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Post by lynchmob42 on Nov 12, 2012 10:23:35 GMT -5
Texas Tech @ Oklahoma State Oklahoma @ West Virginia Iowa State @ Kansas Kansas State @ Baylor
Texas and TCU are off. There are a couple of closely matched teams on the board this week. I'll let you figure out which games are those.
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Post by architechguy on Nov 12, 2012 12:01:36 GMT -5
Tech and Oklahoma State are playing for the Alamo Bowl right now. Tech's D has gotten progressively worse and worse. They're going to need an inspired performance from the defense to win this one. They shouldn't flat out quit in this game the way they did last year, but I can see this being a 58-38 kind of game though. I don't think it's very evenly matched, Tech is still getting poll respect from the WV upset but is not playing like a ranked team. OSU is getting very little poll respect because of some early losses, but are simply playing better than Tech right now. OSU should win big.
I think West Virginia is clueless right now, I'd be stunned if they beat OU this week and a little surprised if they beat Iowa State on the road. Their bowl eligibility could come down to the last week at home with Kansas. It would be absolutely remarkable if a team that was once #5 in the country stays home for bowl season. I bet that hasn't happened in 50 years, in the days when there were only half dozen or so bowl games every year.
Kansas State just has to keep chopping wood. They have shiny new "1" next to their name for the first time ever, heavy is the head that wears the crown. Baylor's offense is good enough to put up points, but the defense is equally as bad. The last thing you want to do in this game is give them hope. Establish a lead and you'll be fine.
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Post by lynchmob42 on Nov 12, 2012 13:06:56 GMT -5
OSU is playing really, really tough right now. I was very impressed by their effort in Manhattan. It would be absolutely remarkable if a team that was once #5 in the country stays home for bowl season. At this point, I'm cheering for this. WVU was so flippin' high on themselves after beating Texas, and now they've completely crumbled. I think it's a sign of the huge step up in competition, and how you can't win a conference championship in one game, as you can in the Big Least. This is the first BCS #1 for K-State, but not the first ever #1.
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Post by lynchmob42 on Nov 12, 2012 13:14:44 GMT -5
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Post by architechguy on Nov 12, 2012 14:36:36 GMT -5
They're just fishing for predictions. They don't have any intelligent reasoning behind why they think that will happen, they're just playing the percentages that an upset will happen so they're picking this one on the off chance they're right. It's not impossible at all for Baylor to pull the upset, but to say they have an advantage in any particular area, or a matchup they can exploit, or any sound reasoning they can base the prediction off of is just nonsense. If Baylor pulls it off, it'll be because it's just one of those nights where they roll 7's all night long and KSU can't get a break.
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Post by lynchmob42 on Nov 12, 2012 14:50:38 GMT -5
Can Baylor beat K-State? Sure, it's possible. I'm reading their fan forum now, and while it's not the prevalent thought, I'm tired of reading "we match up well with K-State" every single week.
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Post by architechguy on Nov 12, 2012 16:25:34 GMT -5
No, Baylor most certainly does not match up well against Kansas State. This is actually the worst matchup for them because KSU can slow the game down and take the air out of the ball. They don't have the defensive line to match up against KSU's run game. They don't have an answer to Klein's QB draw play. They simply don't have the defensive talent to slow KSU's offense. I just don't see how their defense gets off the field and gives their offense the ball back. Sure, they have an offense that can light up the scoreboard, but can they avoid the backbreaking mistakes that KSU has a knack for creating?
Nothing is impossible on a football field, but Baylor will need the football gods to smile on them to pull off the upset.
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Post by architechguy on Nov 13, 2012 10:19:19 GMT -5
OSU is playing really, really tough right now. I was very impressed by their effort in Manhattan. It would be absolutely remarkable if a team that was once #5 in the country stays home for bowl season. At this point, I'm cheering for this. WVU was so flippin' high on themselves after beating Texas, and now they've completely crumbled. I think it's a sign of the huge step up in competition, and how you can't win a conference championship in one game, as you can in the Big Least. This is the first BCS #1 for K-State, but not the first ever #1. I can't remember a more complete and thorough collapse to a season than WV this year. I remember the early season hype about WV saying that the defensive warning signs against Marshall were no big deal, and giving up 63 points to Baylor was no big deal. They've been completely clueless though over the last 4 games! It's kind of satisfying to see the team that many thought would win the Big 12 in their first year get served a smorgasbord of crow, but at this point it's almost painful to watch! WV was brought in to be one of our new marquis teams, we can't have them getting boat raced on national TV every week!
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Post by lynchmob42 on Nov 13, 2012 11:17:49 GMT -5
WVU still has Kansas on the schedule, so they should make six wins. I completely agree about the awful way media responded to the WVU/BU game. Everyone thought that was just awesome and G. Smith was going to win the Heisman because of it. It still makes me sick to my stomach.
Oklahoma will probably do this as well, but K-State has now beaten last year's Big 12, Big East and MWC conference champions.
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Post by architechguy on Nov 13, 2012 12:32:47 GMT -5
Tech has a chance to do that as well if we can beat Oklahoma State this week. I don't think we will beat OSU, but we would share that honor if we do.
Remember my complaint in the preseason about how the media thought the Big 12 newbies would come in an dominate, while the Big 12 expats are going to get crushed in their new conference? Well A&M just took Emperor Saban down a notch, Nebraska looks like it can win the Big 10, and WVU and TCU will be lucky to finish 3-6 in Big 12 play.
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Post by lynchmob42 on Nov 13, 2012 15:13:22 GMT -5
I remember, archi, and I believed the same. The Big Ten is awful, and Nebraska has been getting by on the skin of their teeth. If K-State loses one of its last two games, and/or if Collin Klein is hurt, we'll have something to blame it on:
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Post by longhorn99 on Nov 13, 2012 22:50:44 GMT -5
West Virginia
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Post by architechguy on Nov 14, 2012 9:54:20 GMT -5
I got into a debate with some SEC fans about how A&M's success at least validates the strength of the Big 12. Understandably, they got all mad because they thought I was claiming credit for A&M's success. The truth is though, A&M would not be able to accomplish what they have this year if they weren't an extremely talented bunch of players. The new coaching staff has made all the difference in the world, Kevin Sumlin and Kliff Kingsbury are about to make their accountants the happiest men in the world! Again though, those players who walked out of Alabama with a win didn't fall out of the sky overnight. Kevin Sumlin didn't just shake a magical tree that Mike Sherman didn't know existed and 85 elite football players fell out. This was a Big 12 football team just 12 months ago, and a sizable chunk of the population foolishly believes that such a talented football team doesn't exist outside the SEC. We've heard for years that a Big 12 team can't go into the SEC and win against a SEC schedule because we don't play "Big Boy Football". Well, a team just did it! Granted, another team is attempting it and has fallen flat on their face, but the point is that it's possible. All the credit in the world goes to A&M for making the incredibly difficult transition, but they have proven possible what many didn't think was.
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Post by lynchmob42 on Nov 14, 2012 10:25:47 GMT -5
I'm with you. A&M is not the same team this year as it was last year. BUT, last year's team had Ryan Tannehill and Von Miller. The coaching has been upgraded and the QB has been amazingly well replaced. It still shows that A&M had talent last year, and fell right in the middle of the Big 12 Conference.
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Post by architechguy on Nov 14, 2012 11:29:17 GMT -5
I don't know if you guys hear the same chatter that I get down in these parts (at least as constantly as I heard it), but SEC fans truly and honestly believe that their teams are the only ones in the country that have talent and good coaches. So it can't possibly be true that A&M went from being gimmicky and untalented to overpowering, SEC Speed in just one offseason. So regardless of where exactly A&M finished in the Big 12 standings the last few seasons, they had this same talent level before now and there were numerous teams they competed against on a weekly basis that had a comparable level of talent.
So SEC fans homers can't have it both ways. They can't look at a team like Missouri the way they did over the summer and say you can't bring that gimmicky offense from an inferior conference with subpar competition into our league and expect to win, then after another team that does exactly what they just said can't be done explain it away by saying they're just an elite team so they're the exception to the rule.
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