Oklahoma vs. Ole Miss will come down to strength vs. strength

Much has been made this week leading up to the top-15 battle between Oklahoma and Ole Miss about the classic tug of war pitting OU's outstanding defense against the offensive genius of Lane Kiffin and one of the country's most prolific offenses.

As in every college football game, the team that scores the most points wins the game. While it is the job of the offense to put enough points on the scoreboard to win the game, it is the equal and opposite task of the defensive team to prevent that from happening. And that is the dynamic that will be in play, and ultimately determine the outcome when No. 8 Ole Miss visits the Palace on the Prairie and No. 13 Oklahoma on Saturday.

Sooners' elite defense faces Ole Miss' potent offense

Saturday's game will be Oklahoma's most challenging matchup of the season, and Ole Miss will be the best offense that arguably the nation's top defensive unit has gone against this season. This is a huge game for both teams, each of whom come into the contest with identical 6-1 overall records. For the Sooners, whose final five games of the regular season are against top-25 teams, a win will leave OU in control of its own destiny and help define what the rest of the season could look like.

Despite OU's 6-1 record, including quality wins over Michigan and then-No. 24 Auburn, the Sooners still haven't played their best all-around football game of the season. They're going to need that do that, especially on offense, to come away with a win over Ole Miss.

It's true that the Oklahoma defense has not seen an offense this season as good as Ole Miss, but it is also true that Ole Miss has not faced a defense as deep and good as the Sooners.

Ole Miss averages 37 points and 492 yards of offense per game, which ranks eighth and 16th, respectively, among FBS teams. The Rebels have been able to produce that level of offense largely by generating a lot of 20- and 30-yard chunk plays downfield and sustaining drives by converting over 50% of their third-down opportunities.

Kiffin has been widely known throughout his coaching career for creating explosive plays for his offense, and he is doing that again with this year's Ole Miss team. The Rebels have 24 plays this year of 20 or more yards, which ranks sixth in the country, and are second nationally with 15 plays of 30-plus yards. The Sooners cannot allow that to happen on Saturday.

Oklahoma will attempt to counter the Ole Miss success on third down with a defense that ranks second in the SEC and third in the country, holding opponents to just a 19% success rate in third-down conversions.

When Ole Miss reaches the red zone, which it has 38 times this season, an average of five times per game, the Sooners need to hold the Rebels to field goals instead of touchdowns. The Oklahoma defense leads the nation in that category, having given up only five offensive touchdowns all season.

The Oklahoma offense, 10th in the SEC and hopefully with a more healthy John Mateer, and the Ole Miss defense (13th out of the 16 SEC teams) obviously will also be factors in this game, but the outcome will come down to the winner of the chess match between Lane Kiffin and Brent Venables. Strength vs. strength. The Ole Miss offense vs. Oklahoma's defense. It all comes down to whichever unit plays better will determine which team wins this game.