Cowboys vs Longhorns College Football Lines
The unofficial Big 12 playoffs kickoff this weekend as the Oklahoma State Cowboys travel to Austin to take on the Texas Longhorns who look to stay undefeated in conference play.
Oklahoma State Cowboys (8-1) @ Texas Longhorns (7-2)
When: Saturday, November 16th, 2013, 3:30 PM ET
Where: D.K. Royal Memorial Stadium, Austin, Texas
Broadcast: FOX
Moneyline: Oklahoma State -150, Texas +130
Spread: Oklahoma State -3
O/U: 64
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Oklahoma State Cowboys
As the season has progressed Oklahoma State seems to have gotten better and better. The Cowboys struggled a bit early on deciding a quarterback between J.W. Walsh and Clint Chelf. Sophomore J.W. Walsh carried most of the load early, but of late he’s struggled and battled through some injuries.
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Senior Clint Chelf has taken over most of the load; Chelf has been solid, and Oklahoma State has continued to roll along.
Since the TCU game, Chelf has thrown it more and has gotten better. Against TCU and Iowa State he threw for 256 yards, with one touchdown and two interceptions. But, in his last two games, versus Texas Tech and Kansas he has thrown for over 50% in both of those games, thrown for 476 yards, with 5 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.
Texas Longhorns
It’s been a real interesting year for the Texas Longhorns this season. They’ve had to go through a lot of adversity this year. They were terrible out the gate starting 1-2 (and even struggled with New Mexico State for the first 28 minutes).
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They had to endure everybody saying fire Mack Brown, hire Nick Saban. Some people were passing out Nick Saban 2014 shirts. They reassigned their defensive coordinator Manny Diaz and brought in Greg Robinson.
They’ve had to endure key injuries such as quarterback David Ash and linebacker Jordan Hicks for the majority of the year. And most recently injuries to defensive tackle Chris Whaley and halfback Jonathan Gray. After all that though, after 11 weeks of football they are undefeated in the conference and neck and neck with Baylor for the top spot.
Since the loss to Ole Miss on September 14th not only have the Longhorns reeled off 6 straight wins, but they’ve scored at least 30 points in all those games. Not only that, but their defense has improved under Greg Robinson. In the last six games the only team that got over 400 total offensive yards were the Iowa State Cyclones. Everyone else, Kansas State, Oklahoma, TCU, Kansas, and even West Virginia – which went into overtime – have been held to less than 399 yards max. It’s a far cry from the 449 yards they allowed to Ole Miss, and 679 yards they allowed to BYU.
There’s just something about the Texas Longhorns this season. Right now, you get that sense that they are something like a team of destiny. Not in a sense that they’ll win the BCS Championship, but just proving all the doubters wrong and winning the Big 12. Going to a BCS Bowl game and, who knows? Maybe even playing Alabama. Wouldn’t that be ironic?
Danny’s FREE College Football Pick:
This should be a good, intriguing match up between two teams that are fairly similar. As mentioned above, both have gotten better as the season has progressed; Offensively they both average about the same amount of yards per game.
They both get there a bit differently, but they get there nonetheless. The Cowboys average 434 total yards to the Longhorns 445 yards. The Cowboys sling it around for 265 yards to the Longhorns 248. Rushing yards the Cowboys average 169 to the Longhorns 197. Again, pretty similar statistically, but how they get those yards is the big key to me and I believe is the difference in this match up.
The Longhorns get their yards on the ground and the Cowboys have struggled to stop the run. They allowed 202 rushing yards to the Kansas Jayhawks and I don’t think they will be able to stop Malcolm Brown and the Longhorns running game.
Brown has averaged 379 yards and seven touchdowns in the last four games.
Meanwhile, I think Oklahoma State will find themselves struggling a bit in the passing game. As we mentioned above, while Chelf has gotten better the more he’s played, he hasn’t played anybody with as much talent as the two starting corners for Texas.
Look out for Carrington Byndom and Quandre Diggs. These two are NFL talents, but haven’t really gotten the recognition from the public yet. I believe they both will have their opportunities for big plays in this game and I think they make a couple of them.
Pick: Texas Longhorns +3
Prediction: Texas Longhorns 37 – Oklahoma State 31
