Independence Bowl Preview Part 3: The Rest of the Story

With Mike Shula gone and Dave Rader in control of the offense, it's hard to predict what our offense is going to do.  That being said, pretty much anything should work.  Oklahoma State is ranked a miserable 87th in the nation at defending the pass, 84th at stopping the run, 79th in scoring defense and 92nd in total defense.  The two categories in which they excel, and the two categories that could very easily spell our doom, are sacks and tackles for loss, where the Cowboys are 11th and 10th, respectively.  OSU is averaging 3 sacks per game and 7.58 tackles for loss, two statistics that scare the bejesus out of me.  Senior defensive lineman Victor DeGrate is 20th in the nation with 8.5 sacks this season, followed by Junior lineman Nathan Peterson who ranks 33rd in the country with 7 solo sacks and 2 assists.  Despite the fairly porous nature of the Cowboy defense, their monster pass rush could completely shut our already weak offense down, and the last thing we need is to get in a shoot out.  Hopefully all that praise for Kines coming from the offensive side of the ball will have these guys playing their hearts out and keeping JP upright for a little while.

"Oh man, this is going to hurt..."

vs.

Full name: PetroSun Independence Bowl

Match up: SEC  vs Big 12

Teams: Alabama vs Oklahoma State

Location: Shreveport, LA

Date/Time: Thursday , December 28, 2006 - 3:30 p.m. (CST) on ESPN

Venue: Independence Stadium

Years in existence: This is the 30th playing of the Independence Bowl

Per Team Payout: $1,100,000

Endorsements:

Todd:
Do I really need to make a pick here?  Roll Tide!

Nico:
I think you all know who we're cheering for in this one.

Irrational Bama Fan:
As much as I love the Tide, part of me wants them to lose so Mal Moore gets fired.  But I just can't pull against Bama.  Roll Tide!