OKLAHOMA SOONERS (4-0, 1-0)
TCU HORNED FROGS (2-2, 0-1)
The Oklahoma Sooners take on the TCU Horned Frogs this Saturday in Norman. OU returns home after a decisive victory in South Bend last week over nationally ranked Notre Dame 35-21. The Horned frogs returned to the win column last week beating SMU, 48-17 in Ft. Worth.
The Sooners have returned to national prominence with their 4-0 record, and a quality win on the road at Notre Dame. TCU has been up and down this season with wins against woeful SMU and SELA while losing to LSU to start the season and suffering a road loss at conference foe Texas Tech.
On paper, this should be a relatively easy Sooner victory. The renewed strength of the OU defense and the emergence of Blake Bell at quarterback make the Sooners solid on both sides of the ball. Throw in the consistent play on special teams and OU could be a dominant team again. The Frogs have been inconsistent at best. They played LSU tough in their opener and losing to the highly ranked SEC power, in Baton Rouge, is nothing to be ashamed about. Few teams beat the Tigers at home. the wins against SE Louisiana and SMU were expected, the loss to Texas Tech was not. Not many expected the Frogs to be 4-0. No one, outside of Lubbock, expected them to be 2-2.
TCU and OU have a little history outside the Big 12. In 2005 TCU handed the Sooners the first non-conference home loss of Bob Stoops career. Stoops doesn't lose at home very often, in fact he is 84-5 at home in his career. TCU was considered a national power program prior to joining the Big 12 last year. Frogs head coach Gary Patterson is 116-36 in 13 years at TCU including a perfect 13-0 in 2010. However, after an 11-2 season in 2011, the Frogs went 7-6 in their first Big 12 season including a 4-5 conference record.
Despite the lack of conference success last season, TCU was projected to finish on top of the Big 12 this season. They brought experience at quarterback and the strength of Patterson's resume. The Frogs lost senior QB Casey Pachall to injury early and have depended on inconsistent sophomore back up Trevone Boykin since game 2. The TCU defense, once one of the most feared in college football, has given up 25.5 points per game this season. The offense simply has not been able to score more than the defense has given up in their two losses. The Frogs have scored 86 points in two wins and only 37 in two losses. OU, with Blake under center, has scored 86 points and given up 41. In all games the Sooners have averaged 46.5 points scored and have only given up and average of 12.
All that being said, the Sooners are on a high and TCU is trying to figure out how to win in the Big 12. The Horned Frogs are a proud program that has a winning tradition. They are not used to losing more than two game per season and are faced with the prospect of another 5 or 6 loss season in 2013. This game has all the ingredients for a trap game. TCU knows it can win in Norman and Gary Patterson knows how to win. In addition, the Sooners travel to Dallas next week to take on a weak Texas team. A win in the Cotton Bowl and Bob Stoops will have a 10-5 record against UT and Mack Brown. The Red River Rivalry is the standard by which OU and it's head coaches are judged. It would be easy for the Sooners to look past TCU and set their sights on the Longhorns. Can Stoops keep the team focused on the task at hand? We'll know tonight.
I anticipate a quick start by TCU and perhaps even catching the Sooners off guard by taking an early lead. However, the Sooners have shown the ability to handle adversity much better this season than the past few years. They have a dominant attitude on defense and are gaining comfort on offense under Bell. A slow start by OU will likely end in an attitude adjustment and the result will be dominance. Sooners win 45-24.
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