The last time Army was this big of an underdog was in 1776.

(Back then, the colonial troops led by General George Washington eventually defeated the British, the most power army in the world at that time.)

The Army football teams travels to Norman for a 6 p.m. kickoff against No. 5 Oklahoma in a game that is considered such a mismatch that it was pushed to pay-per-view TV. Almost every OU game is televised but networks don’t like blowout scores.

Oklahoma was a 31-point favorite on Monday.

One of the reasons for the big gap is the play of Sooner quarterback Kyler Murray. In a 37-27 win over Iowa State in Ames Saturday, Murray was 21 of 29 passing with three touchdown passes. He led the Sooners in rushing with 87 yards on 15 carries.

Murray is erasing any concerns that OU would drop off after the graduation of quarterback Baker Mayfield, who won the Heisman Trophy.

This year, Murray has 1,032 total yards of offense, 10 touchdowns and a 93.8 Total QBR. Through three games last season, Mayfield had 1,033 yards, 10 touchdowns and a 94.6 Total QBR.

Murray’s name is starting to pop up on Heisman hopeful lists.

Wide receiver Marquise Brown has been his top target in the first three games. Brown has caught 19 passes for 412 yards, averaging 21.7 yards per reception and 137 yards per game. He has caught three touchdown passes.

Brown has already caught three passes for more than 50 yards each.

Former Sooner Dede Westbrook, who plays for the Jacksonville Jaguars, in 2016 averaged 18 yards per catch and averaged 117 receiving yards per game for the Sooners.

That was the year Westbrook won the Biletenikoff Award as the best receiver in the nation.

“They’ve always had a good connection,” Riley said about Murray passing to Brown. “He is open a lot. He is just so fast. And on top of being so fast, he has become a good player.

“He’s running well after the catch and he’s really comfortable with what we are doing.”

Brown moves around in different positions to “create mismatches,” Riley said.

Army lost to Duke, 14-34, beat Liberty 38-14 and defeated Hawaii 28-21 last Saturday. Against Hawaii (in West Point, New York), Army quarterback Kelvin Hopkins, Jr., had 110 rushing and 162 yards passing.

 “I think it gives us a little bit of confidence,” Hopkins said of the victory. “We care a lot about winning at home and things like that, but we’re going to go down there to play a great team in Oklahoma. We just have to come out ready to practice and be focused starting with tomorrow; just getting there early, watching film, breaking it down and go down there ready to win and compete.”

Army is No. 6 in the nation in rushing offense, averaging 306.7 yards per game. Oklahoma is No. 32 with an average of 222 yards per game.

Playing in a passing league can make it difficult to adjust to a nonconference game against a team that runs the ball like Army.

“We think we have a pretty good plan for it,” Riley said. “The good thing is, when you play a team like this, what we do offensively is very difficult for them to defend.”

To prepare, Riley said Monday that you have to strike a balance on how much time you spend on the schemes of opposing teams and working on fundamentals.

“It’s constant,” Riley said. “It’s ever changing. You evaluate your guys each week and decide what they need and what we need to get better at.”

He said it is always hard to run the football and that’s the first thing that “every defensive coordinator in America” wants to stop.

“We have run the ball solidly the first three games, kinda like we did last year,” he said. “We were so close to breaking so many that all of a sudden that in any of these games, if you throw in a 50- or 60-yard run, the whole stat line and the whole perception looks different. We have come agonizingly close and we are going to get there.”

Trey Sermon is the starter for OU now that Rodney Anderson is out for the season but Riley thinks that any player might emerge as the season progresses.

“He had a couple of long runs for us,” Riley said. “One long run got called back by a penalty.”

It was a tough road win at Iowa State for a Sooner team that flourishes in front of hostile crowds.

“We came in knowing it was going to be a fourth-quarter game and it was, obviously,” Murray said. “I thought we handled it well. A little adversity never hurts anybody. I felt like it was good for the team.”

Murray said OU didn’t underestimate the Cyclones.

“They are a good team,” Murray said. “We expected a dogfight and that’s what we got.”

ISU coach Matt Campbell complimented Murray.

“He’s talented. He’s special. He makes you defend the entire field,” Campbell said of Murray.

Campbell thought the Cyclones had a chance to win the game for the whole duration, especially when they trailed by only seven points late.

“I thought we were right there the whole game,” said Campbell.

Last year, when ISU upset Oklahoma in Norman, Iowa State players said after that they were challenged to play a physical game against a more talented OU squad.

“I thought we were physical at times,” Campbell said of last Saturday’s game.

But Iowa State was overmatched.

“You have a team with exceptional athleticism,” Campbell said of OU.

That’s one reason why ISU tried to punt the ball out of bounds to avoid big plays on returns.

“We’re not good enough to give up the big play consistently,” Campbell said of Brown.