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Big 12 Week 6 Recap: OU Stunned by Texas in Dallas

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11 years ago

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The sixth week of college football and Big 12 play has come and gone, and it was not short on surprises or narrow victories. Only three Big 12 teams remain undefeated both overall and in the conference, and the competition will only be getting tougher from here. Let’s look closer at the winners and losers.

OU-Texas

The No. 10 Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns faced off in the annual Red River Showdown, a game that many said Texas didn’t have any hope of winning. Even Kevin Durant, who was asked the night before the game for an OU vs. Texas prediction, couldn’t put much faith in his Longhorns. He commented: “I don’t want to talk about it.”

However, in stunning fashion, the Longhorns defeated the Sooners 24-17 and moved to 2-4 overall and 1-2 in the conference. Respectively, OU dropped to 4-1 overall and 1-1 in the Big 12.

The Longhorns rushing attack was their strongest part of the game, tallying 313 yards on the ground as OU’s defense struggled to find an answer. In contrast, the Longhorns defense had their answer and smothered quarterback Baker Mayfield, dropping him for a total of six sacks.

Late in the fourth quarter, as the Oklahoma offense faced a third-and-14 with a chance to drive the ball down the field and tie the game, Texas had their best defensive play of the game. Naashon Hughes and Poona Ford attacked Mayfield, forcing him back and tossing him to the turf for a massive 17-yard loss. The Sooners punted, and never got the ball back.

Some of the Longhorns stats for the game were remarkable, as Texas only threw the ball 12 times for a total of 55 yards. Quarterback Jerrod Heard finished 8-of-11 for 53 yards and one touchdown. The last time Texas won a game with fewer than 55 passing yards was 1983, and hasn’t beat Oklahoma with that few passing yards since 1970. Remarkable. Heard replaced the little impact he had with his arm with a huge impact with his legs, as he carried the ball 21 times for 115 yards. Running back D’Onta Foreman was the team’s leading rusher, however, carrying the ball nine times for 117 yards. Foreman’s biggest play of the game came on an 81-yard run that perfectly set up a Texas touchdown.

Baker Mayfield finished 20-of-28 for 211 yards and one touchdown, but couldn’t lead his team to a victory under all the pressure. Receiver Sterling Shepard caught six passes for 95 yards, and Eric Striker had an impressive game with two sacks and two tackles for loss.

History has now shown that Texas usually finds a way to win in the Red River Showdown when they are unranked and the Sooners are ranked. Since 1989, the Longhorns are 6-2 in that situation.

Texas Tech-Iowa State

In what was a much less hyped game, the Texas Tech Red Raiders hosted the Iowa State Cyclones on Saturday in search of their first Big 12 win. Texas Tech found a way to get it done, as they handily defeated the Cyclones 66-31. Tech improved 4-2 overall and 1-2 in the Big 12, while the Iowa State fell to 2-3 and 1-1.

Red Raiders quarterback Patrick Mahomes had himself a day, as he threw for 428 yards and five touchdowns. Wide receiver Jakeem Grant also had a big day, setting a new career-high 166 yards on nine catches. Running back Justin Stockton put up numbers with seven carries for 101 yards.

Ultimately, it was the turnovers Texas Tech forced and their ability to convert on 11 of the 15 third downs they faced throughout the game that helped them win. Iowa State failed to convert on 10 third down tries.

Cyclones quarterback Sam Richardson threw for 139 yards, but also threw a total of three interceptions. Of those three picks, Tech was able to get points out of two of them. None of that boded well for Iowa State.

The biggest highlight of the day for the Cyclones was redshirt freshman Mike Warren’s ground game, as he rushed for 245 yards. This was his third straight game with more than 100 yards.

Texas Tech will have it easy next week as they go on the road to play Kansas, while Iowa State have the hefty challenge of hosting TCU.

TCU-Kansas State

The No. 2 ranked TCU Horned Frogs traveled to Manhattan as Kansas State was hoping to serve the Horned Frogs their first loss of the season.

For the entire first half of the game, it looked as though the Wildcats were going to do just that. However, TCU pulled off an impressive comeback to win 52-45. The Horned Frogs remain perfect at 6-0 and 3-0 while Kansas State now sits 3-2 and 0-2.

Quarterback Trevone Boykin was the team’s leading passer and rusher, throwing for 301 yards and two touchdowns while also rushing for 124 yards and two more scores. Boykin continues to star and keep his team in the hunt for a Big 12 title and playoff berth.

At halftime, the Horned Frogs had dug themselves into a hole as they faced a 35-17 deficit. TCU hasn’t allowed that many points in a half since 2004. However, TCU rallied and showed their fight and determination to win on the road.

K-State’s Joe Hubener threw for 157 yards, and also ran for 111 yards. He tallied an impressive four touchdowns on the ground. However, after a solid first half of play, Hubener struggled in the second. At the beginning of the third quarter, the quarterback threw an interception that was returned 60 yards for a touchdown, and then fumbled in the final minute of play when his team had a chance to tie the game.

Boykin’s supporting cast assisted him greatly in their rally, as running back Aaron Green rushed for 121 yards and two scores and star wide receiver Josh Doctson caught eight passes for 155 yards and two touchdowns as well.

Derrick Kindred’s 60-yard pick six was the start of TCU’s comeback, which was made even closer when Green rushed for a score to make it 35-31. K-State scored again, but Boykin responded with a 14-yard scoring run to trim the lead again to 42-37.
Boykin wasn’t done carrying his team, as he broke free not long after on a read-option play and ran 69 yards for a touchdown. He wasn’t touched once on the run, and it gave his team a 45-42 lead.

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K-State would kick a field goal to tie the game with 1:47 left in the game, leaving time for TCU to respond one more time. And they did. Boykin connected with Doctson on a 55-yard dart that was taken all the way for a touchdown. Now leading 52-45, the Horned Frogs sealed themselves the victory. After clearing underestimating Bill Snyder and his squad for a half, TCU decided to change their attitude after 30 minutes.

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The Horned Frogs will move on to play Iowa State on Saturday, and the Wildcats will go on the road to Norman to meet the Sooners.

Baylor-Kansas

In Lawrence, the Baylor Bears had a matchup with the Kansas Jayhawks in a game that everybody knew was going to get ugly, and fast. The result was exactly that. Baylor derailed Kansas by a score of 66-7 to move to 5-0 and 2-0 in the Big 12, while Kansas fell to an embarrassing 0-5 and 0-2. There were tons of empty seats at the game, which was probably a good thing so not many Kansas fans had to witness the rout.

All of Baylor’s stars had great games, and all of them sat out the entire second half. Quarterback Seth Russell threw for 246 yards and three touchdowns, Shock Linwood rushed for 135 yards and a score, and Corey Coleman hauled in seven catches for 108 yards and two touchdowns. All of those stats only took one half to record.

The Bears have blown out every opponent they’ve played this season, and compiled 644 yards of offense on Saturday even while the backups played an entire half. However, they still have some tough Big 12 opponents ahead of them, and time will tell if they can continue this massive string of success.

The Jayhawks were a 46-point underdog for this game, which set a record for a Big 12 team on the road. Baylor was not forced to punt until there were only five minutes left in the game, and they recorded their seventh consecutive Big 12 win.
The highlight of the game for Baylor came when Russell threw a short pass to his 6-foot-7, 410-pound TE LaQuan McGowen who lumbered into the end zone. Not many Kansas highlights to speak of.

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Baylor continues their national title push against West Virginia this Saturday, while Kansas will drag its feet on the way to Lubbock to face Texas Tech.

Here are the current standings.

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