Up Next: Sooners Wire Staff Predictions
The wait is over. The game we always have circled on the calendar every season is here. For the first time since 2009, Texas enters the Red River game as the higher-ranked squad. Oklahoma comes in having to prove themselves. Regardless of your thoughts on Texas, two things are most undeniably true: Texas is a much better team than it has been in recent years and proved it by going to Tuscaloosa and beating Nick Saban.
Texas is top to bottom, the more talented team, but that’s been the case in this rivalry on several occasions over the years. That hasn’t stopped the Sooners from dominating the series the past five to 10 years.
So, what happens on Saturday?
Oklahoma and Texas get into an all-out war.
The game is decided by fewer than seven points.
Dillon Gabriel and Billy Bowman didn’t play last year. The Sooners will have them both, and that will matter. The Sooners will have to run the ball because Texas will not allow Gabriel to sit back and play pitch-and-catch with his talented wide receiver corps.
The Sooners’ ground-game troubles could be the difference between winning or losing this game. They can win if they run the ball better this game than at any point this season. Oklahoma may be in trouble if Gabriel is forced to throw 55 times.
Defensively, Brent Venables will have something cooked up. I’m skeptical about how long Oklahoma’s defensive line will hold up against the Texas line, but the Sooners play a lot of bodies up front, and that matters.
Gabriel throws two touchdowns, Tawee Walker scores once on the ground, and Dasan McCullough gets a sack.
The Golden Hat will be in Norman as Oklahoma leaves the Big 12 and heads to the SEC next summer.
Sooners 27, Longhorns 21
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