After Dramatic Line Movement, Oklahoma is now the betting favorite to beat Missouri

NORMAN — Oklahoma has long been assumed to be an underdog in each of its last three games.

This, apparently, does not happen.

OU opened the week as a 4-point underdog to Saturday’s game at Missouribut that has changed drastically, according to several Las Vegas odds.

As of 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, OU was a 1-point underdog. As of 4 p.m., the Sooners were 3-point favorites by DraftKings, Bally and other sports books and were 2 1/2 favorites by MGM, Fan Duel and others.

The reason for such a drastic line move is easy to pinpoint: Missouri’s quarterback Brady Cook hand injury.

Without a doubt, the Sooners have shown moderate improvement over the past two games, leading Ole Miss at halftime in Oxford and blowing out FCS opponent Maine on Saturday.

But OU is 5-4 overall and 1-4 in SEC play. Missouri is 6-2 and 2-2. The Sooners have struggled offensively all season, but are coming off a 59-14 home win over the Black Bears while the Tigers were idle. Mizzou’s last game was a 34-0 loss at Alabama in which Cook sat out and was replaced by a senior transfer. Drew Pyne.

Pyne completed just 6 of 12 passes for 52 yards and was intercepted three times by the Crimson Tide defense.

Coach Missouri Eli Drinkwitz said Tuesday at his weekly news conference that he would let any injury news come in Wednesday night’s SEC Player Availability Report. But if Cook can’t go, Drinkwitz said, it will be Pyne again.

“Our team is behind him if that’s what it needs to be,” Drinkwitz said. “But that hasn’t been decided yet.”

Pyne began his 2020 career at Notre Dame. Started for the Irish in 2022, then transferred to Arizona State last year. He has played in five games for the Tigers so far this season, completing 35 of 55 passes for 248 yards with no TDs and three picks last week.

“I hope it was a learning opportunity,” Drinkwitz said. “I put him in some bad situations. And we have to protect better and establish the run better. We can’t turn the ball over.”

Drinkwitz said Pyne has had the right attitude since returning to Columbia from Tuscaloosa.

“That’s who we all are — we can either choose to be victims or be relentless in our pursuit of being a better football team,” Drinkwitz said. “Drew was relentless in being dedicated to his goals, when you face setbacks, finding ways to learn and grow from them.”

Cook, a senior from St. Louis, who also started his career in 2020, has emerged as a big playmaker for the Tigers. He threw for 2,738 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2022 and 3,317 yards and 21 TDs in 2023. So far this year he has completed 63.1 percent of his passes for 1,545 yards with seven touchdowns and a choice. Cook is fourth in school history with 8,053 yards.

“Big fan of his leadership and toughness,” OU coach Brent Venables he said on Tuesday. “The players, their program, feed off of it. He’s got great juice and he’s just fearless.”

Venables applauded Cook’s efforts in a wild comeback win over Auburn when he went down on the first drive with a leg injury, left the game, walked across the street to the hospital, received treatment — and then returned at the end of the third quarter with him. team trailing 17-6, threw a 78-yard touchdown pass and led the Tigers to a dramatic victory. The winner came at the end of a 17-play, 95-yard drive.

“You can see the grit and the toughness,” Venables said. “… He comes back into the game … with a Superman cape on them and he takes it on third-and-13, fourth-and-5, long drive, and they come down and score to come from behind and win that game. An incredible competitor.

“I know he’s somebody that the coaching staff gets behind a lot. He can do everything. He is a great runner. They’re the best red-zone team in college football in scoring touchdowns, and a lot of it was because of him.”

Cook holds the SEC record with 365 consecutive pass attempts without an interception. He is just the fifth player in the 134-year history of the MU program to be named a three-year captain. Drinkwitz said Cook is dealing with the situation as best he can.

“He did everything in his power to get ready to play,” Drinkwitz said. “You would expect nothing less from him. We had great energy in the building, we attacked the rehab, we attacked the game plan. So typical Brady Cook preparation and leadership.”