Sooners shock No. 2 Buckeyes at ‘The Shoe’

The players on the field are going to make the difference in this game. I have a different take than Chip does though, Ohio State over Oklahoma 45-27. Remember: The Buckeyes lost a non-con game at home to Virginia Tech in 2014 … and went on to win the national title. Coming off a late-season run that forced a retooling of the team’s offensive coaches, the Buckeyes have hardly impressed.

Looking back to last week… Mayfield has thrown more than 40 passes in a game only once in three seasons as Oklahoma’s starting quarterback. Maybe the biggest mismatch in this game will be the Buckeyes secondary against the Sooners.

The Buckeyes scored 35 points in the first half and put the Sooners in too deep of a hole to escape. Riley and QB Baker Mayfield executed a pretty much flawless second half, Riley calling a great game and Mayfield performing on the field. IN committed 3 turnovers and the Buckeyes had zero.

Ohio State and Oklahoma have played four times. However, Ohio State showed their championship pedigree and responded the way you would expect. But if Ohio State is to deliver a decisive victory, they’ll need a strong outing from JT Barrett. No matter how good the defenses are, and with quarterbacks like Baker Mayfield and Ohio State’s J.T. Barrett, points will eventually happen.

And through the fire of almost three quarters, the Sooners were still right there with the No. 2 team in the country, holding on to hope and hoping to avoid a repeat of previous year, when the Buckeyes demolished the Sooners on their home field. But OU and Ohio State administrators liked their chances given the history between the schools. And there’s no better matchup for a friendly wager than this weekend’s contest between No. 5 Oklahoma and No. 2 Ohio State. The Buckeyes must iron out some inconsistencies that led to a slow, mistake-filled start last week against unranked Indiana. With each program vying for a spot in this year’s playoffs, there’s no doubt this game will go down as a classic.

Like that, the Sooners led 17-13. “I think we’ve got to go out there and try and play a lot better than we did a year ago, play more up to our capabilities, so that will be our main focus”. But Andrews left injured in the first half, when he was only two catches and 23 yards into his night.

The front seven of Ohio State is the strength of the defense and the Sooners must keep them honest with the run. Unfortunately, we also saw Barrett run an extreme amount of times like past year, which was only marginally effective at best.

The third-ranked Tigers beat up on Kent State 56-3 last Saturday to get their campaign off and running but is expected to be tested by another group of Tigers, who topped Georgia Southern 41-7 last week.

Mayfield’s added polish was apparent last week. “He played extremely well out there”.

Against the vaunted Ohio State blitz, Mayfield then fought off the pressure and threw a bullet to freshman CeeDee Lamb for a 17-yard gain. One of those interceptions was a pick six that changed the momentum early in that game. It wasn’t the worst effort, but Mayfield struggled.

Last year, the Sooners appeared overwhelmed early by the physicality from Ohio State on both sides of the ball.