Weekend Warzone: Big 12 Roundup Week 6

Baylor Bears 66, Kansas Jayhawks 7

Baylor played a football game against what is possibly the worst (and definitely the thinnest) P5 team in the nation.  The result was exactly what you would expect- Baylor did the Baylor thing and annihilated the Jayhawks through three quarters before calling off the dogs in the fourth.  Much like Baylor's non-conference slate, there's very little to be gleaned from this game, other than that Baylor is good enough to throttle a bad team and Kansas is a bad team.
Staff picks: It's Baylor Kansas, yes, we all got it.  Samantha was closest to the margin of victory, though!

Texas Longhorns 24, Oklahoma Sooners 17

If you'd told me before the game that Texas would score 24 points I would have found it hard to believe, but would assume that OU simply scored so many times so quickly that Texas ended up with a ton of possessions.  What I would not have expected is that Texas would not only win the game, but never trail and absolutely dominate the Sooners in the trenches on both side of the ball.  Texas passed for just 55 yards in this game and still hammered Oklahoma, thanks to a staggering 313 yards on the ground, while a fired up Longhorn defense conceded just 67 rush yards.  When you outrush a team by 250 yards, you're not going to lose a lot of football games.  From an Oklahoma perspective, this loss has to be absolutely crushing- once again the Sooners have taken a big step back in the Big 12 title chase before October is half over for the fourth year in a row- but this time it's not to a surprise Big 12 championship contender like TCU last year or KSU in 2012, this is a loss to a Longhorn team off to its worst start in almost six decades that was coming off an absolute drubbing the week before and has been spending the week attempting to put out fires (and transfer requests) from its players on twitter.  Football, man.  It's a weird game.
Staff picks: Everyone was wrong.  Oops.

Texas Tech Red Raiders 66, Iowa State Cyclones 31

Texas Tech continued to show that its offense was firing on all cylinders as they crushed the Cyclones at home, but what I'm most impressed with is Iowa State's Mike Warren, who ran for over 10 yards a carry (on 23 carries) and seemingly single handedly attempted to keep Iowa State in the game while the rest of the ream let him down.  Iowa State's quarterback threw three picks compared to just one touchdown pass and completed less than half of his passes.  No other ISU player with more than one rush averaged over 3.1 YPC, which makes Mike Warren's effort even more interesting- and my player to watch as TCU heads to Ames next weekend.  On the Texas tech side- the defense is improving for the most part, and the offense can score with anybody in the country as long as they don't make the crucial mistakes.  Thanks to consecutive losses to TCU and Baylor, Tech's goal now is to get back to a bowl game, and next week should help with that.
Staff picks: We're all Tech-sperts, but Marshall and Warrior were both only one point away from the margin of victory.

Oklahoma State Cowboys 33, West Virginia Mountaineers 26 (OT)

Okay, Oklahoma State, I admit it.  I have absolutely no idea how you keep managing to win football games.  OSU's starting QB completed 50% of his passes, averaged 5 yards an attempt, didn't throw a touchdown and was picked off three times.  West Virginia ran for 122 more yards than Oklahoma State- and yet, OSU finds itself one of two 6-0 teams in the Big 12, while West Virginia finds itself with consecutive conference losses to start conference play well ahead of the showdowns with TCU or Baylor.  The difference in this one?  Three forced fumbles recovered by Oklahoma State, including one that the Cowboys carried into the end zone for a 7-0 lead.  Still, West Virginia's defense looked good, got a safety and helped get the Mountaineers back into the game before the Cowboys won it in overtime, but the question I'm still asking is- is Oklahoma State any good or not?  I honestly don't know, and that's a hell of a thing for having seen OSU play 6 games this season- and with a bye week and then Kansas, it'll be a while before we find out anything else.  What a weird team.
Staff picks: Rusty, Samantha and possibly Mason picked the Cowboys (Mason's score prediction says OSU, but the text says WVU?), so clarification is needed.

TCU Horned Frogs 52, Kansas State Wildcats 45

On the first snap of the ballgame, Aaron Green took a handoff and flew 86 yards for a touchdown to give TCU a 7-0 lead.  Everything after that point didn't work out quite as well as expected for the Frogs, as KSU fought, scratched and clawed every step of the way, taking a huge 18 point lead at halftime and milking the clock for every second.  Still, with flags flying and the running game bogging down, TCU fought back and escaped Manhattan with a very hard fought win.  The near loss showed that while TCU's offense is indeed powerful, the defense still has a ways to go despite the improvement, and this team isn't good enough to take any team for granted- particularly on the road.  To my mind, Trevone Boykin established himself as the Heisman favorite last night, capping off a stellar performance with two go-ahead touchdowns, through the ground and the air both in the fourth quarter, not only putting up his typical huge numbers but showing tremendous poise under pressure- which meant that, no matter the deficit, I never felt like the Frogs were out of striking distance.  The Frogs have a lot of growing to do with their run defense before their next big game, but as players keep getting healthier and more experienced, the Frogs remain undefeated and have three good road wins on the season already.  The rest will sort itself out.
Staff picks: Another staff sweep, with RustyFrog having the perfect margin of victory, just each team racking up 10 less total points- very impressive!