Big 12
North
Colorado
|
Iowa St
|
Kansas
|
Kansas State
|
Missouri
|
Nebraska
South
Baylor
|
Oklahoma
|
Oklahoma State
|
Texas
|
Texas A&M
|
Texas Tech
Past Big 12 Predictions:
Week 1 |
Week 2 |
Week 3 |
Week 4 |
Week 5
Week 6 |
Week 7 |
Week 8
How'd we do so far? 46-8 straight
up, 21-25-2
ATS
Week
9
Big 12 Fearless Predictions, Part
2 |
Get
Tickets for These Games
Big 12 Game of
the Week
Oklahoma
(5-2) at
Missouri
(7-1) 12 PM EST ABC Saturday
October 28th
Why to Watch: Sort of a poor
man's Big 12 title matchup, Missouri and
Oklahoma each hold out title hopes. The
Tigers, who are still unnoticed and
underrated by most of the college
football world, got over the tough loss
to Texas A&M to throttle Kansas State
last week. While they could use this win
for more street cred, they can afford a
loss and still win the North as long as
they beat Nebraska next week and close
out with wins over Iowa State and
Kansas. The Sooners don't have any
margin for error needing to keep winning
while hoping for Texas to lose twice.
This has been a one-sided series going
back to the old Big 8 days with the
Sooners winning 27 of the last 30
meetings.
Why Oklahoma Might Win: The
defense has finally turned up the heat.
After being one of the slight
disappointments over the first half of
the season, and a huge problem when it
came to getting to the quarterback.
Fine, Middle Tennessee, Iowa State and
Colorado are hardly juggernauts, but OU
still kept the three to 12 points
combined and kept Texas in relative
check outside of a few big plays in the
third quarter. The OU linebackers are
fast enough to stay with the Missouri
tight ends and snuff out the medium pass
plays.
Why Missouri Might Win: Oklahoma
is 5-0 at home, and 0-2 away from
Memorial Stadium losing to Oregon and
Texas. Outside of the loss to A&M, no
one's been close to beating Mizzou, and
OU doesn't quite have the offensive
firepower to throw any curveballs at one
of the Big 12's top defenses. The back
seven is tremendous at shutting down the
short to midrange pass, and there's no
threat of OU going deep. Even though the
Sooner O line has been a nice surprise,
it's not the type that'll plow over the
Tiger defensive front. In other words,
the Sooners might not be able to control
the clock or the tempo.
Who to Watch: Without Adrian
Peterson, for the Sooners to beat the
better teams they have to get rock-solid
performances from everyone else, and
there has to be some threat of the home
run. Paul Thompson completed 17 of 26
passes against Colorado, but he threw
nothing down the field keeping to a
conservative, very, very short passing
game. Allen Patrick might have rushed
for 110 yards, but it took 35 carries to
do it. Missouri's defense, even without
top pass rushing end Brian Smith, who's
out with a hip injury, is way too good,
and the offense is way too balanced for
OU to not open things up a bit. If WR
Malcolm Kelly doesn't make several big
plays, OU is probably going to lose, and
lose big.
What Will Happen: Here's the
statement game Missouri has been looking
for. Even though this isn't the same OU
without Adrian Peterson, it's still a
legitimate top 20, possibly top 15, team
with the talent and attitude to pull off
the tough road win. Mizzou's offensive
line will make sure that doesn't happen.
CFN Prediction:
Missouri .27 ... Oklahoma 20 ..
Line: Missouri -2.5
Must See Rating: (5 skip the
birth of your first born - 1 Flicka)
... 4
Colorado
(1-7) at
Kansas
(3-5) 2 PM EST Saturday October
28th
Why to Watch: This might be a
disastrous season for Dan Hawkins and
Colorado, but there's still a snowball's
chance in Miami of winning the Big 12
North. By winning out, CU is in if it
gets a complete collapse from Missouri,
and a Nebraska loss along the way. Fine,
so that's not going to happen, so it's
about improving week after week and
trying to build towards next year.
Consistency is the first step. The Buffs
crushed Texas Tech, and then got dinked
and dunked on to death by Oklahoma 24-3.
Colorado has owned KU with five straight
wins in the series and winning 18 out of
the last 21. The Jayhawks have been
masters of the hard-luck loss on a
recent four-game losing streak, but at
3-5, they still have an honest shot at a
bowl game with winnable games against
Iowa State and Kansas State ahead.
Why Colorado Might Win: If
Colorado was ever going to get its
anemic passing game going, this would be
the week. The Kansas secondary hasn't
just been awful, it's been lousy in
crunch time getting bombed on over and
over again in the second half. Over the
last four games, KU has allowed an
average of 360 passing yards with 14
touchdowns. The Buffs aren't going to
hit the 200-yard mark, they haven't all
year, but they should be effective
enough to open things up for their
decent running game. However ...
Why Kansas Might Win: ... it's
asking a lot for the CU passing game to
work. Bernard Jackson has been anything
but efficient, and if he's off, forget
about any hope of a Buff win. The
Colorado secondary isn't as bad as KU's,
but it's not all that far off allowing
230 yards or more in every game by last
week's Sooner loss, and Paul Thompson
completed 17 of 26 passes with a
touchdown. Even though KU likes to have
a near-perfect offensive balance, the
passing game should open up.
Who to Watch: Kerry Meier might
be KU's best quarterback, but the team
hasn't exactly done much with him under
center. Forgetting the layups against
Northwestern State and UL Monroe, the
Jayhawks lost to a horrible Toledo team,
got bombed on by Oklahoma State, and
lost to Baylor when Meier was
quarterbacking. Even though those losses
were hardly the freshman's fault, a
quarterback is judged by wins and
losses. On the plus side, he's limited
his mistakes since missing three games
with an injury only throwing one
interception after throwing seven picks
in his first three games. He needed to
be a bomber over the last two weeks, and
wasn't. This week, he needs to keep
mistakes to a minimum, keep the Buff
linebackers guessing with his running
ability, and keep the chains moving.
What Will Happen: Colorado
doesn't have the offense to keep up any
sort of pace, but its defense,
especially against the run, is just good
enough to keep KU RB Jon Cornish in
check and keep Meier from running wild.
KU will turn the ball over, CU won't.
That will be the difference.
CFN Prediction:
Colorado 23 ... Kansas 20 ...
Line: Kansas -2
Must See Rating: (5 skip the
birth of your first born - 1 Flicka)
... 2.5
Nebraska
(6-2) at
Oklahoma
State
(4-3) 3:30 PM ABC EST Saturday
October 28th
Why to Watch: Nebraska was so
freakin' close to being considered among
the elite and being thrown into the
national title discussion, but it
couldn't close against Texas and now has
to hope to get through the Big 12 season
and get another shot in the championship
game. With the big showdown against
Missouri coming next week, the Huskers
have to stay focused against an Oklahoma
State team lost in brutally painful
fashion to Texas A&M giving up a late
touchdown and then losing in overtime on
a blocked extra point. Still in the hunt
for a bowl, OSU has to find two more
wins despite dealing with a nasty
finishing kick with Texas, Oklahoma, and
Texas Tech along with a suddenly tough
matchup against Baylor. OSU doesn't just
have to fight the Huskers, it has to
fight history going 36-1-1 in the last
38 meetings (after winning the first
two) with the one victory coming in 2002
under Les Miles.
Why Nebraska Might Win:
Nebraska's offense might be too balanced
for the OSU defense that hasn't dealt
with anyone with this kind of an attack.
The Huskers were a bit vanilla
throughout the season, and then shocked
Texas with several big plays showing the
explosion that was missing. The Cowboy
defense should be able to slow down the
run or the pass, but not both, and it'll
have to deal with at least two home runs
that might change the momentum. Most
likely, the biggest problems will come
against the short range Husker passing
game with Zac Taylor able to throw at
will. Nebraska is currently fourth in
the nation in passing efficiency.
However ...
Why Oklahoma State Might Win: ...
how do you throw off an efficient
passing game? Hit the quarterback. Few
are doing a better job of consistently
getting into the backfield than the
Cowboys with their attacking defense
cranking out 25 sacks and 61 tackles for
loss. Taylor was effective against Texas
despite getting hit repeatedly, but he
also got help from Maurice Purify
breaking tackles for a long score and
Brandon Jackson taking a short pass the
distance. If OSU can limit the long
plays, and bomb away on the bad Husker
secondary, it should be in it until the
end.
Who to Watch: After getting
knocked out in the second quarter of the
Texas A&M game with a concussion, OSU QB
Bobby Reid is expected to start this
week. Taylor might be efficient, but
Reid has been even sharper with 17
touchdown passes and six interceptions,
with three coming in a blowout win over
Arkansas State. For Nebraska, the
running game is starting to clear up a
little bit with Brandon Jackson starting
to earn more and more respect over the
last few weeks. Marlon Lucky is likely
to still be the starter, and Kenny
Wilson and Cody Glenn will each get
work, but Jackson, especially on his
touchdown against the Longhorns, showed
off the explosiveness that might get him
the carries he got against Iowa State
and Kansas State when he ran for 208
yards against the two.
What Will Happen: This will be
fun. Expect lots of big plays, lots of
passing, and lots of home runs. Nebraska
will have a few more than the Cowboys,
but it'll be a dogfight.
CFN Prediction:
Nebraska 28
... Oklahoma State 20 ...
Line: Nebraska -5.5
Must See Rating: (5 skip the
birth of your first born - 1 Flicka)
... 3.5
Week
9
Big 12 Fearless Predictions, Part
2 |
Get
Tickets for These Games
