Big 12 Road Trip: Week 2

Now that we've finally had a game to watch listen to or read about, looking around the Big 12 might not be as interesting as it was last week.  Though some of the performances are definitely eye-catching for various reasons.  Was it a good day for the conference?  Probably not.  It wasn't necessarily a bad day either, most teams took care of their business and will move on unscathed.  For fun, lets go back to the media's preseason poll with teams listed from first to last with first place votes listed in parenthesis.  Oklahoma State (15), Oklahoma (8), TCU (9), Texas (8), Baylor (2), K-State (1), Texas Tech, West Virginia, Iowa State, Kansas.  Lets work our way up from the south today.

BYU 40 Texas 21

After a fairly impressive week 1 for Texas, the idea of the Longhorns being a legitimate threat to win the conference didn't seem too crazy.  After week 2, Texas appears like they are going to have work some things out in order to make a bowl game this year.  BYU ran all over the field.  Up the middle.  Outside.  The UT defense gave up 679 yards, 550 on the ground.  If you want to see what a full scale meltdown by a fanbase looks like, check out Burnt Orange Nation or Barking Carnival over the next couple of days.  From Scipio Tex at BC:

Gutless, soft, undisciplined, horribly coached, and scared. Those are just a few of the kinder descriptives that came to mind while watching Texas embarrass itself on national television. That's Texas Football after the "rebuild" under Mack Brown. When do we end this charade?

And from Peter Bean:

Baylor 70 Buffalo 13

In the first half alone, the Bears had 501 total yards, in 9:55 TOP.  We ran a play every 14.6 seconds and scored a point every 10.7.  HOW DO YOU STOP THAT?

TCU 38 SE Louisiana 17

TCU came back after a strong showing against LSU in week 1 to get their first victory of the season.  However, things aren't all that rosy today for the Horned Frogs.  Offensively they struggled a fair amount in the time I was watching and then quarterback Casey Pachall left the game with a forearm injury.  Pachall underwent surgery yesterday afternoon and will miss multiple games according to Patterson.  HawkeyedFrog at Frogs O' War summarized like this:

Thank goodness that's over. After a first half where the Frogs looked like they'd rather be anywhere but on the field again, the Frogs overcame adversity, injury and intense heat to look pretty good in the second half. All our thoughts are currently with Casey Pachall who may have been seriously injured on a scramble late in the second quarter. Let's hope a speedy return is in the offing for him.

Texas Tech 61 SFA 13

Texas Tech put up another impressive this week.  They are already looking better than I expected but I still don't think they are a contender for the conference title.  731 total yards for the Red Raiders, 237 on the ground and 494 in the air.  Most of the work was done in the first half as they built a 45-7 lead in the opening quarters.  Even against an FCS school, that's impressive.  Seth C at Viva the Matadors was pleased:

Texas Tech essentially stopped playing, or stopped playing their starters after the first half ended.  It was pretty much all back-ups and this game was over at halftime.  I'll take it.

Oklahoma 16 West Virginia 7

In the first conference game of the year, the Sooners picked up the win but looked pretty marginal in how they did it.  OU wore down the Mountaineers with the ground game, running the ball 57 times for 316 yards.  The passing game has become a concern as Trevor Knight ended the day 10-20 for 119 yards before being pulled in the 4th quarter and being replaced by Blake Bell.  Bell only threw the ball once as Stoops was more interested in eating clock by the time the switch was made but it is clear that OU has some issues to figure out.  Turnovers by the Sooners kept West Virginia in the game but they couldn't take advantage of the opportunity.  When we look back at the Jayhawks last season and list games we had a chance, this game fits those scenarios.  From the Smoking Musket:

What could have been. The Mountaineers shot themselves in the foot, time and time again tonight against the Sooners. Turnovers, offensive inefficiency and special teams breakdowns were the main culprits in WVU's demise tonight. Many were predicting a Sooner blowout, but the Mountaineer defense was able to bend-but-don't-break several Sooner drives, creating four turnovers of their own.

Oklahoma State 56 UTSA 35

The Cowboys gained 605 yards total with 518 of those in the air.  However, they also gave up 504 yards to UTSA.  Overall, this looked like a typical non-con game that we've come to expect in college football.  A good team taking care of an inferior opponent.  A great team would have dominated this game.  A bad team would not have looked as comfortable throughout the game.  Oklahoma State appears to be good but not great at this point.  Cowboys Ride for Free agreed:

For everyone getting all gaga over J.W. Walsh's passing performance...take a chill.

For everyone getting all worked up over the defense...take a chill.

Kansas State 48 La. Lafeyette 27

KSU looked pretty sharp for the first two-thirds of this game.  Jake Waters has shown in both games that he's a talented quarterback although the production hasn't quite shown up in the boxscore.  Last night, Waters was 22 for 31 with 278 yards.  Not bad but not great, he can do enough to keep the offense moving down the field.  The scary side of the QB position showed up more often last night in Daniel Sams.  He only threw two passes but he also gained 63 yards on 8 carries in spotty playing time.  His last carry of the game went for 1 yard, every other carry was 7 yards or more.  Scary because everybody knew what he was doing when he in the game.  He still gained 7 to 10 yards each time he took off.  Now, against better competition the coaching staff will have to find a way to keep defenses honest but I'm not going to doubt their ability to do that.  Bring on the Cats wasn't thrilled with the game, I would describe it as content:

This evening really could have been worse, but it also could have been a lot better. After a fairly dominant first thirty-five minutes, after which the Cats were sitting on a 30-point lead, the situation slowly deteriorated. Questionable tactics and play-calling through the final twenty-five minutes nearly doomed what was looking like a rout.