Prediction: Texas A&M at Oklahoma
November 11th, 2009 | Published in Football, Sports
By Turner Dawson
The Texas A&M football team will travel to Norman, Okla. to take on the Oklahoma Sooners this Saturday. Both teams are coming off of tough losses to teams they should have beaten.
Aggie QB Jerrod Johnson will be looking to rebound from an up and down performance last week, but he will be going against one of the best defenses in the country. The Sooners defense is holding opposing offenses to just 12 points per game and 197 passing yards per game.
Johnson and his receivers will need to be in sync in this game and the offensive line will need to step up to give Jerrod some time. I expect the Oklahoma front seven to harass Johnson all night long and make it very difficult to move the ball through the air.
The Sooners are even better against the run as they are allowing only 80 yards rushing per game. The Aggies are going to have a very hard time getting any kind of movement against this Oklahoma front seven. I don’t see any way that the Aggies will be able to get a consistent ground game going in this game. They will have to continue to run the ball in order to keep the Sooner defense honest, but they’re only chance to pick up many yards will be if there is a breakdown in the defense and one of our running backs breaks a long run.
Offensively, the Sooners have struggled mightily this season. After losing Heisman winner Sam Bradford and All-American tight end Jermaine Gresham for the season, the Sooners have found it very difficult to find an identity on offense.
QB Landry Jones has done an adequate job replacing Bradford as the starter but he is only averaging 207 yards passing per game. Look for the Sooners to still have some success against this young Aggie secondary that seems dependable for at least three blown coverage’s per game.
The Sooner running game has been rather difficult to figure out. Chris Brown and Demarco Murray are extremely dangerous runners, but the Sooners are only averaging 146 yards rushing per game. But I expect the Sooners to have a big day rushing the ball in this game. The Aggies have the worst rush defense in the Big 12 and don’t appear able to stop anybody on the ground. The defensive line is too small and the linebackers can’t tackle. Look for Murray and Brown to have big days in this one.
Oklahoma is certainly beatable this year as they come in a disappointing 5-4 on the season. But the Sooners are still a much more athletic team than the Aggies and will likely dominate physically, especially in the trenches. I expect the Aggies to lose this game and drop to 5-5 on the season in a 38-17 loss.
