Big 12 Football Week 11 in Review: SB Nation Whiparound

What happened around the Big 12 this weekend? SB Nation has you covered.

Iowa State 31 @ Kansas 24

The Jayhawks led for three and a half quarters, but couldn’t knock off Iowa State at home.

For RCT, it was simply more of the same of what they’ve seen since 2009:

So close, and yet once again, so far.

Yep. That pretty much sums it up.

Meanwhile, at WRNL, they acknowledge that ISU did exactly what they were supposed to.

I want to preface this by saying I’m fully aware that Iowa State’s opponent this weekend, Kansas, is terrible. There are 128 teams in FBS football -- Kansas ranks 109th in rushing yards allowed per game and 115th in yards allowed per carry. Suffice it to say, Kansas is very, very, very, very bad at defending the rush.

With that being said, Iowa State did exactly what it needed to do against a poor rush defense: they ran it. A lot. Montgomery had 24 carries for a nice 169 yards. Little-used backup RB Mitchell Harger added 73 yards on eight carries. Both Montgomery and Harger had 7.0 or more yards per carry, which is a great average.

Baylor 24 @ Oklahoma 45

The Sooners only led 21-10 at the break, but don’t fool yourself, this game was never really in doubt. Crimson and Cream Machine agrees:

Oklahoma (7-2) opened the game against Baylor (6-2) just after 11 a.m. CST. By 11:30, Oklahoma was firmly in the driver’s seat. While it would get somewhat close at times, the game was never really in jeopardy.

It really was a beatdown from start to finish.

Jim Grobe’s team committed mindless penalties, turned the ball over at crucial times and lost its starting quarterback to a gruesome leg injury en route to a 45-24 drubbing in Norman. The Sooners, while not exactly dominant, rode their two star running backs and the nation’s best receiver to an offensive output that Baylor, a program in utter turmoil, couldn’t hope to keep up with.

CCM isn’t super stoked about why, though:

... it’s nice for the world to be back in order—that is, Oklahoma better than Baylor—but the decline of the BU program is just sad. The allegations are sad, the attitude of (some of) the Baylor fan base is sad and the on-field product is sad. The whole sordid affair hung like a fog over the contest, the commentators bringing it up four or five times during the game. I wanted Oklahoma to start beating the Bears every year again, but not like this.

Obviously, the mood was starkly different over at Our Daily Bears:

At least it felt like they were trying today.

Wow. Sounds like a beaten down KU fan. Baylor had its chances, but just couldn’t capitalize.

The good news is that I completely agree — our guys looked like they were trying. The bad news is that for a bunch of reasons, it wasn’t enough. Baylor had the chance to make a game of it early, to take the lead if things broke our way right around halftime, but we couldn’t do it.

Texas Tech 44 @ Oklahoma State 45

OSU opened up a 21-7 first quarter lead, but that was gone by halftime as the two teams went to the break knotted up at 28-all. 17 fourth-quarter points and a prayer were enough for the Cowboys to hold serve at home. From Cowboys Ride For Free:

Sophomore kicker Clayton Hatfield pushed the extra point wide right, and suddenly, all Mason Rudolph and the Cowboys had to do was recover the onside kick and kill the clock. Which is exactly what they did.

OSU’s offense was rolling on Saturday:

One stat that really surprises me is OSU was 4-9 on third downs. It isn’t the percentage that surprises me, it’s the total number of third downs. To compare, the Cowboys had 27 first downs. That’s right. The Cowboys had three times as many first downs as third downs. This shows me that the Cowboys were very efficient on first and second down, which is great to see.

Viva The Matadors is getting tired of so-called “moral victories”:

Eventually, we have to turn moral victories into actual victories. I’m tired of these “we lost but we played good” story-lines, but you have to tip your cap to Tech’s effort today. Mahomes started slow and the defense gave up a bunch of points, but we still had a chance to win.

West Virginia 24 @ Texas 20

The Mountaineers led 17-3 and 24-13 at separate points during the game, but Texas just wouldn’t roll over. Of course, when you turn the ball over 4 times, you’re just begging the other team to take the game from you. From Smoking Musket:

I’d call this low-key messing with Texas.

Lol. Funny. But what really happened?

And that’s really the story of the game. West Virginia turned the ball over four times, and still managed to come away with the win.

But the story changed in the third quarter and Howard seemed to fall apart, throwing all three of his interceptions in the quarter. The Longhorns charged back late in the third quarter to bring close in on West Virginia’s lead.

The Mountaineer defense pitched a fourth quarter shutout to protect the lead.

Obviously, Burnt Orange Nation laments missed opportunities:

Despite forcing four turnovers and racking up 536 yards of offense, the Texas Longhorns couldn’t do enough to overcome the No. 11-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers.

Apparently Charlie Strong’s seat is getting any more comfortable:

Texas had plenty of opportunities for win this game, but the result and the struggles were all too familiar — special teams mistakes, problems on third down on both sides of the ball, and the inability to take advantage of turnovers.

Oh yeah, and the typical game management mistake or two from its embattled head coach.