Some big games are on tap in this coming weekend’s slate of college football, and the Big 12 is never short of such action.
Both the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Oklahoma Sooners are coming off wins on Saturday, but only one of them will walk away from Norman this coming weekend with another crucial victory to keep up with undefeated Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma State in the conference standings.
Read on as we break down what we could expect from this heated Big 12 rivalry. And for more of Week 8’s marquee matches, check out our previews for Utah vs. USC and Tennessee vs. Alabama right after this.
[sc:NCAAFArticles ]Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. Oklahoma Sooners
Where: Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, Norman
When: Saturday, October 24, 3:30 PM ET
Line: Texas Tech Red Raiders (+14.5) at Oklahoma Sooners (-14.5) – view all NCAA Football lines
TV Broadcast: ABC
Betting on the Texas Tech Red Raiders (5-2, 2-2 Big 12)
In spite of the 30-20 win over the Kansas Jayhawks on Saturday, Texas Tech head coach Cliff Kingsbury wasn’t impressed with how his Red Raiders ran their offense in the victory.
[sc:NCAA240banner ]The team is coming off three-straight games having scored 55 points or more, so Kingsbury expected his boys to trample all over the Big 12 basement-dwelling Jayhawks, who are now in a nine-game losing streak.
Still, Texas Tech’s bad day on offense is still better than most. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes had 354 yards on 29-of-50 passing, but only mustered up one touchdown and also threw a pick. Mahomes was methodical with his distribution (five receivers with 50-yard performances), but perhaps this was actually detrimental to the team’s goal of putting points on the board.
The same could be said of the running game, which had 222 yards on the ground that led to just a single TD. DeAndre Washington led the way with his 157 yards on 23 carries, including the lone rushing touchdown for the Red Raiders in the win.
In spite of the “subpar” offensive performance from last weekend, Texas Tech is still putting up 623.7 yards and 49.4 points per game this season – second- and third-best in the conference, respectively. However, the team better find its high-scoring ways once more, especially as the Sooners have the best defense in the Big 12. Oklahoma is just giving up 321.7 yards and 18.8 points per contest, and is the only team in the conference that has limited their opposition to less than 20 points per outing.
With that in mind, it’s no wonder then as for why Kingsbury was upset about the offensive output on Saturday. The Red Raiders’ two losses this season were at the hands of the conference’s top two powerhouses in TCU (55-52) and Baylor (63-35), where they failed to outgun the two juggernauts with their own supposedly explosive O.
The total has gone over in Texas Tech’s last four meetings with the Sooners.
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Betting on the Oklahoma Sooners (5-1, 2-1 Big 12)
One week after being shocked by the Texas Longhorns in the Red River Showdown, the No. 19 Oklahoma Sooners took out their frustrations towards another Big 12 cannon fodder in the Kansas State Wildcats with a resounding 55-0 shutout victory on Saturday.
To say that quarterback Baker Mayfield started the game off strong would be an understatement. Mayfield’s five passing touchdowns all came in the first half of the bout and finished with 282 yards on 20-for-28 passing for an insane 222.9 QB rating.
Even Oklahoma’s running game was at its finest, as the team racked up 232 rushing yards in the game. Joe Mixon continues to make his case as the top back in the depth chart over Samaje Perine, dashing for 73 yards to lead all of the Sooners’ rushers on Saturday and also added the final TD in the blowout.
The entire conference very well knows that the Sooners’ D is top notch. They’re the only team in the Big 12 that has allowed less than 1,000 total passing yards to date, and could easily give Texas Tech’s Mahomes the fits all afternoon. Having said that, the team better focus on not letting games get out of hand in clutch situations instead. Oklahoma has just converted 39.8 percent of its third downs – third-worst in the Big 12.
Still, recent history is on the side of the boys from Norman: Oklahoma has won four of the last five meetings with Texas Tech (3-2 ATS).
Writer’s Prediction
Oklahoma jumps to another early lead and prevails with a 34-19 victory.
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