TEXAS vs. BAYLOR ? November 5th, 12:30 PM EST
The Baylor Bear have been one of the surprise ?success? stories of 2005 as they won their first three games of the season before stumbling against Texas A&M in a 16-13 overtime loss. That valiant effort by this perennial losing football team was then followed by their first road win in a Big 12 game in the history of the conference when they went into Ames and upset Iowa State as eight point underdogs. Unfortunately, just as things were looking up for the Bears, they were staring down at a schedule that featured Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Texas as their next four opponents and have since lost to the first three. The real fun begins this week as they welcome the No. 2 ranked Longhorns to Floyd Casey Stadium at a time when the boys from Austin are beginning to smell roses in the air.
Last week, Texas stumbled hard in the first half against weak Oklahoma State team and found themselves down 28-12 at the break. This actually was not unfamiliar territory for the Longhorns who have remarkably been in a very similar position in their last three games against the Cowboys. In the past three meetings with Oklahoma State, the Longhorns have and trailed at halftime only to outscore the Cowboys 118-0 in the second halves of those games. In doing so this year, Texas QB Vince Young rushed for a career high 267 yards and passed for 239 yards, setting a school record for total offense in a game. You can safely bet your ass that at halftime last week, the Longhorns were abruptly awakened to the possibility that their hopes of an undefeated season and a shot at the National Title could be falling apart in front of their eyes. In retrospect, being down to the Cowboys by 19 points late in the 2nd quarter may have been the best thing that could happen to this team and it undoubtedly brought them down to earth.
Baylor has averaged 22 points a game in going 4-4 this season and if you take away their games against SMU, Samford and Army, that number drops to 16 points per game. The only team with a real defense that the Bears have played this year was Nebraska who held them to 14 points and although Texas Tech is not exactly known for their defensive prowess, they were able to hold Baylor scoreless last week. Baylor poses no real threat to the Longhorns whatsoever and has to be praying that Texas comes out flat for this game. After the scare that the Horns went through last week in Stillwater, I think there is little chance of that.
The Longhorn defense is allowing less than 15 points per game and almost all of those games have been against better offenses than the one Baylor will put on the field this week. On offense, they are clicking on all cylinders and only Ohio State has held this team to under 42 points. In Texas? eight victories this season, five of them have been by a greater margin than the linesmakers have put up for this game. With the Rose Bowl clearly in their sights and all eyes on the BCS standings, Texas will not let up until they are ahead by at least 40 points.
The Verdict: TEXAS (-28.5)
TEXAS A&M vs. TEXAS TECH ? November 5th, 7:00 PM EST
The Red Raiders find themselves in somewhat of a sad position in Texas collegiate football in that they have no real rivalries. Every year they sit around in Lubbock, isolated from the rest of the state, and have to listen to all of the hoopla over the Red River Rivalry and the storied history surrounding the Texas/ Texas A&M game while their games are just not very important to anyone else. As a result, at some point Tech realized that they were allowed to hate the Aggies just like everyone else in Texas does and that this would be their ?rivalry game? each year regardless of the fact that the kids from College Station do not share their enthusiasm.
Make no mistake, this is always a big game for the West Texas Hillbillies and the circumstances of the Big 12 South standings this year serve to make it even more so. Texas Tech got their season off to a big start by beating up on unbelievably weak competition but the result of rolling their first six opponents was the development of a confidence in their team which has been unmatched in recent years. The Red Raiders pulled into Austin two weeks ago genuinely believing that they could upset the No. 2 team in the country. A stellar performance by the Texas defense made sure that didn?t happen but the loss did not appear to put a dent in the Raiders? swagger although it did knock them out of the Top 10. Last week Tech went to Baylor for only their third road game this season and again, their high powered passing offense did not perform as expected although they were able to shutout the Bears in a 28-0 victory.
The last two weeks, Texas Tech has been held to their two lowest scoring games of the season and anyone who knows anything about HC Mike Leach also knows that he is not the least bit pleased with those offensive outputs. I?m afraid that is very bad news for the Aggies. Texas Tech, the No. 1 passing offense in the country, is averaging over 432 yards passing and almost 46 points in all games. When the Raiders have played on their own field this year they are averaging 605 total yards and over 56 points per game. On the season, QB Cody Hodges has passed for 3,047 yards, 25 touchdowns and only 8 interceptions and the defense is allowing less than 19 points per game.
The Texas A&M football program is in serious trouble as evidenced by their 42-14 blowout loss at home last week to Iowa State in a game where they gave up 371 yards to Iowa State's 62nd ranked passing attack. Did I mention that the Aggies? pass defense is ranked 115th in the nation? That?s right; there are only two Division 1A schools that have actually done a worse job of defending the pass this year than the team whose defense was once known as the ?Wrecking Crew?. Nuff said.
A&M has failed to cover in their last five trips to Jones Stadium, are only 1-8 when getting points on the road under Franchione and are 0-22 ATS on the road when they allow more than 28 points. The Red Raiders have covered 8 of the last 10 against A&M and 20 of their last 27 as home favorites. Taking into consideration all of the factors above, I have to make this The Docket?s one and only Game of the Year and I will sit back and watch while the guys in the Zorro costumes once again embarrass the misfits in the Boy Scout uniforms.
The Verdict: TEXAS TECH (-15)
The Baylor Bear have been one of the surprise ?success? stories of 2005 as they won their first three games of the season before stumbling against Texas A&M in a 16-13 overtime loss. That valiant effort by this perennial losing football team was then followed by their first road win in a Big 12 game in the history of the conference when they went into Ames and upset Iowa State as eight point underdogs. Unfortunately, just as things were looking up for the Bears, they were staring down at a schedule that featured Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Texas as their next four opponents and have since lost to the first three. The real fun begins this week as they welcome the No. 2 ranked Longhorns to Floyd Casey Stadium at a time when the boys from Austin are beginning to smell roses in the air.
Last week, Texas stumbled hard in the first half against weak Oklahoma State team and found themselves down 28-12 at the break. This actually was not unfamiliar territory for the Longhorns who have remarkably been in a very similar position in their last three games against the Cowboys. In the past three meetings with Oklahoma State, the Longhorns have and trailed at halftime only to outscore the Cowboys 118-0 in the second halves of those games. In doing so this year, Texas QB Vince Young rushed for a career high 267 yards and passed for 239 yards, setting a school record for total offense in a game. You can safely bet your ass that at halftime last week, the Longhorns were abruptly awakened to the possibility that their hopes of an undefeated season and a shot at the National Title could be falling apart in front of their eyes. In retrospect, being down to the Cowboys by 19 points late in the 2nd quarter may have been the best thing that could happen to this team and it undoubtedly brought them down to earth.
Baylor has averaged 22 points a game in going 4-4 this season and if you take away their games against SMU, Samford and Army, that number drops to 16 points per game. The only team with a real defense that the Bears have played this year was Nebraska who held them to 14 points and although Texas Tech is not exactly known for their defensive prowess, they were able to hold Baylor scoreless last week. Baylor poses no real threat to the Longhorns whatsoever and has to be praying that Texas comes out flat for this game. After the scare that the Horns went through last week in Stillwater, I think there is little chance of that.
The Longhorn defense is allowing less than 15 points per game and almost all of those games have been against better offenses than the one Baylor will put on the field this week. On offense, they are clicking on all cylinders and only Ohio State has held this team to under 42 points. In Texas? eight victories this season, five of them have been by a greater margin than the linesmakers have put up for this game. With the Rose Bowl clearly in their sights and all eyes on the BCS standings, Texas will not let up until they are ahead by at least 40 points.
The Verdict: TEXAS (-28.5)
TEXAS A&M vs. TEXAS TECH ? November 5th, 7:00 PM EST
The Red Raiders find themselves in somewhat of a sad position in Texas collegiate football in that they have no real rivalries. Every year they sit around in Lubbock, isolated from the rest of the state, and have to listen to all of the hoopla over the Red River Rivalry and the storied history surrounding the Texas/ Texas A&M game while their games are just not very important to anyone else. As a result, at some point Tech realized that they were allowed to hate the Aggies just like everyone else in Texas does and that this would be their ?rivalry game? each year regardless of the fact that the kids from College Station do not share their enthusiasm.
Make no mistake, this is always a big game for the West Texas Hillbillies and the circumstances of the Big 12 South standings this year serve to make it even more so. Texas Tech got their season off to a big start by beating up on unbelievably weak competition but the result of rolling their first six opponents was the development of a confidence in their team which has been unmatched in recent years. The Red Raiders pulled into Austin two weeks ago genuinely believing that they could upset the No. 2 team in the country. A stellar performance by the Texas defense made sure that didn?t happen but the loss did not appear to put a dent in the Raiders? swagger although it did knock them out of the Top 10. Last week Tech went to Baylor for only their third road game this season and again, their high powered passing offense did not perform as expected although they were able to shutout the Bears in a 28-0 victory.
The last two weeks, Texas Tech has been held to their two lowest scoring games of the season and anyone who knows anything about HC Mike Leach also knows that he is not the least bit pleased with those offensive outputs. I?m afraid that is very bad news for the Aggies. Texas Tech, the No. 1 passing offense in the country, is averaging over 432 yards passing and almost 46 points in all games. When the Raiders have played on their own field this year they are averaging 605 total yards and over 56 points per game. On the season, QB Cody Hodges has passed for 3,047 yards, 25 touchdowns and only 8 interceptions and the defense is allowing less than 19 points per game.
The Texas A&M football program is in serious trouble as evidenced by their 42-14 blowout loss at home last week to Iowa State in a game where they gave up 371 yards to Iowa State's 62nd ranked passing attack. Did I mention that the Aggies? pass defense is ranked 115th in the nation? That?s right; there are only two Division 1A schools that have actually done a worse job of defending the pass this year than the team whose defense was once known as the ?Wrecking Crew?. Nuff said.
A&M has failed to cover in their last five trips to Jones Stadium, are only 1-8 when getting points on the road under Franchione and are 0-22 ATS on the road when they allow more than 28 points. The Red Raiders have covered 8 of the last 10 against A&M and 20 of their last 27 as home favorites. Taking into consideration all of the factors above, I have to make this The Docket?s one and only Game of the Year and I will sit back and watch while the guys in the Zorro costumes once again embarrass the misfits in the Boy Scout uniforms.
The Verdict: TEXAS TECH (-15)
