{"id":289992,"date":"2025-11-13T23:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T23:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/289992\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T23:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T23:03:08","slug":"david-pollack-explains-picking-oklahoma-to-beat-alabama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/289992\/","title":{"rendered":"David Pollack explains picking Oklahoma to beat Alabama"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, No. 4 Alabama<\/a> and No. 11 Oklahoma<\/a> will square off in a pivotal SEC showdown. During Wednesday\u2019s episode of See Ball Get Ball, college football expert David Pollack revealed his prediction for the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a couple things, a couple of reasons why I think this game is going to be close,\u201d Pollack said<\/a>. \u201cOne, Alabama, if you\u2019ve watched them throughout the season, throughout last year, they struggle with running quarterbacks. I\u2019ve mentioned it 4,000 times. I\u2019ll continue to mention it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd John Mateer<\/a>, he\u2019s probably a better runner right now than he is a thrower. \u2026 John Mateer has to tote that puppy. He\u2019s gonna have to tote it 15 times. Their season\u2019s on the line. He\u2019s gonna have to be John Mateer that we\u2019ve seen. Like you said, he\u2019s well rested off of the bye.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since injuring his hand in September, Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer\u2019s passing game hasn\u2019t been the same. Alas, he\u2019s still a dynamic runner, and Pollack believes he could have a massive day against the Crimson Tide.<\/p>\n

In Alabama\u2019s season-opening loss to Florida State<\/a>, it allowed Seminoles QB Tommy Castellanos<\/a> to record a team-high 78 rushing yards and a touchdown. The Crimson Tide can\u2019t afford to allow Mateer to find the same success.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Mateer\u2019s ability to run isn\u2019t the only reason Pollack likes the Sooners\u2019 chances. Oklahoma\u2019s defense boasts 33 sacks this season, the fourth-most in the country. Pollack is confident Oklahoma\u2019s pass rush could cause serious problems for Alabama\u2019s pass-heavy offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason I think Boomer Sooner is going to win is because they got the pass rush, man,\u201d Pollack said. \u201cThey got the dudes up front with [David] Stone<\/a> and R Mason Thomas<\/a> and [Gracen] Halton<\/a>\u2014guys that can get to get to a one-dimensional Alabama offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlabama plays a bad game. They get caught up in it and finally stub their toe. They\u2019ve been great for the rest of the season. Boomer-freaking-Sooner, 24-20 over \u2018Bama.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alabama will be hungry to prove Pollack wrong after falling 24-3 to the Sooners last season. Nonetheless, the Crimson Tide won\u2019t be the only ones entering the game with extra motivation.<\/p>\n

The Sooners are 7-2 and a loss on Saturday would likely eliminate them from College Football Playoff<\/a> contention. With Oklahoma\u2019s final two opponents of the regular season being unranked, Saturday could prove to be the most pivotal day of the Sooners\u2019 season.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Oklahoma and Alabama will face off 2:30 p.m. CT. The game will air live on ABC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Saturday, No. 4 Alabama and No. 11 Oklahoma will square off in a pivotal SEC showdown. During…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-289992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}