With all ten teams in play, we look around the league in the Big 12 roundup on a wild Saturday across the landscape.
Before the Texas Longhorns put their No. 8 ranking on the line in a thriller, the No. 3 ranked Oklahoma Sooners hosted the Kansas State Wildcats. In their openers, the Wildcast fell at home to Arkansas State while the Sooners rolled Missouri State. However, on Saturday’s early kickoff the fortunes turned.
Kansas State 38, Oklahoma 35
It was the conference opener at home for the Oklahoma Sooners. They came in as heavy favorites and many expected them to run over a depleted Kansas State team that was missing eight players. Early on it looked like Spencer Rattler would pick right up where he left off against Missouri State. After an early interception from Rattler, the Sooners scored touchdowns on back to back drives. It wasn’t until a second pick that the Wildcats would score their lone touchdown of the first half.
With 2:46 left in the third quarter, the Sooners found themselves up 35-14 and looking to wrap up another Big 12 Conference win. Then the floodgates opened for Kansas State. The Wildcats defense would allow another score, they forced two turnovers and three punts on the final five drives of the game. Meanwhile Kansas State would score on their next four drives to take the lead after 24 unanswered points to win the game. Rattler threw his third pick of the game as he tried to rally his team.
The talented redshirt freshman looked just like that, a freshman. He will get a lot better and this was a coachable moment for Lincoln Riley. The Wildcats upset the Sooners for the second-straight season.
Iowa State 37, Texas Christian 34
The next game to kick off before Texas took the field were the Iowa State Cyclones and Texas Christian Horned Frogs. This was the first time TCU has played this season after postponing their opening game. Iowa State was looking to avenge a dreadful loss to the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns in Ames.
In this game Brock Purdy looked better than he did in the opener. He only had five incompletions and threw for one touchdown. It was more about the running game for the Cyclones with Bryce Hall. It just took a quarter to get everything rolling. Despite the two teams combined for 71 points in this game, neither team could get the upper hand early with a scoreless first quarter.
On first and 15 from their own 25-yard line, Hall broke off a 75-yard run to get the scoring started in this game. Hall finished with 153 yards rushing and three touchdowns. Newly named starter Matthew Downing responded with a 37-yard touchdown pass to Quentin Johnson. Downing just wouldn’t finish this game as the quarterback. After a sack-fumble, the Cyclones would build a 16-7 lead going into the break.
Max Duggan would take over in the second half and led the team to 27 second half points. The offense finally got rolling to close in on the Cyclones. Down two late in the fourth, Duggan had a pass go right off his receivers hands and it was intercepted. Hall would take care of the rest and give Iowa State a 37-28 lead. They would hold on to win the game.
Oklahoma State 27, West Virginia 13
Much like the Cyclones and Horned Frogs, this game started out with a scoreless first quarter. The Oklahoma State Cowboys would be without starting quarterback Spencer Sanders in this one as freshman Shane Illingsworth would get the nod. He threw for just 139 yards and one interception in this one. It was all about the running backs for OSU.
The standout receiver Tylan Wallace would catch six passes for 78 yards but was held out of the endzone in this one. The second quarter lead would be enough for Oklahoma State as West Virginia and Jarret Doege just couldn’t build any steam.
As the second quarter opened, the Cowboys found the endzone on a LD Brown 66-yard scamper to the endzone. He has become a homerun threat for the offense. The following drive, Oklahoma State built a 14-point lead with a scoop and score on a fumble.
After finding themselves down 17-0, Doege found Winston Wright Jr for a 70-yard touchdown. They would go into the half down 20-7. The Mountaineers could only must six second half points on two field goals as they fell to OSU. Chuba Hubbard got the ball rolling late as the cracked the 100-yard mark on 22 carries and a touchdown.
Baylor 47, Kansas 14
The Baylor Bears finally got onto the field for their first game of the 2020 campaign against the Kansas Jayhawks. On the first drive of the game, Kansas would take a 7-0 lead on a 21-yard run from Pooka Williams. After a Bears punt and a failed fourth and one run by Kansas, Baylor would get going on offense. A Travis Ebner run would tie the game up. He wouldn’t be done with his showcase on this day.
Baylor would end up taking a 17-7 lead into the break after Charlie Brewer found Ebner on an 18-yard pass. Ebner would score again on the opening kickoff of the second half to extend their lead to 17 points. He would run it 100 yards as the special teams got their first score on the board. Ebner would add an 83-yard kickoff return for a touchdown after a safety. Baylor would be up 40-7 at that point.
All in all Travis Ebner had quite the day with four total touchdowns and 272 all-purpose yards in the game. Both touchdowns for Kansas came on runs from Pooka Williams, who finished with 76 yards rushing.
