College Football Pick: #11 TCU Horned Frogs at #3 Oklahoma Sooners
A Lot on Line Today with Big 12 Championship
The #11 TCU Horned Frogs (10-2 Overall, 7-2 Big 12) are at the #3 Oklahoma Sooners (11-1 Overall, 8-1 Big 12) for the first Big 12 championship game in years. There’s more than just the conference championship at stake for the Sooners, as they are vying for a sport in the CFP series. The Sooners have already beaten the Horned Frogs once this season. That was on Nov 11 when TCU was ranked sixth in the nation. The final in that game was 38-20. Both teams lost to Iowa State this year. The Horned Frogs lost to ISU 14-7 while the Sooners went down 38-31. OSU has won seven straight while TCU has gone 3-2 for its last five. Our TCU plays Oklahoma 2017 Big 12 championship pick has the Sooners favored by seven points and the over under at 65.0.
TCU Overall
The Horned Frogs have a very tough defense, which is allowing opponents just 15.7 PPG. The Frogs are scoring 34.5 PPG. Senior QB Kenny Hill is listed as probable for today. Hill is completing 66% of his passes, has 19 TDs and has tossed five picks. He not only possesses a fine group of receivers to toss to, but he also has a very good running corps of running backs, which gives the Horned Frogs a balanced attack.
On the receiving end four players have 25 or more catches, including Jalen Reagor who has 26 catches with six going for touchdowns. Desmon White, who has four TD receptions, leads all TCU players with 33 catches. TCU’s top running back, Darius Anderson, is out. He has eight TD runs and is averaging 6.0 YPA. Both Kyle Hicks and Sewo Olonilus are solid runners. Together they’ve scored 11 TDs and each is avaerging over four yards per rush.
The TCU defense is solid versus the rush and does a good job overall against the pass. Standouts include DL Ben Banoqu (11.5 SCKs, 13.0 TFL, 3 FF) and LB/DE Mat Boesen (7.5 SCKs, 14.0 TFL, 2 FF). Against the pass, the Horned Frogs have grabbed 11 picks and broken up 53 passes.
Horned Frogs Summary
- Balanced offense
- Very fine defense
- Injuries on offense may hurt this team today
Oklahoma State Overall
OSU is a scoring machine, putting up on average 45.3 PPG. They are giving up 25.7 PPG. Senior QB Bakker Mayfield is a tough force to stop. He’s completed 71% of his passes for 37 touchdowns. He has thrown only five interceptions. For players have five or more TD catches, including star dual-threat Rodney Anderson. Anderson has crossed the goal line five times as a receiver and 11 times as a runner while compiling 1,050 total yards on offense. Three players have 40 or more receptions with Mark Andrews topping all at 51 catches. He’s caught six passes, while CeeDee Lamb leads all pass catchers with seven. Quarterback Mayfield has a lot of options when it comes to setting up scoring opportunities.
The Sooner D is vulnerable against the rush to a degree but more they have a tough time shutting down the pass. The defense includes senior DE Ogbonnia Okoronkwo who comes to this game with 64 tackles, eight sacks and 17 TFL. He’s also forced three fumbles and recovered two. The secondary has defended under 35 passes and has merely seven picks.
Sooners Summary
- Dynamic and explosive offense
- Good but sometimes uneven defense
- Mayfield is the real thing
Three Major Takeaways
Our TCU plays Oklahoma 2017 Big 12 championship pick offers these three takeaways-
- QB Mayfield vs. QB Hill, edge to Mayfield
- Defensive edge to TCU
- First meeting between these two teams was 38-20 Sooners
Our Picks for Horned Frogs at Sooners
This is a huge game and we do think that Mayfield will step up in a major way today. We look for the TCU defense to play well, but we also see them getting tired in the second half and giving up points at that time. Our TCU plays Oklahoma 2017 Big 12 championship pick is the Sooners at -7.0 and the under at 65.0
Point Spread and Over/Under Summaries: Oklahoma at -7.0 and under 65.0
