Happy Monday everyone! It’s going to be a busy week here at Shooting the Moon with the holiday weekend approaching so stay tuned for all of the usual weekly content over the next few days. I’ll have a super-sized “No Huddle” tomorrow with the power rankings, game previews, and my picks for the week. Wednesday I’ll have “Reality of Fantasy” to get you ready for Week 12 and some college football talk breaking down the latest CFP rankings. I’ve got a good amount of stuff planned and may even throw an extra column if time permits.

Before we get too far ahead, let’s get down to business with today’s “Weekend Recap.” College football didn’t have any surprises this week with most of the top teams taking care of business with all of the conference races and CFP rankings tightening up. The top game and big story for the week came out of the Big 12 conference.

We’ll start with the game between Oklahoma and West Virginia, which had a lot of conference title and playoff implications riding on it. This matchup of high-powered offenses produced quite the exciting second half after Oklahoma jumped out to a 34-7 lead at halftime in a snowy Morgantown.

Despite the Mountaineers best attempts to make a comeback in front of the home crowd, it was not meant to be Saturday night. The Sooners rolled to a 56-28 win over West Virginia. That essentially knocks the Mountaineers out of the Big 12 title picture and national title contention.

The Oklahoma blowout win sets up an epic clash with rival Oklahoma State for the Big 12 championship in two weeks in Norman. While the Big 12 is currently on the outside looking in based on last week’s rankings, there is a lot that can happen to make that game a potential CFP play-in game. If you recall, the committee is on the record recognizing the officiating gaffe that led Oklahoma State’s loss against Central Michigan earlier this year so already there is a bit of intrigue surrounding the game aside from the championship that is on the line.

Before I get to the big news out of the Big 12, I want to touch on the Louisville-Houston game from Thursday night. Houston’s upset of the Cardinals knocks Louisville out of the ACC title race and national title contention. It also makes Houston coach Tom Herman an even hotter commodity in the upcoming coaching carousel, which will kick off sooner rather than later.

I needed to mention that bit of news for two reasons. First, the Louisville loss adds some clarity to the murky playoff picture. The second reason brings us to the big news out of college football this week.

The breaking news out of Austin yesterday rocked the college football landscape. Reports from the University of Texas stated that embattled coach Charlie Strong would be let go at the end of the season. The updated report dialed back a bit on the “fired” status of Strong, and clarified that his job status would be evaluated following the Longhorns’ regular season finale against TCU on Friday.

Texas has the money and prestige to get just about any coach in the country so news of an impending vacancy in Austin is big news. Personally, I don’t agree with the alleged decision of the Texas boosters and AD but given Strong’s 10-11 record against unranked opponents you can’t blame them for having some doubts.

Strong is one of the better coaches and recruiters in the country which is why pulling the plug on him after three years seems a bit sudden. He was tasked with the unenviable job of rebuilding an entire program from top to bottom and changing the culture at one of college football’s most historic programs.

If Strong is fired, I doubt it will be long before he is back on the sidelines with another program. It would open up some interesting speculation about the job status of Houston’s Tom Herman. Since the Big 12 likely won’t be expanding and adding a team like Houston, which would make Herman the highest paid coach in the country through a clause in his contract, it puts Herman at the top of the list of potential candidates for Texas.

Between LSU and Texas, the coaching carousel in college football will be the hot topic following the conference championship games in two weeks all the way up until the national semi-finals on New Year’s Eve.

I’ll save the NFL talk for tomorrow but let’s dive into tonight’s game from Mexico City between Oakland and Houston. This matchup between two potential playoff teams in the AFC figures to be an interesting game from south of the border. Despite some injuries it looks like Oakland will have all hands on deck tonight. That’s not great news for a Houston team that has a good record but a litany of flaws starting with quarterback Brock Osweiler.

Houston’s offense has a ton of talent but Osweiler’s poor play is seriously holding back a potentially potent offensive attack. Osweiler has also shown an inability to throw the ball under pressure and “perceived pressure.”

This is a flaw that is ripe for the picking for this Oakland defense and its star defensive end/linebacker Khalil Mack, who has seven sacks on eleven QB hurries on the season. Mack is heating up and looking like the guy who made both All-Pro teams at two different positions in 2015. He is the key for the Oakland defense tonight, as they will need to get to Osweiler early and often to keep receiver DeAndre Hopkins in check.

On the other side of the ball, I’m having a hard time trying to figure out how Houston will stop Oakland’s offense. We all knew about the success of their three C’s (Carr, Cooper, and Crabtree), but the Raiders showed a new wrinkle against Denver two weeks ago.

The heavy formation with the extra linemen gave running backs Latavius Murray, Jalen Richard, and DeAndre Washington plenty of room to run against Denver. The resurgence of the previously non-existent running game makes this potent offense all the more lethal for Oakland.

An interesting aspect of this game will be the fact that this game is being played at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. Estadio Azteca sits at 7,280 feet above sea level, which is over 2,000 feet higher than Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver. Much is made about the altitude in Denver whenever a team travels to Denver, but there have been reports that the effects of the altitude combined with the pollution levels in Mexico City could be “devastating” to the players tonight and going forward.

This is worth keeping an eye on as the game progresses tonight, so this could come down to the more conditioned team once the game enters the fourth quarter. Look for both teams to go for the early knockout to keep the field conditions out of the equation tonight. As for my pick in the game, I think that Oakland is the better team and coming off of the bye makes them well rested enough to withstand the conditions in Mexico City. I’m going with Oakland (-6) tonight to close out Week 11.

That’s it for me today, enjoy the games tonight. As I mentioned earlier its going to be a busy week at Shooting the Moon so stay tuned tomorrow and Wednesday. Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.