Week 13 of the college football season is here and there is still plenty on the line with conference play in full swing. One of the most underrated games of the weekend took place in Stillwater, Oklahoma as the Oklahoma State Cowboys hosted the Texas Tech Red Raiders.
Both teams were fresh off a bye week and had over a full week to prepare for one another. I guess both defenses never got off the bus because the scoreboard lit up like the fourth of July. In the end, Texas Tech came out on top 56-48. Here are my three takeaways from the game.
Texas Tech’s Offense Caught Fire
We all knew that the Red Raiders had some firepower offensively and they displayed that on Saturday in Stillwater. Quarterback Behren Morton threw for over 350 yards and had four touchdowns on the day while star running back Tahj Brooks ran for three scores. Of course, wide receiver Caleb Doulgas went off as well with over 100 yards.
If their defense had shown up, then this game would have been a blowout, but it turned out that they needed all of those 56 points to walk out of Stillwater victorious. I know this may not be the dream season for Texas Tech, but they have a chance to finish the regular season with eight wins for the second time in two seasons.
Welcome Back Oklahoma State
It has certainly been a wild year for Oklahoma State when it comes to quarterbacks. We have seen several signal callers play for the Cowboys this season including veteran Alan Bowman, who has had a disastrous year. Yet despite that, the coaching staff continued to roll out Alan Bowman.
Now we have seen Maealiuaki Smith get some playing time, but on Saturday he got to start. While he may not have had an impressive performance, it was better than what I have seen from Alan Bowman. I don’t think there should be any debate on who Oklahoma State should start next week. Also, it was great to see Ollie Gordon II out there and light it up as he finished with three rushing touchdowns. I felt like we got to see the old Ollie Gordon II for the first time all season.
This Was a Classic Big 12 Game
I am not one to play into the bad narratives from the national media, but this game between these two felt like a classic Big 12 shootout they we would regularly see back in the 2010’s. There was over 1,000 yards of total offense and over 100 points were scored in this game.
In the grand scheme of things, this game didn’t mean much. Texas Tech is on the outside looking in when it comes to the Big 12 title picture and Oklahoma State isn’t even going to a bowl game this year. But it was still fun to see these two go back and forth like they did years ago when we saw guys like Patrick Mahomes and Mason Rudolph playing quarterback. This was truly a Big 12 throwback game, and I must say that I actually enjoyed it very much.
