One more game before the big one! Friday night it’s the Cotton Bowl, with Heisman winner Johnny Football and the Texas A&M Aggies facing the Oklahoma Sooners and A Guy Who’s Pretty Good But Doesn’t Have A Cool Nickname, also known as Landry Jones. There are a couple of interesting coincidences in this matchup. Until the Aggies departed for the SEC this season, A&M and Oklahoma were Big 12 conference rivals. The upperclassmen on both teams, as well as the coaching staffs, should be very familiar with each other. In fact, A&M coach Kevin Sumlin was Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops’ offensive coordinator for several years. This kind of familiarity and natural rivalry tends to make for emotional, exciting games.
8 p.m. EST, Jan. 4
From: Dallas, TX
On: Fox
When The Aggies Have The Ball: Texas A&M put up some impressive offensive stats this year. Nationally, they ranked 14th in rushing yards, 13th in passing yards, (both best in the SEC) and 4th in points scored. Only four players scored rushing touchdowns for the Aggies, but those four combined for a ridiculous 42, including 19 for quarterback Johnny Manziel, aka Johnny Football. Christine (nope, not a typo) Michael is second on the team after Manziel with 417 yards and 12 touchdowns, while Ben Malena has 752 yards and 7 touchdowns. Michael is the go-to guy in the red zone. A&M spreads the ball around more in the passing game, where they have 26 touchdowns from eight different players. Mike Evans, Ryan Swope, and Uzoma Nwachukwu are the primary receiving threats, with 18 of those touchdowns. Manziel threw for 3,419 yards with 24 touchdowns and 8 interceptions, completing 68.3% of his passes. On the line, tackle Luke Joeckel won the award for the country’s top offensive lineman, the Outland Trophy, and tackle Jake Matthews was a second-team All-American.
The Sooners’ pass defense, more specifically their secondary, is very good. They allow under 200 yards per game, and defensive backs Javon Harris and Aaron Colvin lead the team in interceptions with five and four, respectively. If they can bait Manziel into some bad decisions- remember, he is still a freshman- the backfield could snag some turnovers. Rushing Manziel may be easier said then done for the Sooners, though; the pass rush is poor. Oklahoma has just 24 sacks this season, and the top four tacklers on the team are all defensive backs, meaning opponent are getting through the front seven much too easily. The Sooners’ run defense, too, leaves something to be desired. They’re allowing 181 rushing yards per game, and allowed over 200 yards multiple times. West Virginia gashed them for 458. Something tells me they may have trouble stopping Christine Michael and Ben Malena, and if they do somehow manage, Johnny Football could run roughshod over them.
When The Sooners Have The Ball: Running backs Damien Williams and Brennan Clay are averaging 75.4 and 42.6 yards per game. While the Sooners manhandled Texas, rushing for 343 yards in a 63-21 rout, that game wasn’t representative of the season as a whole. Taking out the Texas game and a blowout of FCS Florida A&M in week 2, Oklahoma averaged just 128.4 yards on the ground per game. One other player to watch for in the run game is Blake Bell, aka the Belldozer. He’s technically the backup quarterback, but coach Bob Stoops has had the 6’6”, 254-pounder carry the ball in short-yardage and goal-line situations. He has 11 rushing touchdowns.
It’s the passing game, however, where Oklhoma shines. Fifth-year senior Landry Jones has thrown for 3,989 yards, 29 touchdowns, and just 10 interceptions. The Sooners rank fifth in the country with an average of 341.3 passing yards per game, and Jones threw for over 500 yards in wins at West Virginia and at home against rival Oklahoma State. Four receivers- Kenny Stills, Fresno State transfer Jalen Saunders, Penn State transfer Justin Brown, and Sterling Shepard- have over 500 receiving yards. The Aggies give up a lot of passing yardage, well over 200 yards a game, but they do have nine players with at least one interception for a total of 12. The only two Sooner losses on the season came to Notre Dame and Kansas State, and both games featured key turnovers late, so this may be an area that they are vulnerable. Texas A&M defensive lineman Damonte Moore averages over a sack a game and the overall Aggie pass rush can get pressure. As a whole, the Aggies’ defense ranks a respectable 28th in the country in points given up this season
Predicition: This is a matchup between a young, talented Texas A&M team and a veteran Oklahoma team. I could see it going either way, but I like the Aggies to pull out a win. Texas A&M 31, Oklahoma 28.
