{"id":25901,"date":"2019-11-15T13:00:12","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T18:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordoncollegefootball.com\/?p=25901"},"modified":"2025-09-13T15:28:59","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T19:28:59","slug":"oklahoma-vs-baylor-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2019\/11\/15\/oklahoma-vs-baylor-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma vs Baylor Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Oklahoma vs Baylor, the winner of this game is definitely in the driver\u2019s seat for first place and a spot in the Big XII championship game.\u00a0 Both Baylor and Oklahoma have issues to resolve.\u00a0 Baylor has struggled on offense and Oklahoma has not played well on defense in the last two games.\u00a0 With these things in mind here is the Oklahoma vs Baylor preview.<\/p>\n<h2>Oklahoma vs Baylor Preview<\/h2>\n<h3>Baylor<\/h3>\n<p>In the Bears last two outings they have had trouble scoring points.\u00a0 Baylor was only able to score 17 points against a struggling West Virginia team.\u00a0 The Bears were unable to score a touchdown in regulation against TCU.\u00a0 In both games, the Bears have had problems moving the ball on the ground.<\/p>\n<p>On a positive note, the Baylor defense has played well.\u00a0 The defense held West Virginia to only 14 points.\u00a0 In the last outing against TCU, the Bears defense held the Horned Frogs to three field goals in regulation.<\/p>\n<h3>Oklahoma<\/h3>\n<p>The Sooners seem to be at a crossroads at this point of the season.\u00a0 The offense has been hot and cold for the last two games.\u00a0 The defense has struggled mightily in those games.\u00a0 This game provides an opportunity for Oklahoma to take control of the Big XII conference.<\/p>\n<h4>Offense<\/h4>\n<p>The Sooners have been consistent most of the year, but they have been inconsistent in the last two contests.\u00a0 Oklahoma needs to focus more on the running game.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t going to be aided by the loss of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/trey-sermon-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Trey Sermon <\/strong><\/a>for the rest of the season due to an injury against Iowa State last Saturday night.\u00a0 <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/ceedee-lamb-1.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CeeDee Lamb<\/a><\/strong> has been an absolute beast and virtually unstoppable this year.\u00a0 In regards to receivers, what has happened to <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/grant-calcaterra-1.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Grant Calcaterra<\/a><\/strong>?\u00a0 Rumors abound that he has a concussion-related injury.\u00a0 When did this occur? Calcaterra hasn\u2019t played since before the Texas contest.\u00a0 Nothing was mentioned prior to just before kickoff, and very little since.\u00a0 Is Calcaterra really injured, or is something else in play here?\u00a0 On the subject of tight ends, why has <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/austin-stogner-1.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Austin Stogner<\/a> <\/strong>not been more involved in the offense?<\/p>\n<h4>Defense<\/h4>\n<p>What has happened to the aggressive, fly to the ball Oklahoma defense everyone saw the first seven games this season?\u00a0 In the past two games, the defense has allowed 48 and 41 points.\u00a0 They have done a poor job of tackling, and the same effort just isn\u2019t evident.<\/p>\n<p>The defense isn\u2019t helped by the season-ending injury to defensive lineman <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/kenneth-mann-1.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kenneth Mann<\/a><\/strong> against Iowa State.<\/p>\n<p>The Sooners have still not forced a turn over in five consecutive games.\u00a0 Oklahoma ranks dead last among all FBS teams in the number of turnovers forced.\u00a0 There is absolutely no way Oklahoma should rank last in FBS in any negative category.<\/p>\n<p>In his first year, defensive coordinator <strong>Alex Grinch\u2019s <\/strong>defense, he is working with the hand he was dealt.\u00a0 He needs time to get players on campus that fit his scheme and style of play.\u00a0 With that being said, the players need to take responsibility for the inconsistent or outright poor play.\u00a0 The first seven games the defense tackled well.\u00a0 The defense played aggressively, and with effort through those first seven contests.\u00a0 All of this boils down to effort, you don\u2019t suddenly forget how to tackle or give 100% effort.\u00a0 This game is a perfect opportunity for the defense to show they have pride and play with heart.<\/p>\n<h3>The Final Word<\/h3>\n<p>Both the Sooners and Bears have much to play for.\u00a0 This will be one of the biggest games in Waco, Texas in many years, possibly ever.\u00a0 This battle for Big XII supremacy will be on display for ESPN Gameday and a sell-out crowd.\u00a0 Baylor has an opportunity to secure a quality win to bolster their playoff resume.\u00a0 Oklahoma is in dire need of a victory to stay on pace for a spot in the Big XII championship game and a potential CFB playoff berth.<\/p>\n<p>A lot of questions will be answered this Saturday night in Waco, Texas.<\/p>\n<h4>Prediction<\/h4>\n<p>Oklahoma 37, Baylor 23<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"BbWHzh2BRGhQdbd8-8axCA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1181815332\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'BbWHzh2BRGhQdbd8-8axCA',sig:'BhqBP40UcQgIJEl-8t6Ife-0r4UHZGGXaUswxyhZLFQ=',w:'594px',h:'439px',items:'1181815332',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oklahoma vs Baylor, the winner of this game is definitely in the driver\u2019s seat for first place and a spot in the Big XII championship game.\u00a0 Both Baylor and Oklahoma have issues to resolve.\u00a0 Baylor has struggled on offense and Oklahoma has not played well on defense in the last two games.\u00a0 With these things [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3198,"featured_media":25904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,35581],"tags":[4471,4255,239,4926,5052,2193,5302,140,4256,5100,37,238,2194,237],"class_list":["post-25901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-big12","category-oklahoma-sooners","tag-alex-grinch","tag-austin-stogner","tag-baylor-bears","tag-big-xii","tag-big-xii-championship","tag-ceedee-lamb","tag-cfb-playoffs","tag-fbs","tag-grant-calcaterra","tag-kenneth-mann","tag-oklahoma-sooners","tag-tcu-horned-frogs","tag-trey-sermon","tag-west-virginia-mountaineers"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78984,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25901\/revisions\/78984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}