Big 12 Roundup and Recap: Clear Contenders Now Showing

Oklahoma Sooners (5-0, 2-0) 66, Baylor Bears (3-2, 1-1) 33

Murray’s 348 passer rating shattered Jason White’s single-game school record of 303.3. Murray was almost perfect, going 17-21 for 432 yards and six touchdowns through the air. He also ran for a touchdown, which tied a school record for single-game touchdowns by any player.

Baylor’s defense was eviscerated by Oklahoma all day. The Sooners had five scores of greater than 20 yards. Oklahoma averaged 12 yards per play in route to reaching 63 points. Chris Miller had a very rough day, including a play where he blocked an Oklahoma player instead of going for a ball carrier. On another occasion, he missed a tackle and OU had another one of their long touchdowns. The Bears tried to blitz. They tried to drop back in coverage. Nothing worked. They were out of position. They couldn’t tackle. That unit has to get much better at basic things.

Texas Longhorns (4-1, 2-0) 19, Kansas State Wildcats (2-3, 0-2) 14

Ehlinger finished the game hitting 29-of-36 passes for 207 yards and one touchdown, along with 26 rushing yards. Critically, Ehlinger once again avoided a turnover and has now thrown 128 passes without an interception, now the third-longest streak in school history.

Alex Delton was 3-7 passing for only 14 yards, and he ate two sacks including a safety. Ignoring those sacks, Delton did run for 43 yards, but he only accounted for 41 yards of offense in the first half. What he probably can’t be blamed for, in fairness, is the dropped ball in the end zone to fullback Adam Harter on the final play of the second half — a pass which, if caught, would have made all the difference.

Oklahoma State Cowboys (4-1, 1-1) 48, Kansas Jayhawks (2-3, 0-2) 28

After looking cold against Texas Tech, quarterback Taylor Cornelius rolled into Lawrence, Kansas hotter than a state fair corndog. Not only did he lead the Cowboys to scores on the team’s first four drives, Cornelius didn’t even through an incompletion until the second quarter, finding Tylan Wallace, Landon Wolf, and Tyron Johnson on 11, 42, and 64 yard first half touchdowns, respectively. This was a strong bounceback performance by Cornelius, finishing 15 of 20 for 312 yards, four touchdowns and one interception. He displayed a strong rapport with his receivers and appeared to be a vocal leader on the sidelines.

The offensive line was absolutely atrocious, but Carter Stanley managed to still be serviceable. The defensive line was ineffective, getting zero sacks and rarely putting pressure on QB Taylor Cornelius. And when he was forced to scramble, he easily got away from the pressure. Big 12 quarterbacks are going to have a field day with this Kansas defense the rest of the year.

TCU Horned Frogs (3-2, 1-1) 17, Iowa St. Cyclones (1-3, 0-2) 14

TCU could not get the offense going all game. The Frogs tallied 302 yards, 182 through the air and 120 on the ground. Robinson went 21-29, but much of his passes were for short yardage, and he had a bad interception on an underthrown ball to Derius Davis in triple coverage. The defense for TCU was the saving grace. The Frogs scored on a defensive touchdown when Innis Gaines strip-sacked Iowa State quarterback Zeb Noland and Ben Banogu returned the fumble 47 yards for a touchdown in the opening minutes of the second half.

In the end, this is a very concerning loss for the Cyclones. The defense played well, holding TCU to less than 300 yards of offense and forcing 3 turnovers. The Cyclone offense, though, was absolutely atrocious. Zeb Noland finished 14-28 for 79 yards (!!!), averaging under 3 yards per attempt. The longest completion of the day was a 16 yard Deshaunte Jones catch and run. David Montgomery finished with 101 yards, and received nice blocking at times from the offensive line.

ESPN.com