Oklahoma State at Texas 10/16/21 - NCAA Football Picks & Predictions

The Oklahoma State Cowboys will face their toughest task yet when they go on the road to Memorial Stadium to take on the Texas Longhorns. Oklahoma State has rattled off five straight wins to start the year and has reached #12 in this week’s AP poll. Texas led from the first snap until late in the fourth quarter, but allowed a 33 yard run on the last play of the game and fell 55-48 in the Red River Rivalry and dropped to 4-2, 25th in the AP Poll.

Texas turned to junior Casey Thompson after the loss to Arkansas early in the year, and he’s answered with an incredible first five games completing 67.3% of his passes for 1,095 yards and 14 touchdowns to just 3 interceptions. Star sophomore running back Bijan Robinson leads the offense, he’s totaled 789 yards and 8 touchdowns on the ground, and another 169 yards and two touchdowns through the air.

The Longhorns under new head coach Steve Sarkisian have clicked offensively in this young season, they’re scoring over 44.5 points per game and racking up 480 yards of total offense. It’s a balanced attack with 234.8 yards of passing, but again this is a run-heavy offense that is ninth in rushing offense.

The Texas defense continues to struggled allowing 29.2 points per game and 439 yards per contest. They allowed over 662 yards of total offense against Oklahoma, including 339 total yards rushing, but were able to force two turnovers in the disappointing comeback loss.

Oklahoma State has been a surprise in the Big 12 this season, picking off two solid wins to start the year with home wins over Baylor, Kansas State, and a road win over Group of Five powerhouse Boise State. Veteran quarterback Spencer Saunders has dealt with injuries throughout the last few years, and he’s struggled this year completing 58.3% of his passes with five touchdowns and four interceptions.

The Cowboys’ offense as a whole doesn’t have a flash to it, they’re scoring just over 25 points per game and averaging 378.4 yards per game. Jaylen Warren has spent the majority of his career at Oklahoma State backing up Chubba Hubbard but has taken over lead back duties averaging 4.5 yards per carry and finding the endzone six times. 

The matchup to watch in this game will be Texas’ high-powered offense against an Oklahoma State defense that is among the best in the conference. The Cowboys are allowing just 18.6 points per game and holding opponents to 305.2 total yards, including just 91 on the ground.