Oklahoma Football: Post-FSU Letdown Won't Come Against Missouri

From the outside looking in, this looks like a perfect trap game for the Oklahoma Sooners. They just won a tough road game against a highly ranked opponent.

Now they are playing a strong team in Missouri. It's certainly possible they won't be as "up" for this one, right? Not quite.

In 2010, Oklahoma went into Missouri as the No. 3 team in the country. They were undefeated and looked incredibly strong.

What happened in that game? Missouri won. It was their only win against Oklahoma since 1998.

Now, why was Oklahoma No. 1 in the preseason polls this year? Well, because the Sooners returned most of their starters from last year. They remember what happened in 2010.

Oklahoma will be out for blood against Missouri. Don't be surprised if they find it.

Missouri is not a bad team. Still, the Tigers are missing two first-round draft picks (Aldon Smith and Blaine Gabbert) from their 2010 team. They have already dropped a game on the road to Arizona State this year and they are nowhere near the team that Oklahoma is.

No, the Sooners will not let history repeat itself. Right now, they are ranked higher than they were in 2010.

I'm not necessarily predicting an undefeated season for Oklahoma.

Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State will all bring big challenges to the current No. 1 team. If you want to say Oklahoma will drop at least one of those games, I won't argue too much.

Maybe Oklahoma isn't really the top team in the country; we'll get a better sense of that later in the year.

However, Missouri is facing a tough opponent here. Bodog lists Oklahoma as a 21-point favorite. Now, Missouri is a good team, so that may seem excessive.

Frankly, I don’t think it is.

Bob Stoops and the Sooners aren’t shy about running up the score. I see Oklahoma looking to do just that on Saturday. Look for the Sooners to get out to a big lead and at least hold it.

In all honesty, 21 is a pretty good spread. I’ll go with them to cover, but I expect it to be close. The game will not be. Oklahoma will win this week, beat Ball State and head into the Red River Rivalry game with Texas undefeated.