TCU Horned Frogs 34, Purdue Boilermakers 13

There are a myriad of ways to sum up TCU’s 34-13 win over Purdue Saturday night, but here’s the clearest distillation: with 13:46 left in the fourth quarter, the Horned Frogs had precisely 306 rushing yards, and the Boilermakers had precisely zero. TCU dominated this game at the line of scrimmage, and that was the difference. The Frogs finished with 346 rushing yards, while Purdue had 22.

Gary Patterson continues to create defenses in the Big 12 that absolutely destroy. His team held Purdue to 204 total yards.

#12 Texas Longhorns 48, Rice Owls 13

Let by 23-of-27 passing for 279 yards and three touchdowns by Sam Ehlinger, along with 27 rushing yards on five carries, Texas scored on the first possession after winning the toss and taking the football, then scored on the next three drives to push the consecutive scoring streak to nine dating back to the LSU game.

Sam Ehlinger has the Longhorns playing relatively well against anyone not from the SEC.

Kansas State Wildcats 31, Mississippi St. Bulldogs 24

Kansas State, the team which used to beat you despite your team having the physical advantage because they were smarter and had better execution, showed up in Starkville this morning and completely outplayed Mississippi State. They should have won 41-14, in all fairness. The problem was, K-State wasn’t smarter and made a lot of mistakes, turning what should have been an easy win into a nail-biter. But in the end the Wildcats somehow managed to come out on top, scoring on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Skylar Thompson to Dalton Schoen with 5:37 to play to help secure a 31-24 win at Davis Wade Stadium

Chris Klieman proved he was a good coach when he was at North Dakota and now he’s taken a Kansas State team that was expected to be near the bottom of the Big 12 and has them playing well.

#19 Iowa Hawkeyes 18, Iowa St. Cyclones 17

Kicker Keith Duncan kicked a 39-yard field goal to put the Hawkeyes up 18-17 with just under five minutes left in the fourth quarter, and Iowa got a late stop to beat the Cyclones 18-17 on a stormy day in Ames. Iowa State blew its last chance for a comeback after a miscue-turned-muffed punt with just over a minute left in the game. It sure took a while to get to there. Two separate weather delays totaled around three hours in a game that didn’t finish until six hours after the opening kickoff.

Head coach Matt Campbell is winless against his in-state rival and Kirk Ferentz.

Oklahoma State Cowboys 40, Tulsa Golden Hurricane 21

Chuba Hubbard rushed for a career-high 256 yards and three touchdowns to lead Oklahoma State past Tulsa 40-21 on Saturday at H.A. Chapman Stadium. Other than Hubbard, OSU’s offense looked anemic at times with only 169 passing yards, including a 90-yarder from Tylan Wallace that was pass interference. Wallace is so good you can get penalized and he’s still going to score.

When I checked on this game midway through the third quarter, it was 21-20 Tulsa. Oklahoma State proceeded to score the next 20 points to pull away.

#5 Oklahoma Sooners 48, UCLA Bruins 14

This one looked like a heavy mismatch on paper before the game started, and it played out that way from the jump. On the first drive, Hurts accounted for 99 rushing yards and a score. In fact, the senior captain was so on fire in the opening 30 minutes, he became the first QB in OU history to account for over 200 yards passing and over 100 yards rushing in a half. In total, Hurts completed 15 of 20 passes for 289 yards and three touchdowns in addition to 150 rushing yards and another score on 14 carries.

Can we just ban Lincoln Riley from acquiring transfers?

Arizona Wildcats 28, Texas Tech Red Raiders 14

Arizona ran the ball 13 straight times during a 99-yard drive in the fourth quarter and Gary Brightwell capped it with his second touchdown, lifting the Wildcats to a 28-14 win over Texas Tech Saturday night.

Kansas Jayhawks 48, Boston College Eagles 24

We may have ourselves a football team after all! Kansas beat a Power 5 team away from Lawrence for the first time since 2008 in a victory over Boston College. The Jayhawks broke out a spread look with a heavy dose of RPOs and draw plays that took BC by surprise and led to a shocking upset for KU, who came in as 19.5 point underdogs. It looked like it might be off to the races early for Boston College. They marched it straight down the field for a touchdown, picked off Carter Stanley’s first pass attempt, and turned it into three more for a 10-0 lead. After some offensive difficulty early, Kansas adjusted (finally!) to the defense adding numbers to the box. They unleashed an even spread attack and made use of the space in the middle of the field to start playing respectable offense.

The Kansas Jayhawks beat a Power 5 team, on the road, for the first time since 2008. I didn’t have kids back in 2008. I’m not sure I had a smartphone, to be honest. I was in my 20s. Talk about a losing streak.

STANDINGS

TCU, Baylor and Iowa State all have one more non-con game to before starting Big 12 play. The rest of the teams are finished with non-conference play and will begin prepping for conference opponents.