Big 12 Football Week 9 in Review: SB Nation Whiparound

All 10 teams were in action this weekend, and once again, the Big 12 slate ran the gamut from upsets to blowouts to overtime.

Let’s check in across SBNation to see how each fanbase reacted to the games.

Baylor 34 @ Texas 35

The Longhorns scored the final nine points of the game, the last three on a 39-yard field goal with 45 seconds left to knock Baylor out of the ranks of the unbeaten and likely out of College Football Playoff consideration.

Before the game, had you told me that Baylor would rush for 398 yards and two touchdowns and add on 226 yards and two more touchdowns through the air, I’d have cringed and thought Texas would have lost another one.

In the end, it appears as if a second quarter safety may have provided the necessary margin for UT. Did Charlie Strong’s hot seat get any cooler?

At the end of the day, this was a much-needed win for Charlie Strong and these Texas Longhorns. The team was resilient and fought to the very end. Now the hope for Strong and the ‘Horns is that this carries over to road games. The 4-4 Longhorns travel to Lubbock next weekend to take on the 4-4 Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Well… I’m guessing no, it doesn’t.

The mood over at Our Daily Bears is one of frustration.

This is a game Baylor should have won and didn’t. We had the ball three times inside their 15 with a lead and went fumble, field goal, field goal on those three to eventually lose by 1. Because of that, Seth Russell’s amazing hurdle of Dylan Haines didn’t matter, Terence Williams’ career-high 180 yards didn’t matter, and the fact that we gained over 600 yards on a Charlie Strong defense didn’t matter. This loss stings for so many reasons, not least of which is that it ends any chance we had to make the CFB Playoff in the last year of anything resembling the Briles era.

Because winning football games is apparently all that matters.

West Virginia 20 @ Oklahoma State 37

The Cowboys got a lead against West Virginia and held on, eventually securing what looks like a relatively easy two-touchdown victory for Mike Gundy’s 100^th win at Oklahoma State.

The Oklahoma State Cowboys out-classed the West Virginia Mountaineers on Saturday. I’m not talking about class in the Baylor sense of the word ... I’m talking about X’s and O’s. OSU fell behind 10-6 at one point, but it didn’t take long for OSU to come back and assert themselves in the game. OSU forced a Skyler Howard fumble inside West Virginia’s 10-yard-line, and the Pokes capitalized with a touchdown. They would never look back.

Quite simply, the Cowboys looked like the better team, and they are the better team.

So things are looking good in Stillwater?

It didn’t take a TCU 2015 performance, or a Baylor 2013 performance for OSU to get another Top-10 win. They were just better. I’ve been waiting to see what this team is capable of, and I think we are beginning to scratch the surface. Can they lose to the Central Michigan’s of the world? Absolutely. Can they beat the Oklahoma’s of the world? You bet your bottom dollar they can. I’ve talked a lot about the upward trajectory that this program is on, and dominating a Top-10 team without flinching is just another example of that.

This OSU team can accomplish whatever it wants. Yesterday’s showing should prove that to you. It’s time to start believing in this team. Win in the Little Apple on Saturday, and it’s full speed ahead to a potential Big 12 de-facto championship against Oklahoma.

The Cowboys outscored the Mountaineers 31-10 after that turnover, and put their foot on the West Virginia offense’s proverbial throat. The defense forced three turnovers, all from the hands of Skyler Howard. Howard threw two interceptions (could’ve been three or four) and also had a fumble.

As for Smoking Musket, well…

The plays were there to be made. Some of the calls on the field were questionable. I’m still not sure how Ka’Raun White got called for offensive pass interference on that one play. Justin Crawford negated a 40-yard catch and run by Durante with an illegal block, though I get the call I’m a little curious about. Overall WVU was called for only 6 penalties but those six put WVU in position to fail.

West Virginia needs help to win the conference and I’ll get you guys a breakdown later this week. The dream is still alive though. The season isn’t lost. 8 or 9 regular season wins is highly likely. Are you going to tell me this season isn’t a success even if we finish 9-3? The most regular season wins since joining the Big 12 is a failure? No it isn’t. The sky isn’t falling and West Virginia football will be back next week.

Kansas 3 @ Oklahoma 56

We won’t spend much time on this one. Not even Rock Chalk Talk had any comment.

If the KU offense isn’t going to bother showing up against one of the worst defenses in the Big 12, then why should I bother writing anything?

As for Crimson and Cream Machine:

It was a game that rivaled the Louisiana-Monroe contest for this year’s least significant, but lots of young Sooners saw important playing time. The game is exactly what OU needed to work on its major problems before a difficult home stretch.

Kansas State 31 @ Iowa State 26

The Wildcats held a 31-10 third quarter lead over the Cyclones, but was able to hold off a furious rally by Iowa State. Bring on the Cats tells us we know that K-State is definitely a running team:

Ertz picked up 5.39 yards per pass attempt. That's horrible; three guys, Ertz himself included, did better on a per-carry basis on the ground. When he's throwing short, Ertz is actually a good passer. But the inability to throw downfield at all is becoming a crippling issue. The coaching staff even had specific down-and-distance cues, as well as the end of the first half when they opted to try to go for a kill shot, to give Ertz opportunities to go deep. They all failed.

Meanwhile, WRNL is getting tired of moral victories:

It’s hard to keep relying on moral victories. I get that. It’s frustrating as a fan and it’s obviously more frustrating for the players and coaches. However, there was a spark in this team in the 4th quarter. When adversity hit (the failed drive at the goalline, the 21-point deficit, etc.) this team kept fighting. If this were week two or three, I don’t think the defense would’ve forced a safety right after the offense blew an easy touchdown. They would’ve put their heads down and used the offense’s failure as an excuse.

Instead, this team fought, and fought, and fought.

They appreciated the way the Cyclones continued to play despite being down 21 points in the second half.

The onside kick to start the second half was a brilliant call by the coaching staff. When you’re 1-6, what do you have to lose? I liked the urgency in the second half. It felt like a team that wanted to win, and that hasn’t always been the case this season. Rather than wondering, “what’s going to go wrong next?” it looked like the team was wondering, “what can we do to turn this around?”

Iowa State was on the attack in the second half. I don’t know if that had been the case even once this season until yesterday. They looked like a team that had pride and had something to prove. Hopefully that continues for the rest of the season and beyond.

Texas Tech 27 @ TCU 24 (2OT)

So yeah, this one was 17-17 at the end of regulation. Texas Tech has been so Jekyll and Hyde this year, I have no idea what to make of them. What about you, Viva The Matadors?

Fans were so upset by the three game losing streak that the “fire Kingsbury” train left the station mid-season, gained steam with each loss, and didn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon. Thankfully for those of us who believe he should remain the head coach, every single “fire Kingsbury” narrative died last week.

TCU is not the same team they were in 2014 and 2015. Still, they’re pretty good. Beating them on the road in ugly fashion (which we’ll get to later) is impressive considering where Tech has been recently as a program.

As for Frogs O War, they were happy with the defensive effort, but disappointed in special teams and the offensive playcalling.

We’ve always seen TCU’s defense improve throughout seasons, and that came to fruition again today. They were solid. They harassed Mahomes. And they only gave up 27 points to arguably the best offense in college football.

We knew the kicking king game would be shaky this year, but good lord. Three missed field goals were the literal difference in the game.

Fades on third down will eventually give me an aneurysm.