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Two-thirds of the season is gone for the Red Raiders, and with a smiling 5-3 record they’re going to face the toughest opponent so far. Despite some problems during the season, Oklahoma is once again a legitimate playoff contender, and it has just been picked by the selection committee at No. 7 in its first weekly ranking.
Even though the first meeting on a football field between these two schools only happened in 1992, this is a game that’s particularly awaited, but rarely it became the reason of jubilation for Texas Tech.
Indeed, Oklahoma won 19 out of 25 previous meetings, while the Red Raiders took over only six, and actually holds a six-game winning streak that began in 2012.
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In this season Oklahoma is 7-1, with its only loss coming against Texas, 48-45, in the Red River rivalry. The Sooners can boast, as we’ll se in few lines, one of the best offenses in the nation, led by junior quarterback Kyler Murray, who was also drafted with the ninth overall selection in the 2018 MLB draft by the Oakland Athletics. He decided to continue his football career in this season before turning to his baseball career.
Like we were saying before, Oklahoma has an impressive offense, scoring at the moment 48.9 points per game (fourth in FBS). It’s even better than 2017, when they finished third in this stat with 45.1. The Sooners rank in the nation top-15 both in passing and rushing yards per game.
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On the defensive side, the Sooners allow 25.6 points per game, and that’s similar to 2017, but after the Texas game they fired their defensive coordinator Mike Stoops, and hired former Texas Tech assistant and defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill, who coached in Lubbock in the period 2000-2009.
Oklahoma’s defense doesn’t force many turnovers (only seven in eight games, two fumble recoveries and five picks), but averages 6.63 tackles for loss per game, and it’s way more efficient defending against the run (55th in the nation) than the passing game.
Probably Texas Tech doesn’t have the defense to stop (or at least to limit) this Oklahoma offense, but sometimes the Sooners allow much on defense. So there’s only one solution to win this game, scoring more than them.