Big 12 Football Power Rankings, Week 11: Is Baylor truly king?

This era of Kansas State football looks like it’s going to be fun. Chris Kleiman has the Wildcats playing well. They’ve figured out what they want to be on offense, and it’s resulted in a three-game winning streak that includes a win over the No. 5 Oklahoma Sooners. They get an injured Texas team that don’t have many options offensively, and the rest of the schedule is manageable. They are tough and physical defensively, this team could find itself a 10-win season.

The Sooners had a bye week off of their loss to No. 16 Kansas State. They are still one game better than the third team in the conference. They have an opportunity to make up for that loss in two weeks when they travel to Waco and play the Baylor Bears at McLane Stadium.

First, they have to get past the Iowa State Cyclones. What fell apart for the Sooners in the Kansas State game was the defense and turnovers. They couldn’t stop the run, and they turned it over twice. Despite the fact they out-gained the Wildcats, the Sooners were held to one of their season lows in total yards. The fact they were gashed in the run game is concerning if you are a Sooners fan.

We’ll see how they do the rest of this season as they have Iowa State and Baylor left on their schedule. Let’s see if they remember how to stop the run.

Teams have games they narrowly escape on their way to magical seasons. The Bears 17-14 escape against the West Virginia Mountaineers could be one such game. They out-gained the Mountaineers 453-219, and have more than twice as many first downs.

The Bears, however, shot themselves in the foot with three turnovers in the game. Despite not playing well for a portion of the game, they survived. It’s games like these you feel good about because you didn’t play especially well, and still found a way to win.

The Bears will need that confidence to finish out their schedule which includes Texas and Oklahoma. Would the Playoff Committee exclude an undefeated conference champ?