Nebraska vs. Oklahoma

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TheCheshireCat

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We are likely without our starting quarterback, and almost for sure without our starting quarterback at 100%. Cody green has done a decent job managing, but Oklahoma will have a better defense than CU.

On the other hand, Landry Jones throws a lot of interceptions - not what you want to do against this secondary. DeMarco Murray might be out. And we have a better overall defense by far.

Discuss.

 
Landry Jones threw the ball 60+ times last night. If they try that aginst our secondary it could be a very long night for Landry.

 
I have a feeling it will be much like last years game, a low scoring defensive battle. If we could create turnovers and give ourselves good field position, we have Alex Henery as our secret weapon. If we do not have good field position, I do not like our chances scoring. Also, OU runs a no huddle offense, if the game is close going into the 4th, I don't like our chances. Our defense will be tired and our offense won't do anything long enough to keep them off the field. We need a fast start like Mizzou.

 
TheCheshireCat said:
We are likely without our starting quarterback, and almost for sure without our starting quarterback at 100%. Cody green has done a decent job managing, but Oklahoma will have a better defense than CU.

On the other hand, Landry Jones throws a lot of interceptions - not what you want to do against this secondary. DeMarco Murray might be out. And we have a better overall defense by far.

Discuss.
Click to expand...
Regardless if Cody Green plays or even Taylor Martinez, the QB's need to learn to throw with a little more touch. They throw too hard for our receivers to catch the ball. Our running game is good but the passing needs a lot of work. Hitting open WR's is very important too. If this offense can just simplify things and run well and pass when needed, they should be able to win by 2 TD's. If OU throws the ball 62 times on this D, they will be in major trouble. This D is much better than OSU.

 
At this point, who knows? I would hate to lose our last game in the Big 12, but if they beat us at our best without the referees help I won't complain. At least we know Stoops and Bo are friends; it'd be hilarious to see the refs try and pull an A&M and have Stoops decline a penalty or two. On the bright side, if we do lose, we're "co-champions," right? chuckleshuffle

 
We've got to get out to an early lead. If we do that I love our chances with our defense. They haven't done well against the no-huddle in the past though. Hope this week in practice they really hit that hard. It won't help the conditioning aspect at this point, but it'll help prepare them mentally for how they're gonna feel on Saturday. We will get some turnovers, but we have to turn those turnovers into points. I think our offense will do okay against their defense, they aren't OUTSTANDING, but they are good. It comes down to our defense and their offense.

 
Landry < Weeden. If we put Landry on the ground a couple times in the 1st qtr our chances of owning the Sooner's offense goes up considerably.

 
I think they should start Rex as QB, his passed were great :)

But I think that NU wins in a defensive struggle. However, if the defense struggles, which they seem to do from time to time, I think NU loses. I don't have a lot of faith in our offense as a whole (coaching staff included) to reliably produce points. I feel sort of bad saying that because there are a lot of good players on that side of the ball-- but somehow, NU often scores in multiples of 3.

 
One good thing is that Nebraska seems to prepare very well for big games under Pelini in the last two years. I hope they're watching a lot of OU vs. Missouri and OU vs. aTm footage to see how they moved the chains. I would feel so much better about this if Martinez were fully healthy.

 
I think our defense will be fine. Landry doesn't impress me overall, although he definitely can make plays. Like bshirt said, maintaining drives will be huge. This means holding and false starts have to be avoided. If we don't fumble and we keep drive killing penalties to a minimum, we'll be in this game until the end.

 
Our offense can't turn the ball over and will have to cut down on penalties and we should be okay. And we need to be able to move the ball as well. If we punt and pin them inside the 20 for the most part I am okay with that.

 
I think that the key is definitely the NU offense. Possibilities:

1) If we can produce reliably, somehow, however, then we're going to win this game by two scores or more. If we can find something approximating the OSU / UW / Mizzou (Q1) / K-State offensive performances, OU is in deep trouble against the blackshirts. 25% Chance.

2) On the other hand, if we have offensive meltdowns with fumbles or an avalanche of (earned or phantom) penalties, this could go very badly for Big Red. If we put the blackshirts into impossible positions, with poor field position on turnovers and subjecting them to endless hurryup by failing to sustain drives, OU could get up into the 20's or 30's on us. Add that to low offensive production and OU wins by a couple scores. But I think Bo's teams have always showed up ready to rumble in big games at the end of the season. I really think this is unlikely. 15% Chance.

3) But if the offense does something that falls somewhere in the middle, scoring occasionally but managing to string together some first downs and doing all right with field position, it's going to be close. Much as I love the idea of a blowout for NU, this has to be the most likely scenario. There's no doubt that our defense is better than OU's -- Advantage Big Red. But there's also little doubt that our offense has struggled against better defenses, all the more so with our star QB on the sideline -- Advantage OU.

In this, most likely, scenario it probably comes down to the little things. Who makes catches and who drops balls? Who gets pressure on the QB? Who gets hurt by penalties? A big special teams play, perhaps? And, of course, who wins the turnover battle. But in order for us to win, we do need some confidence inspiring production, even a little swagger maybe, from the offense. I think our guys are going to deliver this. It comes down to chemistry and execution, a whole team effort on offense. I think we deliver when it's all on the line. 60% Chance for Close Battle -- Nebraska will win 2/3 on the strength of the blackshirts in this scenario.

So all told, I've got NU coming out on top with a probability of 65%. OU has a 35% chance of notching the win because their defense isn't as good and defense wins championships, assuming (and this is not a given) that NU can bring a top 30 level offense to the party in Dallas and not a 120th ranked stinker like we had last year. Don't bother arguing about it since this has all been scientifically proven... ;)

It's going to be such a great game. I couldn't be happier about leaving the Big 12 this way, with the OU / NU matchup I've been dreaming about since the season started. Lots of memories. Exciting new opportunities on the horizon. One last battle for all the marbles...

GO BIG RED!

 
I have a feeling we are going to see a lot of short throws to the flat/bubble screens, as well as a heavy dose of run game. Hopefully our linebackers make the big plays.

 
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