Big 12 Power Poll – Week 5
Week 5 of the Big 12 Conference Power Poll. Parentheses indicates last week’s position.- Nebraska (1) – Bye week. Still the best team in the Big 12. They start their conference schedule this week with a game at Kansas State. It’ll be a great Thursday night game.
- Oklahoma (2) – In the Red River Rivalry, Oklahoma beat the Longhorn, 28-20. Landry Jones had a solid game (24-39, 236 yards, 2 TDs) while DeMarco Murray rushed for 115 yards and two touchdowns. Oklahoma is now in the driving seat to win the South and I wouldn’t be surprised if they win out their regular season schedule.
- Oklahoma State (6) – Oklahoma State won a thriller in Stillwater against Texas A&M, 38-35. Despite Texas A&M having five turnovers (including four interceptions thrown by Jerrod Johnson), A&M was able to tie the game up with 3:02 remaining. Oklahoma State won it with a field goal with 0:02 left in the game.
- Texas (3) – As stated earlier, Texas lost to Oklahoma. If they can beat Nebraska on October 16th, they could very easily have a 10-2 season, which is respectable after losing Colt McCoy. But 9-3 wouldn’t be awful, either.
- Texas A&M (4) – I still think A&M is a good team. Johnson just had a horrible, horrible week with turnovers. They still have a very good offense, which will do them well.
- Missouri (7) – Bye week, but they move up a spot anyway.They play Colorado next.
- Baylor (11) – Baylor destroyed Kansas. Robert Griffin III showed why he is one of the better QBs in the Big 12 with 380 yards and 3 passing touchdowns while rushing for 64 yards and a touchdown.
- Kansas State (8) – Bye week . They play Nebraska next.
- Colorado (10) – Beat a very bad Georgia team at home, but they are an SEC team, so I moved them up a spot.
- Iowa State (12) – Iowa State had the most surprising victory of the week after they blew out Texas Tech. At one point, the Cyclones were up 24-0. Then Tech came back to tie it. But Iowa State then went up 38-24 and didn’t let Tech get back in it, winning 52-38. Austen Arnaud was 20-for-28 for 190 yards and four touchdown passes.
- Texas Tech (6) – I don’t care who you are, if you let Iowa State score more points on you than the Cyclones did against UNI or Northern Iowa, then there is a serious problem. Tech’s defense is a problem and they need to correct it going into their game against Baylor and Oklahoma State in their next two games, or they’ll be looking at 2-4.
- Kansas (9) – For Kansas again, it came down to execution and they just couldn’t get anything going. They showed a little life in the second quarter but they weren’t able to score again after they scored a touchdown early in the 2nd quarter. Kansas had four turnovers that only led to 13 points for Baylor. One of the fumbles was in the redzone, one interception was returned 14 yards for a touchdown. Kansas has never been good on the road, especially in the Big 12, so the loss wasn’t surprising. What was surprising was how badly the Jayhawks lost. I think KU can win games at home but they won’t be doing much on the road.
