The form of this season is taking shape as we head towards the back half. Teams fighting for positioning, whether that is for a conference championship appearance or bowl aspirations.
Some teams need to step up and prove why they should be considered credible for postseason play.
While other teams need to avoid the chance of a catastrophic performance. One that would result in serious repercussions.
#5 Oklahoma at. Kansas State 12 PM EST ABC
Oklahoma has been an absolute force since the beginning of the season, with minimal struggles. Outside of a 7 point game, every game has been a blowout for the Sooners.
Even in that Texas game, it was a game that even Longhorn fans will admit was handily won by the Sooners. The untold story of the season has been Alex Grinch’s fantastic job.
Oklahoma was historically awful on defense toward the last half of the season. Grinch has come in as the Defensive Coordinator and revolutionized the unit.
Oklahoma is giving up just 19 PPG and rank among the best in the conference.
For Kansas State, they have been able to play well through their defense as well. Don’t let their 30 PPG on offense fool you, they have been bad in conference play.
They’ve only scored more than 20 points once in conference play and Skylar Thompson has only thrown 7 touchdowns this year.
K-State has a sure hand wide out in Dalton Schoen and their big play threat in Malik Knowles. Knowles has dealt with nagging injuries and Schoen isn’t a big play threat.
This is a game where there could be concern for a slow start for Oklahoma. 11 AM start and on the road. However, most of Oklahoma’s games this year have been at 11.
Oklahoma may be slower on offense than we expect, but they still win by quite a bit.
Oklahoma 42, Kansas State 14
#15 Texas at. TCU 3:30 EST FOX
It was stunning to see the line for this game when it came out earlier in the week. A team with a true freshman QB and coming off a loss was favored to win this game.
Vegas may know something as Texas is coming off giving up 48 points last week at home to Kansas. Kansas is improved in some areas, but not enough to give up 48 points to.
Texas defense has been depleted with injuries and is part of the reason why the struggles have been so severe. Fortunately, offense is a weakness for TCU.
TCU has lacked legit star power out of the skill players, outside of Jalen Reagor.
Max Duggan is a true freshman and the O-Line has been pretty average to put it best. In a few years, I could see Dugan being a threat and playing really well against a top of the conference team.
However, I do not believe he is quite ready for this stage just yet.
TCU’s defense is normally really stout and what wins the Horned Frogs games. However, this year TCU’s defense has been hit or miss. They’ve had solid performances against Purdue or Kansas.
The defense has not played well against legit offenses in SMU (41 points) and Iowa State (49). Texas is a legit offense and score with many different guys.
That will be the difference maker in this game and why Texas should be able to win this game by more than one score.
Texas 33, TCU 21
#23 Iowa State vs. Oklahoma State 3:30 EST FS1
These two teams are heading into two completely different directions. After an encouraging start, Oklahoma State has dropped back to back games.
The offense was flat against Baylor and broke down in the 2nd half. The defense gave up too many big plays and collapsed towards the end.
Iowa State has played angry and coming off their 3rd straight conference win. They beat Texas Tech by dominating the first half and for the most part, coasting through the rest of the contest.
Brock Purdy is playing some fantastic football as he has 11 TD to 0 INT’s this month. One of the big players helping him is TE Charlie Kolar.
Kolar had a big game, catching just 3 passes. 2 of those ended up in the end zone and one was a big play inside the 5.
Kolar and Deshaunte Jones should be looked at quite often. Especially after Okie State gave up over 300 yards on 13 completions from Charlie Brewer.
I expect Oklahoma State to continue to start sliding as Iowa State wins rather comfortably.
Iowa State 38, Oklahoma State 23
Texas Tech at. Kansas 7 PM EST FS1
This is a game that Texas Tech has to absolutely win if they want a bowl game this year. The fortunate part for the Red Raiders is that there are some winnable games left on the schedule.
In year 1, a bowl game is something to be encouraged about if you’re Texas Tech. Kingsbury couldn’t lead Tech to a bowl game in 2018.
Bad Jett Duffey has been Tech’s QB the last few weeks. If they get another performance like that, Tech could be on major upset alert.
Kansas played their best game all season long in Austin last week. However, I don’t know if that will be sustainable against Texas Tech.
Texas Tech is the best team in the conference in forcing turnovers and is overall, a better defense than Texas. Someone saying that during the preseason would’ve been called crazy.
Until Kansas proves to stop really anybody, I don’t know if they have the horses to go with Texas Tech.
After upsetting Boston College on the road, they came back home and dropped an egg against Wes Virginia. I believe it’ll be a similar performance to that.
Texas Tech 37, Kansas 20
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