Weekend Warzone: Big 12 Roundup Week 2

Oklahoma State 56, UTSA 35

This one is not as close as the score indicates, as the roadrunners scored four touchdowns against the Cowboys B and C teams in the fourth quarter.  Before that it was 42-7 and a much better indicator of how the game actually progressed.  Cowboy quarterback J.W. Walsh made his case for the starting position in a big way, completing 24 of 27 passes (almost 90%) for four touchdowns and no interceptions, while pitching in a rushing touchdown as well.  After leaning heavily on the ground game and defense last week the Cowboys showed that the octane is still high for their passing game, putting together a combined 518 yards and 6 TDs through the air.  This is your team to beat in the Big 12, especially after an inauspicious conference opener for...
Next week: Lamar (1-1)
Staff Picks: Everyone had the Cowboys, HawkeyedFrog came closest on Margin of victory (25 instead of 21).  Polite applause, perhaps.

Oklahoma 16, West Virginia 7

On the one hand, at least the defense looks good?  The Sooners held the mountaineers to only one touchdown, a 75 yard run early in the first quarter.  That one run made up almost half of West Virginia's rushing total for the game, though the Mountaineers had at least moderate success there compared to the passing game where new quarterback Paul Milliard completed just over half his passes for 5.3 yards an attempt and an interception.  Not the kind of numbers a Dana Holgorsen quarterback needs to put up for them to have a chance to win.  Despite that performance... West Virginia still did have a chance to win, as OU's passing offense continued to be inept with Trevor Knight completing 50% of his passes for 119 yards, 1 TD and 2 picks.  Still, his quarterback rating was stellar compared to the Belldozer who finished with a 0 on the day (admittedly on only 1 pass attempt, but still... a quarterback rating of 0).  The OU ground game continued to look solid, but had a hard time finishing drives as eventually West Virginia would force them into third down and mediums that the Sooners couldn't convert.  You all remember West Virginia's defense from last year, so two picks and less that 150 yards passing against the mountaineers does not bode well for the Sooners when they host TCU in three weeks.  The week before that?  Notre Dame, meaning the Sooners won't be having a ton of time to look ahead with the Frogs and the Red River Shootout with Texas coming up.  Or maybe they won't have to worry about throwing against Texas, because...
Next week: Oklahoma- Tulsa (1-1), West Virginia- Georgia State (0-2)
Staff Picks: Everyone had OU by two scores, no one would have taken under 30 combined points.  Wow.

BYU 40, Texas 21

BYU put up 550 rushing yards against Texas.  I'm tempted to just leave this portion of the roundup at that, because what really needs to be said beyond that?  BYU, who put up 187 yards rushing at 3.5 yards a clip against middling Virginia last week, ran up a new school record for rushing offense while also setting a new Texas record for futility on rushing defense, averaging 7.6 yards a carry.  Blitz master and widely panned Texas DC Manny Diaz must feel like a man with only an index and middle finger entering a rock-paper-scissors competition against a group of 7 year old boys- you know rock is coming every time, but all you do is keep throwing scissors.  Texas also won the turnover battle 2-0 and lost David Ash to an injury, to further damn the Longhorns efforts.  Whoever that Frogs O' War guy who picked Texas to tie with Oklahoma State and TCU for the league championship must feel pretty stupid right now.  Speaking of regrettable calls I made...
Next Week: Ole Miss (1-0)
Staff Picks: Everyone had Texas winning a close one.  Oops.

Baylor 70, Buffalo 13

I didn't pick the Bulls to win, but I did think it would be close.  More fool I, as the Bears ran roughshod over the overmatched squad from New York.  The Bulls hung with Baylor early, scoring the first touchdown of the game and pulling to 21-13 before missing an extra point and being shut out the rest of the way.  Although some of the result is likely heat fatigue and Art Briles questionable desire to run up the score at any opportunity,  the Bears put together a much more comprehensive win over the Bulls than Ohio State did last week.  I'm not saying that Baylor could beat Urban Meyer's squad... but I'm not saying that Ohio State would beat Baylor either.  The season ender for TCU is shaping up to be a good one.  The Bears did the majority of their damage on the ground, averaging 6 ypc and scoring 7 rushing touchdowns, but starting quarterback Bryce Petty was remarkably efficient as well, going for over 300 yards on just 13 completions.  I'll be interested to see what Baylor does against a team with a solid defense, but the thing is... there just aren't that many of those in the Big 12.  TCU probably, OSU probably, OU probably, and maybe Texas Tech- who Baylor will play all in a row.  If Baylor runs that gauntlet they'll have earned the conference championship.  Speaking of possible title contenders.
Next week: Louisiana-Monroe (1-1)
Staff Picks:  Everyone picked Baylor, but heap praise on Purple Wimple for picking the Bears to roll up 70+.

Texas Tech 61, Stephen F. Austin 13

Tech impressed once again with a crushing win over an FCS school (before you guys say "It was just an FCS team" remember how TCU played yesterday) and putting together another solid defensive performance.  Last week I declared myself officially worried about Tech, and this week did nothing to assuage those concerns going into Thursday night's game.  Tech put up 731 yards of offense against the overmatched lumberjacks and starter Baker Mayfield put up an impressive 12.3 YPA- a very robust number for an offense that lives off of quick short passes.  When TCU heads out to Lubbock I expect it to be a Big 12 game of the year candidate, but I may be reading too much into a win over an FCS team.  Is that a win over an FCS team transition?  You bet it is!  We go next to
Next week: TCU (1-1) (Thursday)
Staff Picks: Everyone picked Tech to win by a lot, so partial credit for all!

Kansas 31, South Dakota 14

Kudos to Kansas for picking up their first win of the season in their first attempt, cranking out 280 yards on the ground against the South Dakota Coyotes.  The story for Kansas doesn't appear to have changed too much from last year, as they'll try to run the ball while throwing just enough with a highly touted transfer that didn't pan out in his first school to keep defenses honest.  Game 1 of the Jake Heaps experiment proved a better one than the Dayne Crist show for the simple reason that Heaps didn't toss a pick.  Still, Kansas is going to have to get production from the QB position to win in the Big 12, as it's not like teams are going to let you win just by running on them all game (with the possible exception of Texas).  The Jayhawks did have some issues stopping the run, however, which will make it tough to project them to more than one or two Big 12 wins- they're just not as good as the other teams in the conference.  Still, they did beat a team from the Dakotas to give them bragging rights over...
Next week: @ Rice (0-1)
Staff Picks: Everyone picked Kansas to win, with Jamie coming within a point of a perfect margin of victory, so an extra helping of kudos for him.

Kansas State 48, Louisiana-Lafayette 27

Welcome back to the win column, K-State.  Although there were causes for concern (not the least of which being the two picks to no touchdowns for starting QB Jake Waters) the Wildcats controlled this one from the outset, rolling up a 34-3 lead before easing up and letting the Ragin' Cajuns save a little face.  The Wildcats had an excellent run-pass balance of 37-34, which should keep defenses on their toes for the rest of the year.  Will K-State contend for the Big 12 championship again this year?  Almost certainly not, but I don't expect them to fall below .500 in the regular season either, which I imagine wildcat fans will take after last week's debacle.
Next week: Umass.
Staff Picks: HawkeyedFrog was the only one to pick K-State to rebound with a win.  That he picked a three score margin (17 instead of 21) is icing on his cake of joy.