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Missouri (6-2) at Baylor (3-5),
3:00 EST
Why to watch: Missouri
righted the ship after
back-to-back losses to Oklahoma
State and Texas with a 58-0 win
over Colorado that was
breathtaking in its ruthless
efficiency. Even at 2-2, the Big
12 North title is there for the
taking with the light part of
the schedule kicking in playing
Kansas State and Iowa State
after this week’s date against
the Bears. It’s all about tuning
up for the regular-season ender
against Kansas, and hopefully
for the Tigers, a second shot at
the Big 12 title game in two
year. For Baylor, just getting
the offense going again would be
nice. After blasting Iowa State
two weeks ago, the Bears have
struggled in losses to Oklahoma
State and Nebraska. It’ll need
to get everything working to
keep pace with Missouri, but it
has a rushing offense to make
this interesting.
Why Missouri might win:
Missouri’s biggest weakness
isn’t likely to be exploited.
Baylor has an ultra-efficient
passing game, but it doesn’t
crank out a ton of passing
yards. The Bears don’t have the
firepower to keep up if this
gets into any sort of a
shootout, while their running
game, the strength thanks to QB
Robert Griffin, should be held
under wraps by a Mizzou
linebacking corps athletic
enough to keep him in check. It
shouldn’t take too many points
to put this away. The Tigers
could score on their first three
drives and end it before
everyone gets into their seats.
Why Baylor might win: Can
the Tigers be dinked and dunked
on to death? The Tiger secondary
has allowed 272 yards per game,
mostly because teams have had to
throw to keep up the pace, but
decent quarterbacks really have
had good success. The mobility
of Griffin should be able to
counteract the strong Missouri
pass rush, while he’s not going
to give the ball away to give
the Tigers any cheap points. He
has yet to throw an interception
this year in 175 pass attempts.
Who to watch: Missouri’s
offense is dangerous enough
without Baylor having to worry
about the special teams. The
Bears are next-to-last in
America in punt returns,
averaging a miserable 1.7 yards
per return, but is eighth in the
nation and third in the Big 12
in punting thanks to a big year
from Derek Epperson. He’ll have
to be tremendous to keep the
ball away from Mizzou star
Jeremy Maclin, who’s averaging
10.56 yards per punt return.
Maclin’s a game-changing return
man, and he has stepped up over
the last three weeks as a
receiver with 27 catches
including an 11-grab, 134-yard,
two touchdown day against
Colorado.
What will happen: This is
a bad matchup for Baylor, and
it’ll show early on. The pass
rush won’t be there to pressure
Chase Daniel, while the Tiger
front seven will keep Griffin
under wraps.
CFN Prediction: Missouri
49 … Baylor 23 ... Line:
Missouri -20.5
Must See Rating: (5
RocknRolla – 1 High
School Musical 3: Senior Year)
… 2.5
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Iowa State (2-6) at Oklahoma
State (7-1),
3:30 EST ABC
Why to watch: Oklahoma
State might have lost to Texas
last week, but it gained a major
measure of respect taking the
nation’s No. 1 team down to the
wire in Austin. The 28-24 loss
showed the Cowboys are the real
deal and set the tone for
showdowns against Texas Tech and
Oklahoma over the final few
weeks, but first, the team has
to gear it up for Iowa State and
can’t look ahead to the trip to
Lubbock to face the Red Raiders.
The Cyclones have gotten
progressively worse on defense
as the season has gone on and
are now on a six-game losing
streak with little end in sight.
Coming off a 49-35 loss to Texas
A&M, ISU has to hope the offense
can get rolling early on and the
defense can come up with its
best game of the year. Anything
less and this might quickly turn
into nothing more than an
exhibition.
Why Iowa State might win:
The Oklahoma State defense has
been better than expected, and
has held up well against the
great offenses over the last
several weeks, but it’s not
necessarily a brick wall. Iowa
State might not be explosive or
consistent, but it doesn’t make
a slew of mistakes and the
defense is tremendous at taking
the ball away forcing 21
takeaways. The Cyclones have to
be +3 in turnover margin to have
a shot at pulling this off.
However …
Why Oklahoma State might win:
… Oklahoma State doesn’t make
mistakes. This is a tight team
that’s been great at hanging on
to the ball, losing just 11
turnovers, even though the
offense has gone ballistic. Iowa
State doesn’t have a prayer of
hanging punch for punch with the
balanced and effective Cowboy
offense. The OSU O line should
obliterate the ISU defensive
front and generate close to 300
yards of rushing offense if the
game plan steers that way.
Who to watch: OSU RB
Kendall Hunter has been a
tremendous ying to Zac
Robinson’s yang. The sophomore
has been consistent and
dangerous tearing off 161 yards
on just 18 carries against Texas
last week, he ran for 154 yards
against Missouri. Oddly enough,
he has had the toughest time
against two of the Big 12’s
worst run defenses, Texas A&M
and Baylor, even though he
carried the ball 47 times in the
two games.
What will happen:
Oklahoma State will have an
expected let down after last
week’s loss, but it’ll still win
with ease. Iowa State won’t be
able to keep up the pace after a
relatively tight first half.
Watch for Cowboy WR Dez Bryant
to come up with a big day, while
the ground game will do whatever
it wants to.
CFN Prediction: Oklahoma
State 45 … Iowa State 13 ...
Line: Oklahoma State -30.5
Must See Rating: (5
RocknRolla – 1 High
School Musical 3: Senior Year)
… 2.5
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Nebraska (5-3) at Oklahoma (7-1),
8:00 EST ESPN
Why to watch: For anyone
over the age of 25, the matchup
gets the blood going. It’s
Nebraska vs. Oklahoma. It’s
late November for the Big 8
title with the home crowd
smuggling in oranges in hopes of
being able to throw them onto
the field to celebrate a Orange
Bowl berth and a conference
championship. It’s two wishbone
option attacks with two
high-powered running games and
athletic, brutish defenses that
rank among the best in America.
Fine, so it’s not 1987 anymore,
but this is still a fun matchup
between two old rivals. Nebraska
has played well over the last
three weeks, taking things to
another level in an overtime
loss to Texas Tech before
rolling past Iowa State and
Baylor. A win over the Sooners
would automatically put the
program back on the map and set
the tone for the Bo Pelini era.
Oklahoma hasn’t been stopped yet
this year, being held under 45
points just once (the loss to
Texas). With Big 12 title and
national championship hopes
still alive, the Sooners have to
keep winning impressively to
stay in the hunt. The need a
help, but at the very least
they’re putting themselves in a
position to play in a BCS game.
Why Nebraska might win:
The Oklahoma defense has had
issues. Major issues. The Texas
game was rough enough, and then
Kansas cranked out 491 yards and
four touchdowns and Kansas State
ripped off 550 yards. In the two
games, Todd Reesing and Josh
Freeman combined for 843 yards
of passing with six touchdowns
as the Sooner secondary has gone
from bad to worse. To be fair,
the Jayhawks and Wildcats had to
chuck away to try to keep up the
pace, and …
Why Oklahoma might win: …
OU came up with its share of
decent moments with five
interceptions in the last two
games. Turnovers haven’t been a
problem for Nebraska; takeaways
have. The Huskers don’t have
quite enough firepower to
outblast OU, and the defense
isn’t doing much to force
mistakes even though it’s been
ultra-aggressive under Pelini.
The Nebraska offensive line has
done a good job so far this year
in pass protection, but it’s
about to deal with a defensive
front that’s getting to
everyone’s quarterback. That
means …
Who to watch: … Joe Ganz
needs to take his game to
another level. Lost in the
shuffle of Big 12 quarterbacks,
Ganz has more than held his own
ranking 14th in the
nation in pass efficiency and 12th
in total offense. He has gotten
stronger as the season has gone
on with 349 yards against Texas
Tech, 328 against Iowa State,
and 336 against Baylor. Just as
important has been the
turnovers; he has only thrown
one pick in the last three games
after throwing five in the first
five. He has to be flawless,
efficient, and consistent to not
only keep pace with Bradford,
but to even try to be better.
What will happen: Ganz
and Nebraska will get their
licks in, OU will give up over
300 yards through the air, but
Bradford will be Bradford, the
Sooner offense will be balanced,
the running game will control
things for a stretch, and the
focus will quickly shift to the
finishing kick of at Texas A&M,
Texas Tech, and at Oklahoma
State.
CFN Prediction: Oklahoma
45 … Nebraska 27 ... Line:
Oklahoma -21.5
Must See Rating: (5
RocknRolla – 1 High
School Musical 3: Senior Year)
… 4
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Big 12 Predictions,
Nov. 1, Part 1 |