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 (7-3, 4-3) |
Date | November 10, 2012 |
 (6-3, 4-2) |
Lots of good things this morning. At this time of the year, I'm struggling to keep up with football and basketball. If I miss a story in a given day, try to cut me some slack.
LINKS
Big plays, and the lack thereof, hurting Red Raiders | Red RaidersFive Key Developments from the Texas Tech vs. Kansas game | Red RaidersWilliams: Tirade not Tuberville's finest hour | Red RaidersJayhawks ground-and-pound not enough - The Daily Toreador: SportsTech fights off scrappy Jayhawks, wins in double-OT - The Daily Toreador: SportsTommy Tuberville shows frustration on sideline - The Daily Toreador: Sports
Our Daily Bears (Baylor Bears): Some will disagree with me placing a significant portion of the blame on Nick Florence, but I honestly believe it. He was 12/33 with several overthrown deep passes that could have been the difference. His receivers didn't help him -- *cough* TEVIN REESE *cough*-- but he was far from good. Lache Seastrunk, however, was able to build on the Kansas game with 3 TDs and 91 yards on 15 carries. The Jarred Salubi Era is over. The Lache Seastrunk Era has begun! It probably seems weird that I'm lamenting the fact that a 21.5 point underdog lost by 8. You know I fully expected to lose this game, but the way we lost it still bothers me. We looked overmatched on offense for the first real time this season, the defense failed to replicate it's success last week against Kansas when it needed to, and we lost our first game this season where we won the turnover margin. If you had told me going in that we would get two more turnovers than we gave up, I'd have been pretty freaking excited. Because of our offense, though, we didn't get it done. Losing will never stop hurting. Losing like this will never stop pissing me off. (Link)
Wide Right & Natty Lite (Iowa St. Cyclones): The Longhorns ran a trick play out of the wishbone as a tribute to the late Darrell Royal on their first offensive play of the game for a 50 yard gain and never looked back. For those of us lucky (or unlucky) enough to watch the game, the team seemed like they never really left Ames, and were handled fairly easily by the Longhorns, now owners of a 4 game Big 12 winning streak. The Longhorns put up 609(!) yards of offense, with much of the yardage after breaking tackles or on receptions with no defender within 5 yards of the receiver. Mike Davis and Jaxon Shipley were both over 100 yards on the day, while Joe Bergeron and Johnathan Gray ripped apart the Cyclones' front seven. The absence of Jansen Watson was huge, as David Ash picked his replacements Sam Richardson and Cliff Stokes apart. Just like several of Iowa State's other losses, Texas dominated the time of possession 38:12-21:48. (Link)
Rock Chalk Talk (Kansas Jayhawks): The final score didn't provide the exclamation point that this Kansas team is looking for, but it did provide another solid example of the improvement and competitiveness that is developing within the Kansas football program. When you're building from the bottom up I suppose you have to sometimes settle for moral victories. This team has had a few of those this year and it seems to be only a matter of time before Kansas get's over the hump. Great game today for James Sims and Tony Pierson. Great fight from the team as a whole. Next week is senior day for a group of Jayhawks and one last chance to get a win at home during the 2012 season when Iowa State comes to town. Six weeks ago I don't think we saw much hope for a win in league play, but this team has given fans a reason to believe that it could happen and next week might be the best opportunity on the board. (Link)
Bring On The Cats (Kansas St. Wildcats): In a game that featured two stout defenses and two offenses that weren't on top of their game, K-State came away with a 23-10 win over Texas Christian. Combined with Alabama's loss earlier to Texas A&M, K-State should be No. 1 tomorrow. Collin Klein started and played the entire game a week after an apparent concussion. While he guided K-State to a win that was never really in doubt, Klein didn't play at the level to which we've become accustomed. He rushed for 50 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries, and was 12-21-1 for 145 yards and no touchdowns. A large part of the offense's struggles can be directly attributed to TCU's defensive line play. Instead of having time to stand in the pocket and go through his reads, Klein was often harassed early, and there were few running lanes for John Hubert, Angelo Pease and Klein. TCU held K-State to 260 total yards, and 115 rushing yards, well below the Wildcats' season averages. Much credit to TCU in this one. For a team that is struggling with youth and depth issues, the Horned Frogs are still a tough out. And they're only going to get tougher with experience. (Link)
Crimson and Cream Machine (Oklahoma Sooners): Blake Bell was just supposed to get a first down. His previous attempts were thwarted by penalties (from both sides) that put Landry Jones back on the field and Oklahoma back into their conventional offense. However, this time everything went right. No one jumped, everyone blocked, and 55 yards later Bell was celebrating in the end zone on what would ultimately be a potentially game saving touchdown. Beating Baylor wasn't supposed to be this difficult for OU. The Bears were tops in the nation in passing offense but somewhere close to nonexistent in defense. Yet the Sooners found themselves in desperate need of a first down that would keep a hopeful scoring drive alive. Lache Seastrunk scored with eight minutes left in the third to draw Baylor to within two points at 28-26. Damien Williams gave Oklahoma fans a little relief from their anxiety when he scored from 17 yards out to put the Sooners up 35-26 but everyone knew that wasn't quite comfortable enough. (Link)
Cowboys Ride For Free (Oklahoma St. Cowboys): If there was ever a game that I felt like they were never in control of until late in the 4th quarter, this was it. West Virginia controlled the play in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, but couldn't capitalize. The Cowboys struggled at times against what was supposed to be a sketchy Mountaineer defense, but 2 costly special teams muffs handed points to OSU at critical times. Oklahoma State only had 3 drives go more than 6 plays. Fortunately, those 3 drives accounted for 17 points. OSU was also the beneficiary of 2 short field TD's, one off of 1 of the aforementioned special team muffs, and another after a turnover on downs. The Cowboys' defense played really well at times, but was also the recipient of some horrible throws by Geno Smith. Have we ever seen a Heisman favorite fall so far from glory? Chelf threw for the quietest 292 yards ever. He was high on almost every throw until the 4th quarter, and was obviously locked in on Stewart. His 13 receptions were 10 more than the next closest WR. (Side note...Lunt AND Walsh were available to play.) The running game, if you take away the 46 yard reverse to Stewart (a TD), had a grand total of 105 yards rushing. They were continually stuffed by a West Virginia defense that, like so many others we have faced, dared us to beat them with the pass. One of the worst defenses in the country held one of the best offenses in the country over 100 yards under their average, AT HOME. We even saw the "Wildcat," but all it did was remind me of the failed 4th down attempt with Walsh at Arizona. (Link)
Burn Orange Nation (Texas Longhorns): If the last several games were baby steps for the Longhorns defensively, the performance against the Cyclones would seem to represent a big step forward. Defensive coordinator Manny Diaz once again kept away from early-down twists and was able to dial up pressure against Iowa State quarterback Steele Jantz with a variety of blitzes in passing situations, harrying him into a 15-for-29 performance that included two interceptions on balls that were overthrown because of pressure in his face. Against the run, Texas wasn't quite dominant giving up 4.6 yards per carry, but didn't give up a run of longer than 14 yards, receiving a strong performance from true freshman Peter Jinkens, who filled in ably for Kendall Thompson, who suffered the concussion last week against Texas Tech. (Link)
Frogs O War (TCU Horned Frogs): This was not a particularly emotional loss for me, as it just seemed like we were never really in the game. The TCU defense played out of their minds after getting off to a mixed start, picking Klein off early, but then letting the likely Heisman winner hammer them on the ground repeatedly for a TD. After that the defense did everything you could possibly want in this game, they just were hung out to dry repeatedly by the offense and special teams. Jaden Oberkrom went 1-2 on field goals, missing another one from the left hash terribly right, Deante' Gray finally got a shot to try and return another punt after an injury to Skye Dawson and muffed it terribly while doing his mind bogglingly stupid over the shoulder fielding and even TCU's MVP punter Ethan Perry hung the D out to dry once with an abysmal shank. The TCU offense never got clicking, as apart from Matthew Tucker on the ground (good to have you back big man) the Frogs were not able to make anything happen with consistency. Trevone Boykin was put on his back six times, went out with an injury when he had finally been clicking, and threw a terrible pick just before the half. Finally in the absolute dregs of garbage time Brandon Carter beasts into the end zone to make the score look more respectable than it actually was. (Link)
The Smoking Musket (West Virginia Mountaineers): While the offense was able to get somewhat back on track in this game, several defensive breakdowns were still prevalent and three (four if you count the missed downing of the ball deep) huge special teams gaffes proved to be too much to overcome for these Mountaineers. A bobbled kickoff, a crazy bounce on a punt and a kickoff return allowed for a touchdown accounted for the major mistakes on the so-called third side of the ball this afternoon. Tavon and Stedman for the most part were their usual selves, with Bailey putting up the kind of numbers he was regularly posting before his ankle injury. Despite a couple of questionable decisions and a few inaccurate throws, Geno was back to putting up good numbers as well, but the lack of a running game is severely hampering this Mountaineer offense. The offensive line that was so strong early in the season is absolutely struggling against the higher talent level and stiffer competition in the Big 12. (Link)