against an explosive offense. The Sooners will be able to run well, you just can't keep both Murray and Patrick down all game. They'll be balanced and they'll parlay that balance into favorable deep looks for Malcom Kelly and friends. So here's the deal: the Sooners fumble, fairly often in fact. Missouri is going to need to be Johnny-on-the-Spot and recover those fumbles; forcing an interception wouldn't hurt either. There's no doubt in my mind that Missouri can hang with the Sooners. However, for an upset road victory Missouri will need their A game and some breaks because Oklahoma can still win with only their B game. I don't think Oklahoma runs away with this one, but they should win. |
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| Prediction: | Oklahoma wins 31-21 | |
| Computer Says: | Oklahoma wins by 10 | |
| Point Spread: | Oklahoma by 12 |
Missouri TigersUpdate:
In my opinion, I pretty much nailed it in my pre-game analysis. The Sooners won 41-31, but they did turn it over to give the Tigers a chance. Missouri QB Chase Daniel just made too many mistakes of his own.