Alabama Football: Week six key games for Crimson Tide fans
By Ronald Evans
Oklahoma vs. Texas in Dallas, TX
College Gameday is going to be at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on Saturday in hopes of a return to form for the Red River Shootout between the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns. In 2008, the No. 5 Longhorns upset the No. 1 Sooners and this Saturday will be the first time since 2013 that both teams are ranked going into the game.
Although, don’t let that fool you because it was just three years ago that a 2-4 Longhorn team upset the No. 10 Sooners in what would be a peak Red River game.
Right now No. 7 Oklahoma is firing on all cylinders with MLB draftee Kyler Murray quarterbacking the Sooner offense to 523.2 yards and 48.6 points per game, while Tom Herman’s “high-flying” Longhorn offense is averaging 396.6 yards and 28.8 points per game. Texas’ No. 19 ranking and the throngs of “Texas is back” shouts from diehards is predicated upon two victories in two weeks over then-Top 25 teams.
Come to find out, USC was suspect going into their match-up, to begin with, and TCU was properly tenderized by Ohio State from the week before. Texas is not quite back, but if Herman and his DC Todd Orlando can create some havoc upfront, slow down Murray and the running game, then maybe this team has a shot.
As was mentioned before, this rivalry has produced some head-scratching victories in the past and I certainly wouldn’t put it past this Longhorn team to pull off the upset, but the Sooners look like a team that may be on autopilot until its November 23 clash with the Mountaineers. And I’m not going to pick against them until then.
Game Prediction: Bama Hammer Contributor, Jonathan Waldrop, Oklahoma 45 – Texas 30