This week was absolutely nuts, every favorite fell and the Red Raiders suffered an absolutely humiliating defeat.
1) Oklahoma
Jalen Hurts saw his Heisman campaign end this Saturday. Not because he played badly, on the contrary he was a machine. The problem was Oklahoma’s supposed improved defense was ran over by what had been a pedestrian Kansas State attack.
As a result, Oklahoma suffered their first loss effectively ending their playoff hopes and ending Jalen’s heisman chances. Oklahoma is still clearly the best team in the conference, but that defense is not as improved as the Sooners were hoping.
2) Baylor
The Bears are the conferences last hope to make the playoff, but it is a hope in name only. Baylor will not be unbeaten by season’s end. They won’t get past Oklahoma, especially not twice. This ball club is for real, but Oklahoma is who Baylor has to get past to remain unbeaten and even if they escape once they have to do it again in the title game.
Lincoln Riley is too good offensively to get stalled twice, and I suspect the Sooners are about to go on the warpath now that they have been woken up. The bright side for Baylor is if the school can just avoid not being an absolute embarrassment for a second Matt Rhule has built this program up in a hurry. What a job he has done making Baylor a competitor in such a short time-frame. That defense combined with a better quarterback than Charlie Brewer will really be something special, the future is very bright in Waco.
3) Kansas State
Kansas State did the improbable, slowing down Oklahoma’s attack just enough to stun the big favorites. Kleiman is a winner, and is the kind of coach that will make these wins the norm for KSU. This is not a talented ball club on paper, but that toughness and grinding mentality that existed under Snyder is still there.
Kleiman brings a killer instinct and the know-how to win. A program that Tech fan’s would kill to be is still the gold standard for how to win without the best resources at your disposal.
4) Oklahoma State
This team is just absurdly uneven. But beating a very good Iowa State team is worth a lot of admiration. Do I have any idea what they will do for the rest of the year? No, but this was a huge win for a reeling Cowboy’s squad. The Mullet had some magic in it still.
Sanders still had a pick, but his performance was much more in line with what the Cowboys need. The bigger reason for the win was obviously the defense forcing three picks. That storyline directly caused the win.
5) Iowa State
What happened to this offense is pretty simple: Brock Purdy did not protect the ball. Three interceptions is god-awful, and will get you beat basically every week. His numbers reflect just how this game should have gone if he had just protected the football.
I can’t find any other fault in their performance, if you turnover the ball like that you cannot win. Period. They slowed down OSU’s defense, and they threw for nearly 400 yards and Hall averaged 4 yards a carry.
6) Texas
This secondary is just stupidly bad. If it wasn’t for our beloved Red Raiders, Texas would be the worst secondary in the conference. All that talent can’t mask that many injuries, and that youth. Ehlinger had a weaker game, and that is all she wrote.
Adios Orlando, you had a good run. But I cannot imagine Herman will balk at scape-goating his coordinator now that their title hopes are completely dashed.
7) TCU
Normally, I use head to head wins to stack teams up but not here. Why? Because TCU’s offense is awful and their record is no bueno. The bright side for Patterson is if the season plays out in their favor, they should get to bowl eligible which is huge since they are not good this season.
But they have to harness their offense against non-garbage secondaries. If the ground game is on track, and the quarterback protects the football beating West Virginia and Tech is very achievable.
8) Kansas
I wrote as much as I care to about Kansas already this week. All I will say is we better all be rooting our asses off for the Jayhawks to be bowl eligible. The best we can hope for is this Kansas squad is much better than many think, including myself, think.
9) West Virginia
The rebuild will roll on, but this has been a really frustrating season. Flashes of potential sprinkled in with moments of futility. Baylor will probably not be a fun one for the Mountaineers but there are shots to get some program building wins still ahead.
10) Texas Tech
Is this an overreaction? No, this is what happens when you lose to one of the worst conference teams while the other bottom dwellers either had a bye or got a win. I’ve also written as much about that shit show as I want to but I will give you all a best-case/worst-case scenario.
In the ideal world, you roll out of the bye-week like a team possessed and take out two sucky teams back-to-back. Not easy with a secondary that is the equivalent of the Miami Dolphins as a position group besides Coleman, but it can be done. Then you just have to upset one team to sneak into a bowl.
Worst case, you lose out and end this year with a record so bad that I do think will put Wells under as much pressure for year two as Kliff was in his final season.
What do I think will really happen? If you play well, your best, all these games are winnable. If you play like you did against Kansas, you will lose out. Most likely, I think you can get past West Virginia and TCU but I don’t see an upset looming. So 5 wins and an off-season on the couch seems like the most likely outcome. Here is to hoping the team proves me wrong.