Oklahoma brings Witten's offense home to face No. 19 Ole Miss, which is without Kewan Lacy

Oklahoma has never beaten Ole Miss. Saturday's game in Norman may be its best chance yet. The Rebels will play without their lead back, and the Sooners' offense finally looks like it has found its footing.

Field Level Media, citing On3, reported Thursday that Kewan Lacy will miss the rest of the season. He dislocated his left shoulder in the Oct. 24 loss at Texas, and Saturday will be the third straight game he has missed. He finishes with 388 yards and five touchdowns on 78 carries. Makhi Frazier and Shekai Mills-Knight have handled the carries since. That puts more of the offense on quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, who threw for 315 yards in last year's 34-26 Ole Miss win over the Sooners, according to Roundtable Sports.

Roundtable's Patrick Kirby argues that Oklahoma wins this game by keeping it clean: no turnovers that hand the Rebels short fields, a running game that protects John Mateer, and edge rushers who keep Chambliss in the pocket. Oklahoma's defense ranks in the top five nationally on third down, which Kirby calls the key to keeping a strong Ole Miss offense on the sideline. The offense showed it can do its part last week. In Jason Witten's debut as interim play-caller, Oklahoma piled up 351 yards and converted 10 third downs in a 23-7 win at Florida. OU Daily reported that Witten called the night "maybe the greatest moment I've had."

The series is young. Oklahoma Sooners On SI notes that it consists of the 1999 Independence Bowl and two recent SEC meetings, and Ole Miss has won all three. The conference has paired the two as recurring opponents for the next several seasons.

What it means for Saturday

Oklahoma (5-4) has alternated wins and losses all season, and it is coming off a win. Its best results came at home against No. 1 Texas (27-24) and on the road at Florida. Its defense allows about 19 points a game, and no opponent other than Georgia and South Carolina has scored more than 24. Ole Miss (6-3) averages close to 34 points a game. But the Rebels have lost two of their last three, most recently 42-7 to Georgia, and they lost at Texas and at Florida, two teams Oklahoma handled. Ole Miss has also scored on 31 of 33 red-zone trips, The Rebel Walk reports, so Oklahoma's third-down defense needs to make its stops before the Rebels get inside the 20.

The board on our game page treats this as almost even. Oklahoma is a slight favorite at Novig, at -104 on the moneyline, with Ole Miss at +102. On the spread, Novig lists Oklahoma -1.5 at +108. The 12 venues don't agree on that number: the best Oklahoma price anywhere is BetRivers, which has the Sooners at +0.5 for -109. That means at least one venue has Ole Miss as a marginal favorite. Novig has the total at 49.5, with the over at +102 and the under at -104. Fanatics has the best over price at 49 (-110), and BetRivers has the best under at 50.5 (-122). Sportsbook hold across the market runs from 3.0% to 6.7%.

The game kicks off Saturday on SEC Network.