Big 12 Football Week 4 in Review: SB Nation Whiparound

Sorry this is a couple days later than normal, y’all. I won’t bore you with excuses, though. Let’s get right to it.

It was a pretty boring week in the Big 12 last week unless you’re a West Virginia fan. Let’s see how everything went down.

TCU 33 @ SMU 3

A 6-3 game at halftime turned into a runaway for the Frogs in the second half. SMU never really threatened to win the game, did they, Frogs O’ War?

The Frogs struggled early again, but pulled away in the third quarter to put away the Ponies.

All in all you can’t ask much more from a 30 point win against a “rival.”

So what seems to be the biggest issue?

The bigger receivers still seem to be a problem for the smaller safeties and corners downfield, as Small did get beat on a few long passes- two of which were just overthrown by the SMU quarterback.

Missouri State 0 @ Kansas State 35

Weather was the key factor in this one, as it was called at halftime with severe weather rolling through Manhattan. Let’s check in with Bring on the Cats to see if there’s anything we can learn from this debacle.

We learned almost nothing this game, but we did learn one very important bit: Jesse Ertz is settling in, and may be very, very good by the end of the season. Ertz threw the ball eight times tonight; seven of those eight balls were completions, and the one that wasn’t hit Isaiah Zuber right in the chest. Add to that three carries for 85 yards, and the redshirt sophomore had himself quite a game.

Against the FCS Bears. But ok, let’s say Jesse Ertz is suddenly great now. What else happened?

Charles Jones has been invisible since his touchdown which opened the scoring, probably because he dropped the ball as he was crossing the goal line, resulting in a review to make sure he got in the end zone.

Lol. Nice.

So are the Wildcats ready for conference play?

Tonight, we learned nothing about the secondary because Missouri State’s quarterbacks threw half their balls to places their receivers weren’t. As for the defensive line, there were a couple of troubling plays where the Bears were able to just run right through gaping holes in the middle, although the linebackers were quickly on the case. It may not be a concern, but in the moment it was troubling.

Oklahoma State 24 @ #16 Baylor 35

The Cowboys couldn’t quite keep up with the Bears in Waco, hanging tough for three-and-a-half quarters before Baylor secured the win with a late touchdown.

How is Cowboys Ride For Free handling it?

This was a gut-punch. No way around it. The game was right there for the taking on multiple occasions, and OSU failed to keep Baylor down on the mat.

Oklahoma State turned the ball over four times against Baylor last night, and all of them were of the back-breaking variety. Two trips inside the Baylor five yard line and returning zero points on investment doomed OSU to a heartbreaking loss.

Yeesh. Sounds brutal. What was the perspective over at Our Daily Bears?

What a win! Baylor made enough big plays to overwhelm Oklahoma State in a game that barely ended on the last night of September.

Oklahoma State had a 2:1 time of possession advantage during most of the game. Time doesn’t equal points though.

Oklahoma State played well. Rudolph made a number of throws but finished with less than 6 yards per attempt and under 300 yards passing.

This conference remains weak. The Bears remain undefeated. And after tonight, it looks like Baylor is the favorite to win the Big 12.

Ugh. Baylor makes me sick. Let’s move on.

San Jose State 10 @ Iowa State 44

Iowa State got ahead early, fended off the Spartans, and put the game way out of reach late. I’m sure it was a score differential not many saw coming. What about WRNL?

The two-QB system can work. Both Joel Lanning and Jacob Park played very well. The two quarterbacks combined for five touchdowns -- three from Park, two from Lanning -- and each made some big plays.

Well that’s great, but it was San Jose State...

Iowa State FINALLY forced some turnovers.

This is what Iowa State’s defense needs to do. San Jose State gained 332 yards and had more first downs than Iowa State, but that doesn’t help if every drive ends in a turnover.

You’re right, guys, I’m sorry. Enjoy the big win! I know we did back in Week 1.

BYU 32 @ West Virginia 35

Judging by the box score, this appears to have been a helluva game. Let’s let Smoking Musket tell us what happened.

A touchdown with 11:27 left in the fourth quarter put the Mountaineers up by a score 35-19, but the Cougars came charging back. It was not until Maurice Fleming intercepted Taysom Hill on a tipped ball at the goal line with 1:00 left on the clock that WVU locked up the victory by a count of 35-32.

When the team scored to make it 35-19, everyone, including the players felt that was the knockout punch. A big credit goes to BYU for not letting up. They drove down the field and scored. A quick three and out and the game got interesting. Dana tried to tell and instill to the team that they needed to stay hungry. Hopefully this was the wakeup call for them. You can’t let up.