Weekend in Review: Baylor looks better, Texas on a roll & more bad play from Kansas

First off, Baylor showed life in Ames. Here’s hoping that it leads to growth. But losing Terrel Bernard and Sqwirl Williams is absolutely devastating. Just wanted to get that out of the way before we recap the games. 

Iowa State 38, Baylor 31

There is a lot to get to here. Baylor played with heart for the first time since the opening week against Kansas, but they still lost. It shows me two major things. 1) Baylor has the talent that we thought they did when the season started and they can compete and win games and 2) Iowa St. is a good team with a lot of maturity. They control their destiny to reach the Big 12 Championship game.

One of the signs of championship mettle in a team that can play as bad as they possibly can and still fight back and win, which they did. Not to say they won’t have issues, but that showed what they are made of.

Back to Baylor. It’s becoming more apparent that the offense will work when they go vertical. They don’t have what they need to work the hash marks right now. When the offense stalled, this is what Larry Fedora did. The offensive line was better in pass protection and the WRs made plays while the defense created turnovers.

How does that translate against Texas Tech, especially with the two big injuries? We shall see. 

Texas 17, West Virginia 13

Texas just keeps finding these wins. I don’t know if this means they are good or that the conference is average. I am leaning towards the latter because nothing I have seen from Texas makes me think they could beat anyone that was actually good. West Virginia is improving and is continuing to find themselves.

But here is the deal about this game: the officials gave the Horns a hand here and the Mountaineers need more offense. Iowa State will have an opportunity to put Texas out of the race all together, but so have their last three opponents and that did not happen. Tom Herman continues to keep his head above water in Austin.

Oklahoma State 20, Kansas St 18 

This was classic Kansas State. They had Oklahoma State playing their way for a good long time but the Pokes were just a little too much against a team playing with their backup QB. This was a good bounce-back win for Coach Mullet’s gang after they let one get away against the Longhorns. However, the last two weeks should signal to their fans that they were not ordained to go to the Big 12 title game. For the Wildcats, Will Howard will need more time to improve and that is really what is holding them back.

TCU 34, Texas Tech 18

My thoughts about these two teams have not changed due to this game. Texas Tech doesn't really know who they are and they aren’t very good. It sets up an interesting matchup with Baylor. If the Bears can bottle up the first half against Iowa St and unleash that on the Red Raiders, they’ll win handily.

For TCU, they beat a bad team. They looked OK at times doing it, but they still reside in the middle of the Big 12 pack. I also don’t know what to think of Max Duggan. At times he looks like a real gamer and other times he’s very BLAH. 

Oklahoma 62, Kansas 9

Oklahoma did exactly what they should have done. They destroyed a terrible team. Hopefully (for the Sooners at least), Spencer Rattler’s hip doesn’t bother him very much in the coming weeks and they continue to play well. The road to the title still looks like it goes through Norman and Kansas is bad. Watching them is like watching the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan on repeat. It’s just flat grisly. 

Final Thoughts

• Baylor looked better, but it wasn’t enough. If they can build off of that, they beat Tech.
• Iowa State is maturing. Teams in the past would have let that Baylor game get away. But this team did not. 
• Texas is still hanging around. They are like the killer in a slasher film. They just won’t die. 
• WVU needs some seasoning. 
• Oklahoma St. is still in control, but it looks to be wavering.
• Will Howard might be really good one day, but the Wildcats need that day to come sooner than expected.
• TCU is average. 
• Texas Tech is in a free fall. Can Baylor make sure they don’t throw them a parachute?
• Oklahoma looks like itself again.
• Kansas is bad. Just bad.