Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

BIG 12 NOTEBOOK

-

BEST MATCHUP: Oklahoma State defense vs. Texas Tech offense. The 12th-ranked Cowboys (7-0, 4-0) have the league’s top defense, allowing only 316 yards and 19 points a game. Texas Tech (5-3, 2-3) piles up 601 yards per game, including a Big 12-leading 406 yards passing. Patrick Mahomes’ dual-threat ability has been hampered since hurting his left knee in the Big 12-opening loss to TCU, but he is still running when needed and is second in the Big 12 with 357 yards passing per game (21 touchdowns, 10 intercepti­ons).

INSIDE THE NUMBERS: The top five teams in the Big 12 standings — Baylor, Oklahoma State, TCU, Oklahoma and Texas — all have won at least two games in a row. Iowa State, West Virginia, Kansas State and Kansas all have losing streaks of at least three games. ... Two teams are off this week: No. 2 Baylor (7-0, 4-0) and Kansas State (3-4, 0-4), who play a Thursday night game next week in Manhattan. ... Home teams won all four Big 12 games last weekend.

LONG SHOT: Kansas (0-7, 0-4) is nearly a 40-point underdog against Oklahoma (6-1, 3-1). The Sooners have won 10 consecutiv­e games in the series by an average margin of 26 points. The Jayhawks have won only three of their last 55 conference games over the past seven seasons.

IMPACT PLAYER: Sophomore quarterbac­k Joel Lanning takes over as the starter for Iowa State (2-5, 1-3) at Texas (3-4, 2-2). The Cyclones made the change, replacing senior Sam Richardson as the No. 1 quarterbac­k, after Lanning threw three touchdowns in the second half last week in a 45-27 loss against second-ranked Baylor.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States