Around the Big 12: Week 11

We were close — so close — to having a very satisfying slate of results in the Big 12. Sure, TCU was ground into a fine paste by West Virginia. But Oklahoma State had Oklahoma on the ropes, Texas Tech was hanging with Texas and Kansas led Kansas State for quite a bit of game time.

And then, all of that went to crap. Here’s how it happened!

Oklahoma (9-1, 6-1 Big 12) 48, Oklahoma State (5-5, 2-5 Big 12) 47: Let me be the 1,685th person to say — Bedlam lived up to its name Saturday. And when Oklahoma State was driving with under two minutes left, I knew it was going to end in a way that was both very exciting and also deeply stupid.

Mike Gundy’s call to go for two after pulling within one was a good call. The play itself was a good call, as Tylan Wallace was open heading for the front corner of the end zone. Taylor Cornelius’ throw, well, that was “big trash,” as the kids say.

It’s unfair to criticize Cornelius, who threw for 501 yards and three touchdowns. He had a good game. It just all came crashing down at a very, very pivotal moment.

Texas (7-3, 5-2 Big 12) 41, Texas Tech (5-5, 3-4 Big 12) 34: Damn you, Texas Tech. You almost pulled this thing off, almost handed Texas three straight losses after the Longhorns were ranked in the AP Top 10. But like a tortilla chucked from the upper reaches of Jones AT&T Stadium, those hopes came floating back down to earth.

Texas basically recreated the 2009 Michael Crabtree catch to win. I do feel bad for Red Raiders fans at this point.

On the other hand, this game allowed me to get this vastly under-appreciated tweet off, so it comes out as a wash.

Kansas State (4-6, 2-5 Big 12) 21, Kansas (3-7, 1-6 Big 12) 17: Kansas State trailed 3-0 at the half and 17-14 in the fourth quarter before the Wildcats finally got some sense into them and pulled it out. It’s clear now that Kansas, Kansas State and TCU are the bottom three teams in the conference. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go wash my mouth out with soap after saying that.

Iowa State (6-3, 5-2 Big 12) 28, Baylor (5-5, 3-4 Big 12) 14: Aw hell yeah, this is the good stuff. The Cyclones and Bears found themselves in an old-fashioned donnybrook on Saturday that reached its apex when a Baylor player jumped over a referee to take a swing at Iowa State running back David Montgomery:

That scrap turned into an all-out brawl shortly after.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to repurpose a joke from a couple of weeks ago:

Sure, Baylor, you got soundly beaten by Iowa State. But at least you did so with dignity!