Big 12 Football Week 14 in Review: SB Nation Whiparound

So that’s it. Oklahoma ran the table in conference play to win yet another Big 12 championship. All that’s left is the bowl games, but first, let’s see how the final week.

Kansas State 30 @ TCU 6

I personally did not expect TCU to put up much of a fight with K-State, and it seems as if I was correct. Why can’t anybody tackle Jesse Ertz? I just don’t get it.

From Bring on the Cats:

It all happened in soggy, wet conditions, too — which only favored K-State’s hard-nosed run game. Tallying a gaudy 336 rushing yards Saturday made it six straight games for K-State finishing with 200-plus rushing yards. The last time that happened? 2003.

Ertz leaned heavily on the run game, as he should have given the weather conditions. His passing numbers — 9-for-21 — weren’t fantastic for the same reason, but the 83-yard touchdown connection was a hell of a throw.

Come on, guys, you don’t want to ignore any plays and pretend like they didn’t happen?

We’ll give him a pass for the incompletions on account of the wet field.

Lol. That’s what I thought.

Frogs O War didn’t really have much to say about this one:

That was terrible. TCU failed to appear in really any form or fashion on a cold, rainy senior day that saw Kansas State run for 336 yards on their way to 495 yards of total offense.

What kept the TCU offense so stagnant?

For some reason unbeknownst to me, the Frogs insisted on throwing the ball, attempting 37 passes to just 36 runs (and some of those runs came on passing plays).

Foster Sawyer got the start for TCU, but wasn't able to do much, mostly because he was asked to throw a wet ball 23 times in the first half.

Oklahoma State 20 @ Oklahoma 38

The Sooners clinched the Big 12 title with a win over their in-state rivals. Cowboys Ride For Free breaks down how the Sooners did it:

A common theme of this game was Oklahoma State’s inability to take advantage of Sooner mistakes. Conversely, the Sooners did a good job of responding when OSU threatened.

Go on.

Oklahoma State brought a gameplan that included a heavy dose of Justice Hill and Chris Carson, and it worked for most of the game. On the afternoon, the two combined for 217 rushing yards. The biggest problem: 186 of those came in the first half. The Sooner defense adjusted and limited the Cowboy rushing attack in the second half and forced Oklahoma State out of their designed attack.

Crimson and Cream Machine is full-on “typical Oklahoma fan” mode:

Oklahoma finished the game strong with a back-breaking drive that took the clock to zero. The drive would have ended sooner, but Perine had mercy on the Cowboys and kneeled on the two-yard-line when he could have easily scored. It might have been meant as a nice gesture, but it also shows a truth about the gap in the Big 12: the Sooners are good enough to leave points on the board and still win comfortably. They could have scored another touchdown to be flashy, but when you’re used to winning, you know how to do it with class. The Sooners will have to settle for an 18-point win over their in-state rivals.

Baylor 21 @ West Virginia 24

I did not expect this one to be close at all, so I was pretty surprised when I saw this score.

Our Daily Bears is ready to clean house and move on:

There’s really not that much else to be said about this one, or the season as a whole. Baylor won six games in a row to earn a #8 ranking, then lost six games in a row to make all that a distant memory. Four of those losses were by 21 points or more.

I said, “ready to clean house and move on”:

Really, what today’s game marked is just the latest death rattle of the Art Briles Era of Baylor Football. A season that started with a tenuous combination of promise and unprecedented uncertainty finished with none of the former and all of the latter, as our program now turns its attention almost entirely to finding a new leader and trying to move on. With today’s game over, we will now officially Start. Over., though it seems some involved with the program did that a long time ago.

That’s better.

Meanwhile, Smoking Musket is thrilled with a 10-win season. But will someone at least tell us what happened in the game?

West Virginia held off the Baylor’s late fourth quarter comeback attempt to defeat the Bears 24-21 in Morgantown.

The Mountaineer defense had another solid outing, forcing two fumbles and coming away with two interceptions.

Well. That’s something I guess.

It wasn’t the prettiest game, by any means, and many West Virginia fans were on the edge of their seats throughout the entirety of the game.

Skyler looked very shaky to start the game and, although he didn’t throw an interception in the game, errant passes kept the Mountaineer faithful holding their breath.

Howard would go on to finish the game 10-of-26 passing for 111 yards and two touchdowns, and 26 yards and a touchdown on 12 rushing attempts. Justin Crawford led the charge for the Mountaineers on the ground, finishing with 209 yards on 28 carries.