Oklahoma vs. West Virginia: One Stat That Stands Out
By Chip Rouse
Many eyes outside of Big 12 Country will be on Oklahoma vs. West Virginia in a primetime ABC game-of-the-week broadcast on Saturday night.
And from what the weather mavens are forecasting for Saturday evening in Morgantown, W.Va., it sounds like watching the game on television might be far more pleasant than witnessing the action in person at Milan Puskar Stadium.
Among the key factors in this contest between two of the top three teams in the Big 12 this season, the biggest might be the weather conditions. Rain showers are forecast for a good part of the day on Saturday. Although the rain chances taper off slightly in the late afternoon and evening, the forecast calls for a better than one in three chance it will be wet during the game.
On top of the chances for precipitation, temperatures are expected to fall from a daytime high in the upper 50s to somewhere in the low 40s by game time and fall further, into the high-to-mid 30s, by the end of the game.
Oklahoma has been doing wet-ball drills this week in preparation for sloppy and cold weather in West Virginia on Saturday.
In poor weather conditions like what is anticipated for the OU-West Virginia game, the advantage typically goes to the team that can run the ball the ball the best. The Sooners’ rushing offense, behind the bruising north-south running of Samaje Perine and Mr. Do Everything, Joe Mixon, ranks third in the Big 12, just ahead of West Virginia.
Oklahoma’s run defense, however, has been the strongest part of the Sooners’ defensive play this season, and the Sooners have performed better against the run than the Mountaineers.
Regardless of the conditions at game time, don’t expect Oklahoma offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley to abandon the Sooners’ highly efficient and productive passing game. And it’s easy to understand why when you have a prolific receiving weapon like Dede Westbrook, who has caught 14 touchdown passes this season and 10 of more than 40 yards.
Baker Mayfield is completing 72 percent of his pass attempts this season, second best in the nation, and is the best in the Big 12 as well as in the country with a pass efficiency rating of 195.2, which would be a new NCAA record. In Big 12 games only, his efficiency rating is an almost unheard of 203.8.
“It won’t change everything,” said Sooner wide receiver Jeffery Mead about the prospects for cold and rainy conditions on Saturday night. “Just don’t expect to see as many jaw-dropping catches,” the OU wide receiver told Ryan Aber of the Oklahoma City Oklahoman after practice on Wednesday.
Any way you look at it, being able to handle the unsavory weather conditions that are anticipated for this huge Big 12 game with conference championship implications could easily be the X-factor in which team comes out on top at the end of the chilly West Virginia night on Saturday.