As we move on into Week 11 of the NCAA Football season we have an interesting match-up on Saturday the 14th of November 2015 between 2 Big 12 rivals as the 8-1 No.12 Sooners of Oklahoma playing at the 8-0 No.4 Bears of Baylor with the game being played at the McLane Stadium , Waco Texas with kick-off scheduled for 8:05 PM ET and seen on ABC TV.
This intense rivalry game with Vegas listing the betting odds for those that Bet on College FB at -2 ½ -115 for the Bears of Baylor as the favorites with the Over/under for the game at 77 and -140 on the Money Line, while the underdog Sooners of Oklahoma are at +1 ½ -105 and +120 on the ML. This Sooners team has been very impressive as of late as they seem to roll over all opponents this season and remain with one loss. Meanwhile the Bears who are undefeated in their last game struggled a bit in their win with rookie freshman QB J. Stidham at the helm in his 1st start.
Followers and fans of the No.12 Sooners of Oklahoma (8-1, and 5-1 Big12) appear to have recovered from the game 5 -1st loss of the season to Texas 24-17 in the month of October. Since then they have routed their opponents beating the Wildcat Kansas State 55-0, then beat the Red Raiders of Texas Tech 63-27, Jayhawks of Kansas 62-7 and then smashed the Cyclones of Iowa State 52-16 and ended at 4-0 against the spread in those 4 games.
The Sooners QB B. Mayfield has found his passing game as he is completing some 75 percent of his passes with a 14-1 TD-to Interception ratio in those last 4 games. But we can’t overlook the rebirth of their running game that has joined their passing offense. Yes, their running game is averaging some 292 yards each game and in TD’s via the rush they have 14 to date.
In this road game against the Bears of Baylor the Sooners will use their running game to take time off the clock and keep the Bears powerful offense on the bench, and that will assist the Sooners defensive unit, that has played well to date, and are prepared to slow the offensive attack of the Bears. This season in the Big 12 the Sooners are ranked 1st in scoring defense as well as the passing defense to date.
Their defense is also 2nd for interceptions in the Big 12 with 11 and they will seek to force mistakes by the Baylor freshman QB with their pass rush since they rank 2nd in league with 12 sacks this season.
For the fans of the No. 4 Bears of Baylor (8-0 and 5-0 Big 12) struggled somewhat in their last win in their Thursday night game with the Wildcats of Kansas State who came up with 2 TD’s in the 4th quarter of the game bringing them to with 7 points of the Bears who held on behind freshman QB Stidham for the 31-24 win in his 1st start of this season as he has replaced QB S. Russell our for the rest of the season due to injury.
QB Stidham was impressive as he completed 23 of his 33 pass attempts for 420 yards passing that resulted in 3 TD’s and he also rushed for 1 TD. In that game the Bears only managed to score 21 points which is lowest scoring game for this 2015 season. In addition their running game struggled as it only managed some 24 carries for 104 yards. Thus on the road he had a decent game, and in this home game and with 1 game under his belt he should only become better.
This game could go easier for QB Stidham at home if his star WR C. Coleman the Bears TD machine continues his scoring tasks, as to date this season he had 20 TD’s on his receptions which leads the NCAA top 25 teams. Remember 15 of his 20 TD’s have been scored in home games in Waco, Texas. In their last 2 games against the Sooners, the Baylor defense has held Oklahoma to a total of 26 points.
The prediction for this game is that the Sooners will excel with their running game and their defensive performances to upset the undefeated Bears of Baylor 42-35 in this Week 11 road game for Oklahoma.