** This thread discusses the Content article:
Holiday Bowl Preview- Oklahoma State v. Oregon **
This is the fifth in a series of ten bowl previews.  This year’s Holiday Bowl features Oklahoma State and Oregon.  Both of these teams are prolific offensively, I made the joke in the original ranking of this game that ‘the first one to 80 wins’.  In the interest of full disclosure, my wife’s family includes many Ducks fans and season ticket holders, but the captain of my softball team is an Oklahoma State grad (put me higher in the order, coach!)  So now both of the respective fan bases can accuse me of some sort of bias.  I’ve also been saying for several months that if we lost Dan Mullen we should hire Chip Kelly, but now he’s the ‘coach in waiting’ at Oregon, so it’s not likely.  Anyways, here goes my prediction…
Oregon put up 65 points on Oregon State, in a game the Beavers needed to win to go to the Rose Bowl by clinching the Pac-10.  In last year’s Sun Bowl, Chip Kelly was finally given the prep time he needed (after the Dennis Dixon injury) to work with a new QB, and South Florida, who no one thought of as a terrible defense, was unable to slow the Ducks.  Oregon has had QB troubles this year, as roughly 900 different QBs have been injured since the Dixon injury (that, sadly, probably clinched the Heisman for Tebow), their midseason struggles (including the Boise State loss) can be explained by the inconsistency there.  It seems they got everything figured out, now, with the thumping of their in-state rival.  And now they have the long preparation time, as they did for a bowl last year, which will make them even harder to stop.  Their rushing attack is explosive- Jeremiah Johnson gets the bulk of the carries for the departed “Daily Show” Jonathan Stewart, and JuCo LaGarrette Blount at 6’2” 225 has a nose for the endzone.  Go listen to our preseason podcast, I told you this guy would be the real deal.  On defense, they are nothing great, but the Oregonian, at least, will tell you part of their poor defensive numbers aren’t quite as bad when you look at it on a per play basis (Oregon’s defense is on the field a lot more plays than some other teams).
Oklahoma State has gaudy offensive statistics of their own.  And a head coach who is a man, and 41!  Dez Bryant, Zac Robinson, and Kendall Hunter lead the way.  To me, they have been great against the lower-tier Big XII teams, but struggle against the top-level teams.  They also have the 110th-ranked pass defense.  They got blown out by Oklahoma and Texas Tech, and were 1-1 in close games with Missouri and Texas.  They really racked up stats in the Iowa State and Missouri State type of games.  Also, and this is a big deal to me, their defensive coordinator took the job at Toledo.  The defensive play calling will be done by committee- the special teams coordinator and the first-year defensive line coach.  While you could make the joke ‘they can’t get much worse than the defense was before’, I actually take the other side, and say they are in big trouble because of the offensive prowess on the other side of the ball.
I see this game living up to the offensive hype (though many times, games that are supposed to be shootouts or defensive struggles don’t wind up that way).  I also think Oregon’s going to score a TD on practically every possession.  Oklahoma State’s good on offense, but won’t keep up with that pace.  I’ll take
Oregon, 56-41.
[i]
Think you can beat the GatorsFirst contributors at predicting bowl games?  Click here to participate in the GatorsFirst Bowl Pick’em.
