All quiet on the Big 12 front: conference avoids major shakeup

Tech came just inches away from causing a stir in the standings

By mikemacon23 Oct 14, 2019, 12:00pm CDT

1) Oklahoma

Damn, Texas managed to get within 14 of Oklahoma blowing up my prediction. To be fair, this was a game that was not anywhere near as close as the scoreboard. Make no mistake, Oklahoma dominated this game.

9 sacks is an absurd total, and Texas never seriously looked like they could win. The gap between the Horns and the Sooners is a chasm. Oklahoma will not be challenged this year, as no one will get even this “close” again.

2) University of Texas

I won’t move Baylor into second yet, because I am so unimpressed by them. But Texas is seriously making a case to be moved down. Their defense is paper thin, and you really allowed 9 sacks? 9 SACKS!? Good Lord.

Oklahoma’s defense is improved, but come on that is disgusting. The bright side, they capitalized off Oklahoma repeatedly shooting itself in the foot to make the score look passable. Texas is a good ball club, but the boys in Austin have a long road ahead before they can challenge Oklahoma’s dominance.

3) Baylor

So what did I learn about Baylor? For starters, that offense is just bad. Charlie Brewer is the worst quarterback everyone wants to pretend is a star. The kid is not 3 INTs bad, but at best he is a game manager. Keith Patterson’s baffling decision to sit back and let him throw into Tech’s terrible secondary cost them the game in the end. I thoroughly believe if we just continued to challenge him as we had done all game, he would’ve crumbled as he did all game.

Now the vaunted Bears defense, am I buying stock? Yes and no, which is a cop out I know. Baylor’s defense is better than I gave them credit for but still if Tech doesn’t regularly decide to implode in the redzone (only that one interception was anything Baylor did right. The others were either playcalling or unforced errors.) you win this game going away.

All in all, the Bears are benefiting from the Big 12 being down but they are a decent ball club. The offense is unimpressive, but the defense is top 50ish.

4) Texas Tech

You saw the good and bad of Jett and this offense. The good: Thompson runs hard, the receivers are ballers, and Jett has the arm talent to make some really impressive throws. The bad: your offensive line plays stupid and can’t move anyone off the ball, Jett is a turnover and bad decision machine, and Yost is going to blow up at least one critical call a game.

Defensively, you continue to fade late in games which is a result of the offense being unable to move the ball effectively and just a lack of depth. But still, as I mentioned if Patterson doesn’t switch to prevent we win this game in regulation.

The bright side of the loss is you are not going to play anyone better than Baylor till Texas and you should have won this game. Iowa State is a balanced team, and they have had Tech’s number lately. However, they have only looked good against bad teams. Even against Baylor their offense only clicked for a quarter.

I am giving Tech the nod here because I believe at home, with our really strong defense out of the gate we can control Iowa State’s attack early and Duffey will find his groove and limit the mistakes.

5) Iowa State

Iowa State struggled early, but exploded into the second half for a solid win in Morgantown. Like I said above, I am not impressed by who Iowa State is looking good again but they are a solid squad. The defense is deep and disciplined, and the offense is efficient albeit a far cry from what the Cyclone faithful were hoping for.

As I mentioned right above but want to emphasize, this is all about where the game is taking place. In Lubbock, in front of what should be a solid crowd I believe Tech is going to play the kind of cleaner game that would have beaten Baylor. Tech sits as my gatekeeper to to the top half, Oklahoma State failed in Lubbock to get past them I believe Iowa State will too.

6) Oklahoma State

The bye week treated the Cowboys well. At a time where they need to do some soul searching, they got a break. For OSU, they have a date with Baylor and I believe they can win this game. Keep the ball on the ground and attack Charlie Brewer.

If they do that, Baylor will finally and deservedly be knocked down a peg.

7) Kansas State

The Cats need this win in a bad way, but so does TCU. Can Kansas State recapture some of the good vibes or is the rebuild going to be a lot more effort than many in the Little Apple hoped for? TCU is not good this year, but Kansas has to find a way to manufacture an offense.

If they can’t, the better defense will win this game and that defense belongs to TCU

8) West Virginia

The Mountaineers are going to keep this spot only because I am so low on TCU. With Kendall out of the game, the entire trajectory of the ISU game changed. I believe WVU will fall down after Oklahoma gashes them, but I will let the Mountaineer faithful enjoy being out of the cellar a bit longer.

9) TCU

Take what I said for Kansas State above and put it here. Despite the fact this is not a consequential game for the conference, it is a massive one for both programs. Patterson is out of excuses, he threw his coordinator under the bus and the next game his defense was scorched. Just like Kansas State, finding some sort of an offense is a critical need.

This will be a low scoring affair, but ultimately I will take the Cats in a close one.

10) Kansas

Wouldn’t it be funny if Texas loses to Kansas again?