Big 12 Roundup | Kansas St., Oklahoma St., Baylor, Texas & Oklahoma All Win in Week 9

Taking a look at the Big 12 standings, Baylor and Texas have yet to lose a conference game and there's a log-jam after that, with Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma St. with just 1 loss each. Things are about to get really interesting and the Big 12 has seemingly back-loaded some of their best games for the end of the year. And the game of the week (other than OSU vs. TTU) is Oklahoma at Baylor on Thursday night.

Our Daily Bears (Baylor Bears)
What Happened: Baylor 59, Kansas 14
Up Next: Oklahoma (Thursday)
I almost went on a similar rant about this tweet from CBS' Jerry Palm, the same guy who insists on putting Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl as Big 12 Champion every week despite all evidence to the contrary. My response to him at the time was that Baylor is its own reason to watch, since there's never been a team doing what ours has done. He acts like everyone is throwing down 700+ yards and 64+ points regularly, when they are definitely not. Of all the possible reactions to Baylor's season, "meh" is easily the most ridiculous. I can pretty much guarantee you right now that Bryce Petty isn't going to get the Heisman love that he deserves from this game and this season. A couple of passes very early in the game aside, he was absolutely on fire against Kansas tonight in what might have been the best performance of his career. Had his receivers helped him out a little, he could have had 400 passing yards and 4 TDs in the first half alone, before ever seeing a snap in the second. Had Briles let him, he could have broken Baylor's single-game passing record with time to go in the third quarter. When people talk about the 2013 Heisman race, they're going to say names like Marcus Mariota, Jameis Winston, and Johnny Manziel. The first two lead undefeated, top-3 teams, while the third is the returning winner having a great statistical season. But none of them are the linchpin in possibly the best statistical offense CFB has ever seen. Petty is. (Link)

Wide Right & Natty Lite (Iowa St. Cyclones)
What Happened: Oklahoma St. 58, Iowa St. 27
Up Next: @ Kansas St.
Since Iowa State brought a disappointing end to Oklahoma State's national championship hopes on a cold Friday night in 2011, the Cowboys have responded mercilessly, piling up a 83-37 combined margin of victory the last two years. Iowa State looked thoroughly outmatched throughout the game, piling up a collection of missed tackles, turnovers, penalties, and injuries in yet another loss on the 2013 season. Iowa State was without Luke Knott (hip/groin), Willie Scott (failed to make team expectations) and Aaron Wimberly (hamstring) to start the game, and lost Jarvis West and Sam Richardson during the game. West will be out with an MCL injury for at least four weeks, while Sam Richardson is said to be OK and will practice on Sunday, but held out for precautionary reasons after hurting his neck/head on a possible (unflagged) late hit. Once again, the offense struggled outside of a few series, emphasized by not one, but two defensive touchdowns by the Cowboys. Richardson led the schizophrenic play, being responsible for a couple of beautiful tosses, including a nice touchdown throw to Quenton Bundrage, as well as leading the team in rushing despite not playing the second half at all. Grant Rohach was just as hot and cold in relief, throwing a pick (and several more near picks on out routes) and fumbling the ball carelessly, but showed good arm strength and threw another touchdown to Bundrage, who looks to be on track to break Todd Blythe's single season receiving record... as a sophomore. (Link)

Rock Chalk Talk (Kansas Jayhawks)
What Happened: Baylor 59, Kansas 14
Up Next: @ Texas
After a game plays out almost exactly like expected, it's pretty tough to do much of a recap. Baylor's offense has been was again last night extremely good. The Bears built a lead of 45-0 in the 3rd quarter before the Jayhawks scored their first touchdown on a Brandon Bourbon run of 22 yards. Bryce Petty completed 20 of his 32 passes for 430 yards. Running back Lache Seastrunk gained 109 yards on 13 carries, Shock Linwood gained 106 yards on 9 carries, and the Bears had three other players average 5 yards a carry. Their routes on the passing game are ran with amazing precision which allows Petty to throw to spots based on his read of the defense. The Bears line gave him time to get a read and get rid of the ball cleanly. As for the Jayhawks, little worked on either side of the ball. The passing game struggled early, with Heaps and Cozart both struggling to make accurate throws. Multiple throws by both guys were so off target that neither the receiver or defender even had a chance at making a play on the ball. The run game struggled to get going except for a drive late in the first quarter. After hearing about the ball-control game plan all week, Charlie Weis threw us a curveball as the offense ran 10 pass plays to only 4 running plays on the first four possessions of the game, gaining only 11 yards total and eating up very little time off the clock. In his postgame interview, Weis said they wanted to try to force Baylor's safeties from playing up. The fifth drive featured the run game and gained 46 yards before being stopped on a 4th and 1. (Link)

Bring On The Cats (Kansas St. Wildcats)
What Happened: West Virginia 12, Kansas St. 35
Up Next: Iowa St.
I guess we have a quarterback controversy again, huh? Of course, it's going to be hard for the Sams camp to argue their side after this game, in which Jake Waters asserted his dominance in the fourth quarter to save the game and, arguably, the season. Both quarterbacks were mostly terrible for the first 40 minutes of the game. Waters fumbled twice, losing one. Daniel Sams coughed up the ball at the goal line midway through the third quarter, giving West Virginia a touchback. Early on, outside of a pretty 35-yard strike to Tyler Lockett, Waters passes had no touch -- not that he was being asked to throw many. Meanwhile, Daniel Sams couldn't get anything on the ground -- at all, as he was held to 16 yards on 14 carries, his longest of the day going for eight yards. (Waters, meanwhile, picked up 55 yards on ten carries; both quarterback's figures don't account for sacks.) But late in the third, things started clicking. The defense held West Virginia to a field goal on the response drive after Sams' fumble, and then Sams led a 78-yard drive which took up 8:24 and ended with a nine-yard toss to Lockett, The defense held, and Waters led a drive which ended with a 30-yard strike to Tramaine Thompson. And after Ty Zimmerman stripped the ball from Clint Trickett near midfield, Waters again found Lockett from 24 yards out. And that's before we even discuss the final drive, during which Waters absolutely clowned the West Virginia defense before getting inside the 10 and letting John Hubert go to work. They failed to completely kill the clock, though: Hubert scored with 21 seconds left to emphatically put the final punctuation on the game. (Link)

Crimson and Cream Machine (Oklahoma Sooners)
What Happened: Texas Tech 30, Oklahoma 38
Up Next: @ Baylor (Thursday)
Blake Bell and the Oklahoma offense did not get off to the quick start Saturday night many in Sooner Nation had hoped to see, but after a slow first quarter they were a model of efficiency and showed how this team needs to win games going forward. Said slow first quarter saw OU's offensive drives end with a blocked field goal, a fumble, and two punts. Not to mention an early third down and eight where Josh Heupel chooses to run an option play, almost identical to the unsuccessful call he made against Kansas early in the first quarter, that had several questioning his confidence in Bell for the decision not to throw. Fortunately, it proved to be misguided speculation as Heupel would show confidence in Bell throughout the remainder of the game and Bell would reward him for it. This was easily the best game this OU offense has played since Notre Dame and Saturday night against Texas Tech they showed how this team is going to win games with Blake Bell as the starting quarterback. (Link)

Cowboys Ride For Free (Oklahoma St. Cowboys)
What Happened: Oklahoma St. 58, Iowa St. 27
Up Next: @ Texas Tech
78 yards...342 yards....420 total yards. Numbers that totally make sense based on what we've seen so far this season. Except they don't. After steamrolling Mississippi State on the ground in the opener, the Cowboys haven't mustered so much as a whimper on the ground. Jeremy Smith, annointed the heir apparent to Joseph Randle, couldn't get past the line of scrimmage. Rennie Childs gave OSU a spark out of the backfield against TCU, so of course we clamored for more. Which is why it made total sense when Desmond Roland got the start in Ames and ran roughshod over the Iowa State defense for the slowest 200+ yards and 4 TD's in the history of OSU football. Clint Chelf, as we expected, got the start at QB and added 85 yards on the ground. Now, before we go believing that somehow OSU has figured it all out, let's just point out a couple of things... Iowa State has THE worst defense in the Big 12, ranking last or next to last in almost every meaningful category; Against the leagues worst pass defense, Clint Chelf nearly matched his completion % from last week, going 10-26 for a measly 78 yards, 1 TD, and 1 INT; Yes, the wind was blowing enough to affect the ball, but the wind wasn't blowing last week when he went 10-25 in BPS, so now we have a common denominator. His interception was clearly some type of miscommunication with the receiver, as Chelf lobbed it up deep while Ateman ran a hook. Yurcich called a pretty good game, but if Chelf can't improve on his completion % (which I find it hard to believe he can't), this offense is not winning the Big 12, I don't care how much the defense has improved. (Link)

Burnt Orange Nation (Texas Longhorns)
What Happened: Texas 30, TCU 7
Up Next: Kansas
This is the bittersweet victory. The OU win? No matter the context, beating the Sooners leavees not even a hint of sour taste in the mouth. It's pure sugar. Tonight's win, however... man, it's hard not to engage a round of what ifs after this one. What if Texas had replaced Diaz in January instead of September? What if the team had navigated the non-con season without a loss? It's a senseless exercise, but Texas' 30-7 victory over TCU in Fort Worth on Saturday night begs the questions. The Longhorns smothered TCU as a superior team would, dominating a struggling Horned Frogs offensive line on defense and wearing down TCU's defense with an effective blend of solid rushing and big play passing. The Texas defense turned over the TCU three times, allowing just a single big play while shutting out the Horned Frogs from the red zone, while the offense converted 5 trips into the red zone into 4 scores -- a pair of touchdowns and two Anthony Fera field goals. The defense set the tone early when Quandre Diggs strip-sacked Anthony Boykin deep in Frogs territory, and Adrian Phillips recovered the fumble on the 3 yard line, setting up the first of two Malcolm Brown rushing touchdowns on the game. On TCU's next possession, Gary Patterson decided it to look for a spark from Casey Pachall, who returned from injury for his first action since the season opener and for a short while he was fairly effective, leading the Horned Frogs on his second drive to a touchdown that cut UT's lead to 10-7. After Pachall moved TCU 32 yards with three completions, the Horned Frogs found the end zone on a double pass, beating safety Josh Turner with an excellent play call that was set up by hurry up tempo and a wide receiver screen a play earlier. (Link)

Barking Carnival (Texas Longhorns)
What Happened: Texas 30, TCU 7
Up Next: Kansas
What do we even know about this team at this point? Seriously. What do we really, really know? I'm asking. One thing we know is that life/football is full of strange twists and turns. We know that David Ash has had a really disappointing/frustrating UT narrative, and that has coincided, oddly, with a fairly satisfying narrative for Case McCoy. Who on earth could've predicted the kind of senior season story Case McCoy may end up having to tell? He's becoming--for me--almost lovable, and that would be impossible if it weren't for the unfortunate circumstances in which Ash finds himself. Life/football is unpredictable. I hope and pray for David that maybe he gets an unexpectedly pleasant turn in his narrative next season. How crazy would it be if both Ash and McCoy end up having, dare I say it, "fairy tale" senior seasons? Honestly, what does it say about Mack Brown and Manny Diaz that an unemployed coach coming in off the street can come in, and--in the middle of the season--wring competent defensive play simply by eliminating the foolishness by which we were proactively shooting ourselves in our 22 defensive feet every week? (Link)

Frogs O War (TCU Horned Frogs)
What Happened: Texas 30, TCU 7
Up Next: West Virginia
Let's go through the checklist of disheartening signs from TCU games this year 1. Fail to run the ball early: Check 2. Muff a punt: Check 3. Brandon Carter Alligator Arms/Drops a pass: Double Check 4. The running backs look good: Check 5. Less than 20 rushes by RBs: Check 6. The defense starts strong: Check 7. The defense gets worn out: Check 8. The defense gets put into bad position by turnovers: Check 9. A mini rally promotes the idea that not all hope is lost: Check 10: The opposition scores to quench to momentum: Check A ten point list that every game has followed this year, so I'll spend my time talking about Casey Pachall instead. Casey looked a little rusty, but was definitely an improvement over Boykin to the point where I think we can win the next two at least and look for bowl eligibility. Pachall was done no favors by the receivers, who time and again got their hands on balls only for them to pass through- a week of practice to get used to Casey's rocket will be needed after the weeks of Boykin's peashooter should see that righted. Sadly the switch of playcaller did not have the desired result of actually seeing the run game/the players we want to see actually step on the field, so I'm standing with my desire to see both co-OCs on the street together. Jason Verrett, I'm sorry you gave up a year of the NFL for this. (Link)

The Smoking Musket (West Virginia Mountaineers)
What Happened: West Virginia 12, Kansas St. 35
Up Next: @ TCU
For the second consecutive game WVU started slowly but hit its stride in the second and third quarters by building a lead before falling apart in the waning minutes of that third quarter and then careening down the interstate with sparks flying everywhere when the wheels fell completely off in the fourth. I can just paste in the recap from last week, right? No? You guys seriously want to talk about this one? Well let's do it. Like last week, the offense took a bit to get started with the first 4 drives ending in punts. Fortunately the defense held up and aside from giving up a 35 yard TD pass to Tyler Lockett to open the scoring (he would finish the game with 8 catches for 111 yards and 3 scores and will likely be the Big 12 offensive player of the week - sound familiar?) they did what we want to see them do. Forced some punts and turnovers and generally made life difficult for Kansas State's Jake Waters - the passing quarterback. Once again like last week, the offense began to find a rhythm as the second quarter opened and methodically moved the ball up and down the field with a nice mix of runs and passes. Third downs were manageable and after a couple exchanges of possessions the Mountaineers won the field position battle as Clint Trickett scored the first rushing TD of his WVU career on a drive that started at the KSU 47. After that it was more of the same with the WVU D holding and the offense moving the ball - but then the first of many opportunities were lost. A 50 yard bomb to Ronald Carswell set up first and goal at the Wildcat 6, but a short run and some errant throws resulted in only 3 points. The missed chances only compiled on the next possession as a first and 10 at the KSU 12 resulted in another field goal try with a minute left in the first half. Unfortunately the decision was made to attempt a fake - a decision that Dana Holgorsen later informed us was made by players on the field and not coaches - and while the decision might have been sound, the execution was not. Will Clarke missed a key block that would have at least allowed Michael Molinari to gain the first down (at least) and he was stopped a yard and a half short. (Link)