Big 12 Road Trip: Week 7

Not sure if that was a crazy day or just another day in the Big 12 this year.  The preseason favorite (Ok. State) was knocked off the perch weeks ago, so the upset of OU should not be all that shocking.  However, Texas was left for dead only a few weeks ago and since then they have knocked off K-State and Oklahoma in a very convincing manner.  Iowa State's been close but has not been able to get wins.  TCU was TCU again.  Add in Baylor looking human and it starts to look like a jumbled mess of teams that aren't separated by a whole lot.

Don't let that parity turn into a story of a weak conference.  The Big 12 isn't immune to that kind of talk but going from results, the surprises and top teams losing has not been unique to the Big 12 this year.  Just yesterday we saw the #25 team knock off #7 Georgia.  In the Pac 12, #5 Stanford was beaten by unranked Utah.  The mighty Big 10 even saw two ranked teams in Michigan and Northwestern get beaten by unranked Penn State and Wisconsin.  All but a few teams have some big flaws, don't let that be limited to our conference.

Texas 36 Oklahoma 20

Two touchdown underdog Texas comes out of the Red River Rivalry game with a convincing victory over the Sooners.  For some reason, I chose to watch a different game for the vast majority of the time while this one was being played.  But through the highlights and from all accounts that I've read, everyone pretty much agrees on two things.  First, the Longhorns simply out-toughed the Sooners on Saturday.  Second, Mack Brown's staff had his team and gameplan ready to go but Stoops allowed it to look like he believed OU could win simply by showing up.

To the victors at Burnt Orange Nation about the team and game:

They still haven't quit on their coach, and whatever else this team is or isn't, they are fighters. And today, finally, they were the team that took the fight to OU, rather than the other way around. Mack Brown's future wasn't decided by today's game, but in the future we'll look back at Saturday's victory as Mack Brown at his best. We outplayed and outcoached OU, and beat them with an ass whipping in the trenches.

It was a great day for Mack Brown, and an absolutely awful day for Bob Stoops. Punched in the mouth, his team wilted. The Sooners came into this game unprepared for resistance, and when Texas came out of the gates swinging a mean punch, they looked lost, as if to say, "You said this wouldn't happen, coach. What do we do?"

And now we're off to see how the fans at Crimson and Cream Machine are taking the loss, which judging by the three lead articles being titled OU Inexplicably Chooses To Employ One Of The Dumbest Offensive Game Plans Imaginable, Nightmare at the State Fair for Oklahoma's Defense, and Your "We Just Got Pants'd" Commiseration Thread I will go ahead and assume they're unhappy.

Remember when we (or some of us) were younger and you used to pretend it was opposite day?

Up was down, left was right, yes meant no.

It was dumb, annoying, and really didn't make a whole lot of sense.

Well that pretty much sums up the offensive game plan Josh Heupel designed for this 108th meeting between these two hated rivals.

Literally nothing that this OU offense did made any sense.  It was almost as if none of the offensive coaches on OU's staff watched any film from Texas' previous games.

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To borrow a line I saw on Twitter:  I can deal with losing.  It's football, it happens.  What I can't deal with is watching a team that looked to be woefully unprepared.  And as far as I'm concerned that's what we saw Saturday afternoon. And that's just flat unacceptable.

If there is a single game on your schedule every year that you plan for it's the Texas game.  You do whatever needs to be done to win that game.

Clearly OU did not get this memo.  You can pin it on whoever you'd like.  I'm not here to tell you it was any one individual's fault.  I think when you get dominated, in every single aspect of the game, as thoroughly as Oklahoma was on Saturday you can't possibly point to one single person and/or factor.  You win and lose as a team and this was very much a group effort.

Texas Tech 42 Iowa State 35

This game might have caused more depression for me than KU's game.  Maybe it's just a combination of what we saw in Fort Worth, last week in Lawrence, and this week in Lubbock.  Iowa State's that much better than us right now.  There's no question mark at the end, it's a fact.  They were dominated statistically by the Red Raiders but they got lucky opportunities and took advantage of them. The same Iowa State that lost to Northern Iowa and the Iowa Hawkeyes to begin the season has now scared the hell out of the team that just walloped OU and the team that just walloped us.

Viva the Matadors on the game:

You wouldn't know it by the final score, but I really thought that this was a dominating game on two sides of the ball, offense and defense, with Iowa St. making up a ton of ground on special teams. It also doesn't hurt to gift to your opponent two opportunities inside Texas Tech's 25 yard line and Iowa St. capitalized. ISU had only two drives longer than 33 yards, 75 and 80, and other than that, the ISU offense was stalled most of the day by the Texas Tech defense. Being opportunistic isn't a bad thing, it's what keeps teams in games when one team makes mistakes. Iowa St. did just that.

And to check out the other side, here's the view from Wide Right Natty Lite:

After a measured, upward trajectory in games one through four, where the progress could be seen in both the stat sheet and on-field product, Iowa State took a step back in Lubbock today and there were few positives to take away from this game.

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The score was incredibly deceiving as Iowa State was outgained 666-311. That's right, 666 yards. Looks like our old pal Satan didn't have our backs today. To make matters worse, Iowa State gave up 245 yards on the ground to the worst rushing team in the conference to the tune of 5.6 yards per carry.

Very little went right as the Cyclones turned in one of the more frustrating offensive performances to date. Iowa State was 5-18 on third down, completed only 38% of their passes and rushed for a paltry 3.7 yards per carry. It was a shit-tastic performance, but credit has to be given to the Texas Tech defense.

Can anyone muster enough energy to be this disappointed about Kansas football right now?

Baylor 35 Kansas State 25

Baylor's first challenge of the season came on the road in Manhattan and it was definitely a challenge for the Bears.  K-State used Daniel Sams to move the ball on the ground and eat up clock which kept the Baylor offense on the sidelines for large chunks of time.  However, Baylor was still Baylor at times on offense scoring three touchdowns on three long and quick plays.  Baylor ground out a 59 yard drive to score a touchdown to open the game.  The next three scoring drives went: 2 plays for 95 yards, 2 plays for 73 yards, and 5 plays for 71 yards.  Even that's a little deceiving as the touchdowns came on plays of 93 yards, 72 yards, and 54 yards.  K-State made them look vulnerable but their big play capability is enough to keep them as my favorite to win the conference.

The crew at Our Daily Bears was happy to have a win even if knocked some of the shine off the team for a week.

It's going to take me a long time to process what happened today in Manhattan.  Part of me knows I should be happy about getting a road win in conference play, in a place where we've never won before.  Another part feels the doubts expressed by so many others creeping into my appreciation of this team, replacing my unbridled confidence in the 2013 Baylor Bears with what is probably a more realistic (and rational) view of how things are.  The bottom line for today is that this game was possibly the best example of a win that feels like losing, where just about everything that could go wrong, did, but we managed to win, anyway.

And the guys at Bring on the Cats were pleased but still a little disappointed they weren't able to pull off the upset.

Five hours ago, we expected to watch the Cats get railed.

Now, we're disappointed that yet another win slipped away.

Completely goofy decisions regarding extra points came back to bite the Wildcats, as two missed extra points and one decision to go for it on fourth down left five points on the board. Yet another turnover on the penultimate drive, which was followed by Baylor's final score, and all of that put together made the difference between a stunning upset and a double-digit loss.

K-State should feel no shame about their loss but they do have to start worrying about getting wins.  They sit 2-4 overall and winless in the conference.  With OU, TCU, Texas Tech, and a gamey Iowa State left on the schedule, a season without a bowl trip is very possible.

TCU 27 Kansas 17

Blah.  Not sure why I'm as apathetic and disappointed as I am today, the game played out almost exactly like we had hoped.  Maybe that's the problem, it played out in the only way that could have given an opportunity for a win and the threat of TCU losing was still non-existent.

Frogs O' War knows what I'm talking about.

I really don't have a lot to say about this one except I'm glad it's over, I'm glad TCU got the win and I'm glad I took the under- beyond that it was a joyless day that could have been so much better.  Chalk it up as another step toward Bowl eligibility and let's move on to Oklahoma State.