Weekend Warzone: Big 12 Roundup Week 5

Iowa State Cyclones 38, Kansas Jayhawks 13

Ouch.  In the "Safe Yearly Big 12 win" rivalry, Iowa State blew the Jayhawks away with a decimating performance on the ground, racking up 243 yards on 6.6 yards per carry as a team, though most of the damage was done by Mike Warren, who averaged almost ten yards a carry and singlehandedly outscoring the Kansas offense.  Throwing the ball was a bit more of an adventure for the Cyclones, as Sam Richardson threw two picks (including a pick 6 that accounted for over half of KU's points), but balanced that with two touchdowns while the young thin Jayhawks had virtually nothing that worked for them on offense.  Iowa State is not a good team, but they are certainly much better than the Jayhawks- who are well on the way to a winless season.
Staff picks: Poor Scott got burned believing Kansas for the second week in a row, while the rest of us picked ISU.  Simone was the closest to the actual margin of victory, so huzzah!
Rock Chalk Talk: Corrupt Big 12 officials cause KU to be blown out!- This one is funny.
Wide Right and Natty Lite: ISU destroys KU

Oklahoma Sooners 44, West Virginia Mountaineers 24

I'm calling it now, guys- Oklahoma is good again.  After stretching out a 17 point lead at the end of the first half, West Virginia clawed their way back into the game in a big way in the third quarter, pulling to within three points and doubtlessly making every OU fan have painful flashbacks- only for the Sooners to actually clamp down on defense.  After pulling close at 27-24, West Virginia's next offensive possessions were three and out, fumble returned for OU touchdown, interception and interception, setting the offense up with short fields to pad the lead back to the twenty points that were the final margin.  West Virginia's defense is certainly improved after last year, holding OU's running game to 3 yards per carry and keeping Baker Mayfield to almost a 50% completion rate, but the completions that Mayfield did have were big ones- four receivers caught passes of over 20 yards- which was enough to keep WVU at bay as Mountaineer QB Skyler Howard had a miserable game- 50% completion rate, three picks and just 5 yards per completion, while the OU D-line feasted on him.  OU is the contender of the pair, without question, while West Virginia has some more growing to do.
Staff picks: Our most controversial game yet- Marshall, Andrew, Warrior, Samantha and Mason picked the Sooners, Warrior gets the closest margin of victory pick (I'm discounting Mason's equal margin of victory in this one because he predicted overtime).
Smoking Musket: The hype train has been derailed
Crimson and Cream Machine: Outlasting West Virginia

Baylor Bears 63, Texas Tech Red Raiders 35

Quick thought before I get into the BUTT bowl breakdown- I swear Baylor put Stidham in this game just to rub in their (fairly) shady recruit flip in Texas Tech's face.  That said, the game was pretty much what we expected it would be- both offenses racked up yards and points by the dozen.  The difference, though, was that Texas Tech self-inflicted injuries that you simply can't have against Baylor.  The Bears had stretched out a two touchdown lead, but Tech had forced a three and out and was moving the ball well into Baylor territory... then Tech fumbled, and Baylor scored three plays later.  Then Patrick Mahomes got picked off, and 4 plays later, Baylor scored again to turn a 14 point margin (that could have been cut to 7) to 28 points, which ended up being the final difference.  Tech is a better team than they were last year, but any chance at an upset was lost with those turnovers, which is what we've come to expect when teams play Baylor.
Staff picks: Warrior, Scott, Samantha and I were suckered into wishful thinking on this one, everyone else was correct.  Again Simone picked the closest though, very impressive.
Viva the Matadors: Steamrolled
Our Daily Bears: Baylor 63, Texas Tech 35- ODB needs to step up their name game.

Oklahoma State Cowboys 36, Kansas State Wildcats 34

Let's start with the disclaimer- This is the second week in a row where Oklahoma State has a win at least in part due to a highly questionable official's call.  That said, both teams are still about what we expected coming into the game- KSU's offense isn't particularly good but they have a pretty solid defense- OSU's ground game is a mess and they have to rely too much on Mason Rudolph to make things happen to make up for it.  Kansas State completed 13 passes in this game, and their running game was bogged down with running converted quarterback Kody Cook too many times- If you're not a triple option team, 20 carries for a quarterback is ridiculous.  These are just two weird teams that I don't think are particularly good combining for a tight and strange game.
Staff picks: All apart from Samantha picked the Cowboys in this one, Marshall and Simone were both off by a single point.
Bring on the Cats: Sorry Kody Cook- I agree that someone should apologize.
Cowboys Ride for Free: No recap yet.

TCU Horned Frogs 50, Texas Longhorns 7

After the first quarter it was 30-0, this thought was running through my mind while watching Charlie Strong on the Texas sideline:

I have a lot of family members who went to Texas and Charlie Strong seems like a really good guy, so I'll probably never exult in a blowout win over the Horns as much as other teams (despite the smugness of much of the fanbase), but this one in particular was a bit hard to watch if you had any sympathy at all to the folks in burnt orange as absolutely nothing worked for them.  From the TCU side of things, though... Wow, that was an impressive defensive performance.  After doubtlessly hearing a week's worth of comments about not being able to stop anyone, and how they were the weak link that was going to keep TCU out of title conversation, TCU's defense came out with an inspired effort and repeatedly snuffed out all attempts at competence from Texas' offense, forcing a turnover on Texas' first possession and not letting up until the second string finally let the shutout slip away late in the fourth quarter- after the offense piled up 50 straight points.  Speaking of the offense- another impressive performance from Boykin, piling up another 380 yards of offense and 5 touchdowns, making it look easy (and with none of his signature deep balls, as Patterson obviously wasn't interested in rubbing UT's face in it) as he set a new school record for passing TDs (and will collect the total TD mark likely as early as next week), while Josh Doctson (who I will henceforth only refer to as "The best receiver in the nation") collected two TD grabs to set a new school record for receiving touchdowns.  However, we also saw a breakout performance from the man who could one day break that record- Kavonte Turpin set a school record for touchdown catches in a single game with 4, each one more impressive than the last as he made the fact that the Frogs were again missing Kolby Listenbee and Deante Gray irrelevant.  With the Frogs getting more experience and finally getting some returning help in the coming weeks, this is starting to look like the #2 team in the nation that we expected.  As for Texas... they're already dead.
Staff picks: We're all good for this one, Simone was once again nearest to the margin of victory.  What a week!
Frogs O' War: You're on it, you scamp.
Burnt Orange Nation: Plenty of Blame to Go Around- More like plenty of points to go around, amirite?