Weekend Warzone: Big 12 Roundup Week 3

Oklahoma 51, Tulsa 20
Blake Bell will be your OU starter, barring injury, for the rest of the year.  After middling offensive performances under Trevor Knight, OU came out swinging hard and rolled up over 600 yards of offense, including over 400 yards passing as Blake Bell went 27-37 with four touchdowns and no interceptions.  The rest of the Big 12 is officially worried about the Sooners now, as OU led 34-7 before easing off against their littlest brother.  Between OU and OSU it's going to be tough for any team to bring the Big 12 championship south of the Red River.  After a narrow escape against Purdue, expect Notre Dame to be a heavy home underdog against the Sooners next Saturday, and don't be surprised either if the Sooners cover.
Next week: @ Notre Dame (2-1)
Staff Picks: Everyone had OU by multiple scores, nobody saw how this one actually played out with an OU air show.

West Virginia 41, Georgia State 7
The Mountaineers made a quarterback switch to freshman Ford Childress and it paid off in a big way as Childress put up an effective (if not highly efficient) performance, against new FBS member Georgia State.  Childress completed 61% of his passes for over 300 yards with three touchdowns to one pick.  Not exactly September Geno Smith, but it has to feel good for a mountaineer offense that looked lost for their first two games.  What may make them feel better though is that the defense has again looked solid, holding State to below 50% passing and averaging under 5 yards per pass attempt.  For a defense that got torched by anyone and everyone that does nothing but build confidence with a game against middling Maryland just ahead.  I'm still not expecting big things out of West Virginia this year, but they're looking more like a bowl team every week.
Next week: @ Maryland (3-0)
Staff Picks: Everyone had West Virginia by multiple scores as well, but Jamie had the closest margin with West Virginia by 34.

Iowa 27, Iowa State 21
Iowa State had two jobs if they were going to upset big brother Iowa- stop the bludgeoning Mark Weisman and don't turn the ball over.  Iowa State didn't do it early in the game and got into a hole that they couldn't quite pull out of despite a spirited rally in the fourth.  Iowa led 13-0 at the half and 20-7 at the end of the third, pulling away to 27-7 with just under eight minutes left, but after a touchdown and successful onside kick, Iowa State QB Sam Richardson threw a pick that got Iowa out of harms way and let them burn cyclone timeouts before punting it back, leading to time running out for the Cyclones after their second fourth quarter touchdown.  Iowa recovered the next onside kick and Weisman powered clock down to 12 seconds for the Cyclones to make a miracle happen.  They went for a short pass and laterals, but got snuffed out before they even past midfield and that was all she wrote.  A much improved performance for the Cyclones this week, but 0-2 is 0-2 and it's getting more difficult to see how Paul Rhoads will mystically get this team to bowl eligibility.
Next week: @ Tulsa For the third time in the span of a year, Iowa State takes on Tulsa.  This is the rubber match, people.
Staff Picks: HawkeyedFrog had the closest margin of victory, but the wrong team on top, Jamie and Patrick had the Hawkeyes by two or three scores.  Distribute points as you see fit.

Kansas State 37, UMass 7
It's still a work in progress, but K-State is becoming a team to fear.  The Wildcats turned the ball over three times and had just 127 yards passing with barely over 50% accuracy.  Still, the minutemen never threatened after the first quarter, as Kansas State scored 31 straight points to close the game.  The best news out of this game is the continued performance of the K-State defense after the pounding they took against NDSU, as they looked significantly better today in holding the minutemen to just 3.2 yards per carry and 5.8 per pass.  There are still a lot of questions for this team to answer before assuming they'll be bowl eligible, but it's looking much better after the season opening thud.
Next week: @ Texas (1-2, 0-0)
Staff Picks: HawkeyedFrog had the closest margin of victory and was one point off K-State's point total.  Not bad.  Jamie and Patrick both picked K-State by multiple scores as well

Rice 23, Kansas 14
Kansas definitely looks better than last year.  The bad news is, Rice is better than they were last year as well, and the Owls have improved more than the Jayhawks.  New Kansas quarterback Jake Heaps had below 50% completion and two interceptions- a pick six and an ugly pass that was so short the cornerback had trouble running under it to pick it off.  The biggest issue for the Jayhawks was the ground game, which had been so solid last year, faltered against the Owls, tallying just 2.9 yards per carry, which just won't get it done with Heaps' suspect accuracy.  The Jayhawk defense looks solid, holding the owls offense to just 16 points and under 400 yards offense, while collecting two interceptions of their own.  The problem is that for another year it looks like the schematic advantage has yet to materialize for the Jayhawks, which could lead to another long wait for basketball season for the KU faithful.
Next week: Louisiana Tech (1-1)
Staff Picks: Jamie was the only Owl believer, so kudos Mr. Plunkett.  A shame you weren't able to see it as a result of a certain bet.

Oklahoma State 59, Lamar 3
Oklahoma State wins our Art Briles memorial "Running up the score on the helpless" trophy this week by taking out all the frustrations of the mounting SI scandal on Lamar- the tomato can's tomato can.  There's not a lot to say about this one, except that Gundy may have reignited quarterback controversy with Clint Chelf's flawless 6-6, 1 TD performance in second half duty, compared to Walsh's 56.7% completion rate for 181 yards 1 TD and a pick.  The Cowboy defense continues to look strong, but the Cowboys resume lost a little luster this week through no fault of their own, as their best scalp to date just gave Auburn its first SEC win in two years.  Oklahoma State is still the Big 12 headliner right now, but it's not nearly as clear as it looked last week.  We'll learn a lot more about the Cowboys as conference play kicks off for them after a bye.
Next week: Bye
Staff picks: Everyone had Oklahoma State by 40+, so call it a push.

Ole Miss 44, Texas 23
I watched this game starting from the Texas rally from 14-0, so I feel like I have a very good understanding of just what's wrong with the Texas Longhorns at the moment.  The word "Soft" has been thrown around a lot about this Longhorns team, and I imagine that's what you'll hear from the media at large after this one- where Ole Miss rolled off 30 straight points to turn a two score Texas lead into a laugher- but that's not really accurate.  To me playing soft is an attitude where you're afraid of bad things happening and so you subconsciously help them happen by not being aggressive- Texas is not that kind of soft.  Instead, the right word for the Longhorns is fragile- like a glass table that can only accommodate so much weight before shattering.  Texas weathered an early storm from Ole Miss, but fought back and it looked like just before the half they had seized control of the game.  Then a flag flew in for targeting on the last Ole Miss drive of the half which the Longhorns disagreed with, and the Rebels were able to cut the Texas lead to 23-17 going into the half.  A promising Texas drive sputtered out to start the second half, Ole Miss scored to tie the game, and at that point you could tell that the game was over.  The score may as well have been 0-0, and Texas had the ball with the chance to take the lead, but the Texas o-line wasn't firing off the ball anymore, Johnathan Gray wasn't turning two yards into six anymore and Case McCoy was rushing his decisions.  The Texas psyche was shattered and there was no putting it back together after that, Ole Miss could have scored 40 on the Horns in the second half without issue, they were beaten the moment the game was tied.  Texas still has the talent to play with and beat anyone in the conference, but in order the the Horns to win any game they're going to have to get through it without reaching that breaking point.
Next week: Kansas State (2-1, 0-0)
Staff Picks: Everyone picked Ole Miss, but HawkeyedFrog was three points away from the Rebs final score.

Texas Tech 20, TCU 10
No summary needed, you've read the other threads. For the sake of completeness in the schedule and picks though, here it is.
Next week: Texas State
Staff Picks: Patrick the "I'd rather be right than support the team" writer picked Tech, so respect his prognostication while silently judging him.