The No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes visit the No. 14 Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday, September 17th in one of the biggest games in Week 2 college football. This will be just the third ever meeting between these two storied programs. The Buckeyes won their only prior visit to Norman 24-14 over the Sooners back in 1983.
Ohio State (2-0) has looked as impressive as anyone in the country in winning its first two games. It beat Bowling Green 77-10 at home and followed that up with a 48-3 triumph over Tulsa last week.
Oklahoma (1-1) suffered a huge upset in Week 1 with a 23-33 loss to Houston at NRG Stadium in Houston. It would bounce back last week with a 59-17 throttling of Louisiana-Monroe to set up this showdown with the Buckeyes.
Kickoff inside Oklahoma Memorial Stadium is set for 7:30 EST Saturday night with FOX providing the television coverage. Oddsmakers in Las Vegas have pegged Ohio State as a 2-point favorite over Oklahoma with a total set of 64.5 points.
Prior to the season, oddsmakers set their ‘Games of the Year’ lines for all of the biggest games of the season. Well, they set this line at Oklahoma -6.5 over Ohio State. That’s an 8.5-point adjustment to the current line of Sooners +2.
Obviously, Ohio State is being over-hyped right now because of its back-to-back blowout victories over Bowling Green and Tulsa. But those are two teams who play no defense, and the Buckeyes simply took advantage of it. Oklahoma is a completely different animal.
At the same time, the Sooners are now undervalued because they lost to Houston in the opener. Well, the Cougars are now ranked No. 6 in the country and are 15-1 dating back to last season. They are a very good team, and they got to play Oklahoma essentially at home as that game was played at NRG Stadium in Houston.
The Sooners aren’t going to let that loss get them down. They know they can still earn a spot in the four-team playoff if they run the table, and a win over Ohio State this week would change the perception of this team. Remember, last year they had a bad loss to Texas but ran the table the rest of the way and made the four-team playoff.
I still believe Oklahoma to be the superior team. It has a loaded offense and a better defense than Ohio State. The Buckeyes are a young team with just six returning starters, and now they’ll be tested in their first road game of the season here. I don’t expect this young squad to respond very well.
Oklahoma has one of the best home-field advantages in college football and is rarely an underdog. In fact, the Sooners have gone undefeated at home in seven of the past 10 seasons. They have gone a combined 55-6 at home over that stretch.
Oklahoma has one of the best home-field advantages in college football and is rarely an underdog. In fact, the Sooners have gone undefeated at home in seven of the past 10 seasons. They have gone a combined 55-6 at home over that stretch.
Plays against road favorites (OHIO ST) – excellent rushing team (at least 230 RY/G) against a team with an excellent rushing defense (less than 100 RY/game), after outrushing opponent by 150 or more yards last game are 27-5 (84.4%) ATS since 1992.
Oklahoma is 7-0 ATS after gainign 525 or more total yards in its previous game over the last two seasons. Bob Stoops is 14-5 ATS when the line is +3 to -3 as the coach of Oklahoma. The Sooners are 4-0 ATS after allowing less than 20 points in their previous game.