Weekend Warzone: Big 12 Roundup Week 6

Texas Longhorns 31*- Iowa State Cyclones 30
The Longhorns Big 12 title hopes and the coaching career of Mack Brown survive another week, needing a lucky hail Mary, the worst officiating outside of Lubbock and the continued services of wide receiver Mike Davis, who not only wasn't ejected but won't be suspended next week either, despite doing this after play was over.

Click to see it in action.

I won't put a "stay classy, Longhorns" on this, because in general the fans I've heard have been unanimous in their disdain for this behaviour, as well as of Mack's attempt to downplay the dirty play by saying that "I thought he was competing".  So instead we'll just call it "Stay classy, Mack Brown.", the entire conference will be better off when you're no longer in it.  As for the game itself, Iowa State forced two fumbles as the Longhorns attempted to take the lead with less than a minute left to go and recovered both of them... only for them to both be ruled as the runner being down and the calls upheld on review.  A dreadful end to what had been a very interesting game, with the adorementioned scumbag Mike Davis repeatedly got through the Cyclone secondary and the Longhorns Johnathan Gray bludgeoned his way to almost 6 yards a carry going against Iowa State quarterback Sam Richardson who had a career day without a pick before a batted pass fell into the arms of a longhorn lineman at the end of the game.  At any rate, these two teams seems very evenly matched, which can only be taken as a bad sign for the Longhorns as they head into the Red River Shootout next week- I expect Oklahoma to roll Texas big, maybe even a 60 point margin big, and that still somehow won't be enough for Texas to ditch Brown.
Next week: Texas- Oklahoma @ Dallas, Iowa State- @ Texas Tech
Staff Picks: Everyone picked Texas, so do we technically all win or all lose?  It's up to you to decide, but Patrick picked the closest game.

Texas Tech Red Raiders 54, Kansas Jayhawks 16
It's a shame that you can't run the clock out with 7:54 left in the first quarter, because what a story it would have been then- Kansas 10, Texas Tech 0, based on the strength of an early interception of Baker Mayfield.  Sadly for the Jayhawks games are still played for four quarters, and soon enough the Raiders were on their way to another one-sided contest in this remarkably one-sided series (Kansas has won just once in 14 attempts, and never at home).  With the score knotted at 10, Kansas inexplicably tried a fake punt from their own 16 yard line on fourth and twelve(!) that didn't come anywhere close to working and two plays later Baker Mayfield ran it into the end zone himself to turn a tight game into a beatdown.  Though they lost Mayfield in the effort, the Raiders averaged 7.1 yards per attempt and converted 50% of their third downs while racking up a massive 525 yards of offense.  Once again Kansas' ground game played fairly well, but Tech got enough sacks and fumbles to force Kansas into throwing situations where the Jayhawks struggles continued, completing barely over 50% of their passes and going just 3-15 on third down.  I still think the Jayhawks will give a few teams a game down the road, and wouldn't be surprised if they were to upset someone, just hopefully not next week... perhaps a team in orange.
Next week: Texas Tech- Iowa State, Kansas- @ TCU
Staff Picks: Everyone picked Tech by multiple scores, but Jamie came very close to the actual score, predicting 52-17

Baylor Bears 73, West Virginia Mountaineers 42
Well, Baylor actually did it, they went and blew the doors off of a team that doesn't entirely suck.  I'm not going to go so far as the national media has in declaring the Bears the favorite to win the Big 12, but it's time that even we TCU fans have to be impressed by what Baylor is doing.  This one got out of hand early and could have been many orders of magnitude worse if the Bears hadn't sent out the B-team to get intercepted and scored on.  The Bears rolled up 864 yards of total offense, 7.5 yards per rush and 12 per pass attempt and could have likely broken over 1000 yards offense and 100 points if they had desired it.  All of West Virginia's defensive improvement seemed to go for naught, as the Mountaineers were crushed in every phase of the game.  There are likely only two defenses in the conference that can slow Baylor, but TCU has a long way to go before they have the offense to keep up with even a slowed down Bear offense.  Fortunately there's still a lot of time for TCU to grow, but Baylor's season is going to be three games: Oklahoma, Texas Tech and @ TCU, and we'll just have to hope OU runs the table to keep Baylor from earning a share of the Big 12 title.
Next week: Baylor- @ Kansas State, West Virginia- Bye
Staff picks: Everyone picked Baylor, but Jamie was the only one who picked the bears to go over 70

Oklahoma State Cowboys 33, Kansas State Wildcats 29
The huge bounceback game that so many expected from the Cowboys after last week's beatdown in Morgantown didn't exactly happen, as Oklahoma State struggled throughout against the Wildcats.  The Cowboys were a bit better running the ball this week, but all of the offensive firepower that they were supposed to have this season just seemed to fizzle in the second half with no first downs in the third quarter (who do they think they are, first half TCU?) as the Wildcats continued to hang around, despite the mistakes of new quarterback Daniel Sams who replaced the underperforming Jake Waters.  The Wildcats had five turnovers in this game, and yet it was still down to the wire, which is sure to unsettle the natives in Stillwater as much as the loss to West Virginia.  The Cowboys also benefited from an absolutely unreal 12-1 penalty ratio and still almost blew this game.  I'm feeling pretty down on the Cowboys at this point, as Kansas State did everything they could to let this turn into a blowout and the Cowboys still needed a late interception to escape at home.  They may not fall in the power poll, but I expect they will in the FrogPoll top 25.
Next week: Oklahoma State- Bye, Kansas State- Baylor
Staff Picks: Again, a unanimous choosing of the Cowboys, but HawkeyedFrog had an almost perfect margin of victory and was very close on the final score as well.

Oklahoma Sooners 20, TCU Horned Frogs 17
Find full analysis here.  I'm frustrated at the clock management, the playcalling, and a lot of other little things, but OU is a darn good team and they're going to be tough to beat the rest of the year.
Next week: Oklahoma- Texas @ Dallas, TCU- Kansas
Staff Picks: Everyone picked OU... at first, until HawkeyedFrog switched his pick at the last moment.  A shame since his original prediction was the closest.  Jamie and Patrick got it right, but probably jinxed the team somehow.