Big 12 Football Week 5: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
I hear it all the time, “Who has the best conference in college football?” SEC? Big 10? ACC? What about the Pac-12? Very rarely are you going to hear the words “Big 12” coming out of someone’s mouth in that conversation. Whether you do it or not, there are plenty of folks out there who love to bash the Big 12 conference (cough, Paul Finebaum, cough). Another week of football is in the books. In the Big 12, there is never just a normal weekend and that once again proved to be true this past weekend. As always, there was some good, bad and downright ugly.
The Good
Oklahoma State (Beat Kansas 48-28)
Welp, after me whining about Justice Hill not getting enough carries, he gets 31 and goes for 189 yards and a score. Also, how about Taylor Cornelius? He looked better than what we saw a week ago (I know it’s Kansas) throwing for 312 yards and 4 touchdowns. Don’t forget about Tylan Wallace and Landon Wolf as both had over 100 yards receiving and a score. Defensively, they did a decent job against the run. Besides a Pooka Williams 60-yard run, I thought they did a much better job this week. Now against the pass, it was shaky at times as they gave up over 250 yards and 3 touchdown passes. Maybe it was the quarterback change for Kansas? Not sure, but some penalties didn’t help the defense out either. Overall, they got the conference road win and won by 20, so I think almost any Cowboy fan will be just fine with that.
Oklahoma (Beat Baylor 66-33)
I could have been a bad guy here and split the offense and defense up but when you win by 33, I will give you a pass. In the first half, the Sooners dominated as they led Baylor 28-9. They did great things on offense and the defense only allowed one touchdown. The offense had 7 possessions in the first half and scored 4 touchdowns. Kyler Murray had 4 touchdown passes in the first half alone even though he sat out a drive! Then the second half came around and the offense found an even higher gear as they tore up the Bears defense. They put 38 more on the board, and get this, Oklahoma had 7 offensive possessions in the second half and the last one was used to run out the clock. So, let’s say 6 possessions and THEY SCORED ON EVERY SINGLE DRIVE. It was big play after big play on offense. Whether it was Kyler to Marquise Brown or CeeDee Lamb or Kennedy Brooks running the football, they all had a party on offense. Kyler finished the game with 7 total touchdowns for crying out loud! Maybe the defense got tired because the offense scored so quickly because they have up 24 in the second half. Even though they allowed too many passing yards, this defense shut down the run game for Baylor allowing just 77 yards on 38 attempts. Again, we could sit here and nit-pick, but they just beat a conference foe by 33 at home.
West Virginia (Beat Texas Tech 42-34)
Boy, this was a tale of two halves wasn’t it? After leading 28-7 at the end of the first quarter, West Virginia got outscored 27-14 in the final 3 quarters. Overall, QB Will Grier went 27/41 for 370 yards and 3 touchdowns. His day would have been much better if his wide outs didn’t drop so many passes. But, I will say that WR Marcus Simms had an outstanding day with 138 receiving yards and a score. Defensively, this team wasn’t prepared for the quarterback change when TTU QB Alan Bowman went out and QB Jett Duffey went in. Duffey had some success on the ground but thanks to the play of Kenny Robinson and Keith Washington, the Mountaineers were able to seal the deal. Although they won a Big 12 game in Lubbock (Which is never easy to do), this game showed me that the West Virginia offense is human after all.
TCU (Beat Iowa State 17-14)
It wasn’t always pretty, but I knew this would be a tough, physical game and it was every bit of that. Offensively, TCU was a mess and once again had 3 turnovers. Shawn Robinson threw into triple coverage and fumbled once while tight end Artayvious Lynn tried to hurdle a defender who was standing straight up and lost the football. All 3 were head scratchers but luckily, it didn’t cost the Frogs the game. The defense won this ball game for TCU. Yes, they gave up 101 yards to RB David Montgomery on the ground but get this, they held Iowa State to just 79 yards passing! INSANE! Again, it wasn’t the best performance by TCU, but they did enough to win the football game and that’s all you can ask for if you are a TCU fan because Iowa State is a tough team to beat.
Texas (Beat Kansas State 19-14)
Much like a lot of these games, there was a good half of football and a not so good half of football. In the first half Texas outscored K-State 19-0 but most of the damage was done by a safety and a D’Shawn Jamison punt return for a touchdown. The Texas offense only found the endzone once thanks to a 4-yard touchdown pass from Sam Ehlinger to Collin Johnson. Other than that, there wasn’t much else because Texas failed to score a single point in the second half. The defense really played well shutting out the Wildcats in the first half forcing Kansas State to bring in quarterback Skylar Thompson. While the Longhorn defense gave up 2 ten plus play touchdown drives, they didn’t allow the Wildcats to score on their final 2 drives of the game. When it counted the most, the defense got stops. Offensively, they need to step it up because points will be necessary if they plan on beating Oklahoma next week. With this win, Texas got their first win in Manhattan, Kansas since 2002.
The Bad
Kansas (Lost 38-28 to Oklahoma State)
Not going to lie, I think we all expected a result like this because what can we expect from this team? They had their moments in this game to pull within 2 scores at times, but can anyone honestly say they had a real shot in this game? I can’t. QB Carter Stanley did bring a little life to the offense tossing 3 touchdowns and more importantly, not turning the ball over. However, Kansas never got into a groove in this ball game. Half of their points came in the fourth quarter and outside a 60-yard Pooka Williams run, the ground game wasn’t there. Not to mention Carter Stanley was sacked 5 times as well. Not sure where this offense is going but I thought Carter Stanley moved the offense better than any quarterback Kansas could have used. As for the defense, they couldn’t stop OSU RB Justice Hill and gave up a total of 256 rushing yards on the day which is brutal. The pass defense wasn’t much better as they gave up over 300 yards and 4 touchdowns. The Jayhawks have yet to be competitive in their first 2 Big 12 games and I have a hard time seeing that change for the future.
Kansas State (Lost 19-14 to Texas)
Let me start with a positive here: the defense only gave up 10 points. 9 of the Longhorns 14 points came from a safety and a punt return for a touchdown. Overall, I thought they played well. Now let’s get to the offense. What a mess. Bill Snyder wants Alex Delton to start and he does nothing so then K-State is forced to play Skylar Thompson in the second half. Kansas State only got 4 offensive possessions in the second half, but was able to find the end zone twice with Thompson in at quarterback. While neither guy played great, I think Skylar is the guy moving forward. Again, both guys are wildly inconsistent, so this staff must do its best to ride the hot hand or even the semi-hot hand. Even though it was kind of ugly, this was the second-best game Kansas State has played this season, depending on where you view the South Dakota game in Week 1. However, there is still plenty of work to do for the Wildcats if they want to make a bowl game this season.
Iowa State (Lost 17-14 to TCU)
QB Zeb Noland had 79 yards passing in this contest. Unless your offense runs for 300 plus yards on the ground, 79 yards through the air isn’t going to win you football games. RB David Montgomery was able to rush for 101 yards, but 198 total yards of offense is pathetic. I know TCU has a good defense but that performance I saw against TCU was unacceptable. Iowa State is now 1-3 to start the year and this offense better show up next weekend in Stillwater because if it doesn’t, 1-4 is a real possibility. I know it’s far too late, but Maybe Matt Campbell should have hired an offensive coordinator for this season. Before I forget, the defense played well enough for the Cyclones to win the game. This one was on the offense.
Baylor Offense (Lost 66-33 to Oklahoma)
Even though Baylor couldn’t run the football, QB Charlie Brewer showed up to play. The Bears had to settle for 3 field goals in the first half, but those drives started turning into touchdowns in the second half as Baylor was able to put up 24 points on the board. The wide receivers started to settle in a bit better in the second half and overall, Charlie Brewer threw for 400 yards and 2 touchdowns. Even though his offensive line broke down a few times as Charlie was sacked 6 times, he still was able to make some plays. Wide outs Denzel Mims and Jalen Hurd showed up ready to play, but unfortunately besides these 3 guys I just mentioned (Brewer, Mims and Hurd), everyone else struggled. Baylor could have easily given up, but they didn’t. Well, at least the offense didn’t.
Texas Tech Last 3 Quarters (Lost to West Virginia 42-34)
I am not sure what happened in the first quarter but in the final 3 quarters, Tech outscored WVU 27-14. They even lost starting QB Alan Bowman for the entire second half and with backup QB Jett Duffey in, they still nearly made the epic comeback. QB Jett Duffey did most of his damage on the ground, but he was able to connect with wide receivers Antoine Wesley and Ja’Deion High. Afterwards, WVU HC Dana Holgorsen said that Jett Duffey caught his defense off guard. Either way, the offense was able to find a way to score points even though Jett made some mistakes that were costly. Maybe even more impressive in this 3-quarter stretch was the Red Raider defense. Half of the Mountaineer points scored in the final 3 quarters was due to a Jett Duffey pass that was picked off and returned for a score. While the first quarter was a complete shit show, the defense finally buckled down but for this team, it was too little too late because the comeback fell short. The one positive is that this team could have given up like they have in previous years, but they didn’t. I respect the fight they showed.
The Ugly
Texas Tech’s First Quarter (Lost to West Virginia 42-34)
Not a whole lot I can say here about the first quarter performance for Texas Tech in this game. They got outscored 28-7 and allowed 279 yards in just one quarter. You can say that this one quarter of play cost them the game because they were having to play catch up the entire game after this. I am not going to lie, after the first quarter was over I wanted to go back to my hotel and start my day over again because I drove 6 hours for a blowout game? Luckily, it didn’t end that way, but this was one of the worst starts to a game that I have been to.
Baylor Defense (Lost 66-33 to Oklahoma)
This defense gave up 607 total yards and 66 points. That will lose you the game ten out of ten times, especially on the road. As I am typing this I am currently re-watching this debacle and it is even worse the second time around. The tackling was poor, and the angles taken by some of these defenders were downright awful. I am not sure if it would be a good idea for Baylor to re-watch this tape or just to burn it and have a funeral service for it. My goodness, that was bad. In fact, my eyes still hurt from watching that.
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