As the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns get set to kick off in a pivotal Big 12 matchup, the Oklahoma Sooners are getting some good news with the return of Marcus Major. It’s possible that Marcus Major could play for the Sooners in the Red River Showdown, but how much remains to be seen.
Oklahoma comes into the game after a nice win over Kansas State. It was as good a win as they’ve had all season, even if the scoreboard reflects another narrow victory. The defense was active and got the stops when they needed to. The offense was efficient and scored on seven of their eight drives.
Coming into this week, the Sooners had things to work on, namely tackling, as they missed 15 tackles last week per Pro Football Focus. The Sooners can’t afford another tackling effort like that against Texas. It will be an incredibly long day if it is.
While tackling was an issue for the defense, the offense seemed to figure some things out. Spencer Rattler had arguably his best game of the season, throwing just three incompletions. He was accurate and decisive, getting the ball out quickly and hitting receivers in stride. Though there appeared to be a couple of miscommunications between Rattler and his receivers on deep routes, he looked fantastic. Hopefully, that’s a sign of things to come for the Sooners’ quarterback.
Another positive sign from last week was the way the offensive line played in the running game. If they can build off of that performance against Kansas State today in the Cotton Bowl, it will go a long way to securing a win for Oklahoma.
With that, let’s take a look at a couple more keys to the game and some of my favorite memories from the Red River Showdown.