Big 12 Football Recap: Week Five

After each weekend of Big 12 play we’ll look at how things turned out for the Big 12 conference.

This week, we saw one of the best performances from a quarterback so far this season, a hard fought Big 12 conference game between two undefeated teams, a battle in the state of Texas, and an absolute shootout in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Saturday, September 29th

Baylor (3-1, 0-1) 63 @ West Virginia (4-0, 1-0) 70 – West Virginia continued their hot play as they played host to the Baylor Bears in Week Five. Both starting quarterbacks in this game had amazing performances, but one just out shined the other in the public eye. Geno Smith is at the top of everyone’s Heisman Trophy list after he went 45-of-51 and threw for 686 yards and eight touchdowns. An interesting fact is that, Smith has more yards, a better completion percentage, and better touchdown-to-interception ratio than Robert Griffin III had last year after his first four games. Nick Florance for Baylor also who broke a record set by Robert Griffin III as he threw for 581 yards in the game.

September 29, 2012; Morgantown, WV, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers quarterback Geno Smith (12) drops back to pass in the second half in the game against the Baylor Bears at Milan Puskar Stadium. West Virginia defeated Baylor 70-63. Mandatory Credit: Rob Christy-US PRESSWIRE

Texas Tech (4-0, 1-0) 24 @ Iowa State (3-1, 0-1) 13 – The Texas Tech Red Raiders are looking like one of the most shocking teams in the Big 12 this year. They improved to 4-0 after defeating the Iowa State Cyclones in Week Five. Their quarterback, Seth Doege, had a nice game as he threw for 331 yards and three touchdowns. However, he did throw two interceptions in the game. One of those interceptions was taken to the house by the Cyclones for the very first score of the game. It went all downhill from there for Iowa State. Steele Jantz threw for only 73 yards and one touchdown. He also threw three interceptions. The Cyclones also had a total of 116 rushing yards on the day. Most of those rushing yards (101 yards) were split between running backs, Shontrelle Johnson and James White.

TCU (4-0) 24 @ SMU (1-3) 16 – The Horned Frogs might of got revenge on the Mustangs after last season, but it wasn’t easy. There were several times in the second half of the game where TCU gave SMU a chance to pull off an upset. TCU was very sloppy on special teams. They botched a snap on a field goal attempt in the third quarter and Ethan Perry (punter) mishandled the ball two times before he could get the kick off. The miscue by Perry was one of the chances that TCU gave to SMU to get back into the game. However, SMU’s quarterback, Garrett Gilbert, did not have a good game either. He might of had 190 yards and a touchdown, but threw five interceptions. TCU’s coach Gary Patterson said, “I’m not sure we didn’t screw it up more and just didn’t get lucky.”

Texas (4-0, 1-0) 41 @ Oklahoma State (2-2, 0-1) 36 – It was an absolute thriller in the Big 12 night cap game between the Longhorns and the Cowboys. David Ash tried to continue to silence his critics as he threw for 304 yards and three touchdowns. Many are evening saying that Ash “grew up” in the game against Oklahoma State. Despite getting the win, it did not come easy for the Longhorns. They led by two points entering the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter, there were four lead changes that ended with a 2-yard touchdown run by Joe Bergeron with 29 seconds left in the game. Oklahoma State tried to win the game on a “hook-and-ladder” play, but they could not get it done in the end.

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