Okie St. Comes Back Over Texas in Austin; Colorado Beats Arizona; Oklahoma Beats TCU
No. 25 Texas blows a fourth-quarter lead again in loss to No. 12 Oklahoma State
Nick Bromberg
Sun, October 17, 2021, 4:27 AM·
Oklahoma State stayed undefeated with a final quarter blitz of No. 25 Texas on Saturday.
The No. 12 Cowboys (6-0) scored 19 straight points in the second half against the Longhorns in a 32-24 win to move to 6-0 and into pole position for a spot in the Big 12 championship game.
Oklahoma State never led until Tanner Brown kicked a 29-yard field goal with 4:37 to go. Brown’s kick came a drive after Oklahoma State went 80 yards in 10 plays to cut Texas’ lead to 24-22 with 10:16 to go.
Texas (4-3) had plenty of time to get a go-ahead score after Brown’s field goal but the Oklahoma State defense came up big like it has for much of the season. The Cowboys stopped Texas on a third and short and a fourth and short in Longhorn territory.
After Jaylen Warren broke a 29-yard run to the Texas 10, the Longhorns decided the best way to win would be to let OSU score. Spencer Sanders did just that and Texas got the ball back down eight with 2:18 to go.
UT’s final drive lasted one play. Casey Thompson threw an interception to give the ball back to OSU and the Cowboys ran out the clock.
Texas took the lead less than five minutes into the game thanks to a Bijan Robinson touchdown run. The Longhorns weren’t in real danger of losing that in the second and third quarters and a 38-yard run by Robinson extended Texas’ lead to 24-13 early in the third quarter.
That was Texas’ last points of the game. OSU got a field goal in the third quarter and then scored three times in the fourth quarter as Texas’ defense started to leak oil and the offense stagnated. After Robinson ran for nine yards on the first play of Texas’ penultimate drive, the drive ended after a short pass and two runs by Thompson.
Robinson finished with 21 carries for 135 yards and just three of those carries came in the fourth quarter as Texas' final six drives ended in four plays or less.
Texas needs some help to make the Big 12 title game
Texas’ inability to close out games could very well cost it a shot at the Big 12 title. The Longhorns now have two losses in the conference and those two losses come to teams who are also competing for the title game and haven’t lost yet.
Texas now needs a win against Iowa State on Nov. 6 and a lot of help from both the Cyclones, Cowboys and Sooners in the coming weeks if it wants to have any chance of winning a tiebreaker for one of the two spots in the title game.
OSU, meanwhile, can make another huge step toward a Big 12 title berth with a win over Iowa State next week. If the Cowboys win in Ames then they’ll have a manageable schedule until a final week game against Oklahoma on Nov. 27 - a game that could very well serve as a preview of the championship game the following week.
https://sports.yahoo.com/no-25-texas-blows-a-fourth-quarter-lead-again-in-loss-to-no-12-oklahoma-state-192735377.html
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Colorado extends Arizona skid to 18 games with 34-0 shutout
ARNIE STAPLETON
Sun, October 17, 2021, 7:58 AM·
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) - An Arizona team that owns the nation's longest losing streak was just the salve the Colorado Buffaloes needed.
“With everything we've been working on the last couple of weeks with our bye it was good to see that it paid off in a convincing fashion,” coach Karl Dorrell said Saturday after Colorado snapped a four-game skid with a 34-0 thrashing of the Wildcats at Folsom Field.
It was the first conference shutout for the Buffaloes (2-4, 1-2 Pac-12) since they beat Oklahoma State by the same score on Oct. 1, 2005, when they were in the Big 12.
“This is a really good win for us as a program because all three areas scored touchdowns.” Dorrell said.
The Buffs scored on a blocked punt and an interception in addition to a long pass from Brendon Lewis as they extended the nation's longest losing streak to 18 games.
Stumbling since a season-opening rout of Northern Colorado, the Buffaloes shook off their four-game losing streak thanks to Trevor Woods' 36 -yard scoop-and-score of the punt he blocked and defensive end Carson Wells' 50-yard interception return for a touchdown on consecutive Arizona possessions.
Lewis followed up with a 62-yard scoring strike to Brenden Rice that put Colorado ahead 27-0 late in the third quarter. Lewis finished 12 of 19 for 248 yards and two touchdowns and Rice caught three passes for 111 yards.
The Buffs managed just two first-half field goals against an Arizona team that hasn't won since beating Colorado 35-30 win at Folsom Field on Oct. 5, 2019.
The Wildcats (0-6, 0-3) had played better in recent weeks, keeping No. 9 Oregon and UCLA close until the fourth quarter but this one blew up on them in the third.
The Wildcats lost a quarterback for the second straight week. Redshirt freshman righty Gunner Cruz tore a ligament in his right thumb when he hit a helmet on the pick-6. Wildcats coach Jedd Fisch said Cruz appears to be done for the year. Cruz got the start after the 'Cats lost starter Jordan McCloud to season-ending ankle and knee injuries last week. Arizona then turned to freshman Will Plummer, who threw for 71 yards on 7-of-17 passing and also threw an interception.
“I don’t think we can get Gunner back this year,” Fisch said. “Will is going to be our guy we’re going to ride with.”
Colorado preserved the shutout when cornerback Nikko Reed broke up Plummer’s fourth-down pass to Jalen Johnson in the end zone with a minute remaining.
“The game didn’t go the way we thought,” Fisch said. “First half of the game kind of did.”
This was the West's version of the UMass-UConn game earlier this month that pitted two winless FBC independents, and for much of the afternoon it was the snooze fest everyone expected.
The first half featured almost as many punts (five) as points as the Buffs took a 6-0 lead into the locker room on the strength of two Cole Becker field goals and a goal line stand.
The Wildcats were stuffed for no gain on three straight runs from the Colorado 1 late in the first half. On fourth down, Cruz was pressured by linebacker Nate Landman and misfired his pass to Stanley Berryhill.
Colorado also faced fourth-and-goal from the 1 in the first half, but Dorrell sent out his kicker much to the chagrin of the crowd of 49,806. Becker's 19-yard field goal gave the Buffs their first opening drive score of the season.
“As soon as the offense scored a field goal in the first quarter, we said if they don’t score again, they don’t win,” Wells said. “So that was our philosophy through the whole game.”
Dorrell's decision to go for 3 looked much better through the lens of Colorado's second drive that ended when Alex Fontenot was stuffed for no gain on fourth-and-1 from the Arizona 30-yard line.
Fontenot set up Becker's second field goal, from 37 yards out, by hauling in a 43-yard pass at the Arizona 24. “It’s definitely tough,” Arizona running back Jalen John said. “But I mean, stuff happens. It’s definitely a process, but we’re halfway through the season. And our mentality right now is just 0-0 right now. So we’re just gonna keep going.”
SEE LEGS
Not unexpectedly, the punters had some of the better plays for both teams in the first half.
Arizona’s Kyle Ostendorp buried the Buffs at their own 3 with a perfectly placed 42-yard punt in the first half and Josh Watts followed that by getting Colorado out of trouble with a 64-yard punt out of his own end zone. “When Josh punted from the back of our end zone to like the 30, our whole team went crazy," Carson said. “We love him.”
UP NEXT
Arizona: Hosts Washington on Friday night, Oct. 22.
Colorado: Visits the California Bears on Oct. 23.
https://sports.yahoo.com/colorado-extends-arizona-skid-18-225842529.html
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Caleb Williams shines with 5 total TDs as No. 4 Oklahoma routs TCU
Sam Cooper
Sun, October 17, 2021, 12:29 PM·
It feels safe to say that the move from Spencer Rattler to Caleb Williams was the right one for Oklahoma.
Sooners coach Lincoln Riley made the switch from Rattler to Williams, the five-star true freshman, midway through last week’s game against Texas. All Williams did was lead a ferocious come-from-behind victory in one of the sport’s biggest rivalries.
Riley wouldn’t announce it, but we all knew it would be Williams at quarterback when the fourth-ranked Sooners hosted TCU on Saturday night. And in his first college start, Williams did not disappoint.
In a 52-31 victory, Williams completed 18-of-23 passes for 295 yards and four touchdowns while also rushing for 66 yards and a score. TCU’s defense is not good, but the Oklahoma offense has looked so much more explosive with Williams at quarterback.
The Sooners looked locked in from the jump. On their very first drive, they marched 75 yards in seven plays to take a 7-0 lead. OU scored again on its second drive and ended up taking a 24-14 lead into halftime.
That lead grew to 31-14 early in the third and a highlight reel touchdown run from Williams made it 45-24 entering the fourth.
When the dust settled, the Sooners had racked up 525 yards and improved to 7-0 on the year.
After its other five wins versus FBS competition came by a single-digit margin, a blowout is a promising outcome for the Sooners as they enter the second half of the regular season.
Oklahoma defense has issues to sort through
Games against two of the Big 12’s worst teams, Kansas and Texas Tech, are next on the schedule before the Sooners finally get a bye week. Those games will be big for the Oklahoma defense, which could prove to be a problem against better competition.
The Sooners were gashed for 529 yards in the win, including a career-high 346 yards and four touchdowns from TCU quarterback Max Duggan. Duggan had touchdown passes of 53, 20, 75 and 25 yards as the TCU receiving corps continually outmatched the Oklahoma cornerbacks.
It’s the second straight week that Oklahoma’s cornerbacks struggled mightily. Texas QB Casey Thompson threw for 388 yards and five touchdowns on the Sooners with freshman Xavier Worthy going off for nine catches, 261 yards and two touchdowns.
The team’s cornerbacks are a clear weakness. It’s something that needs to be cleaned up if Oklahoma wants to win a national championship.
https://sports.yahoo.com/caleb-williams-shines-with-5-total-t-ds-as-no-4-oklahoma-routs-tcu-032909225.html
Nick Bromberg
Sun, October 17, 2021, 4:27 AM·
Oklahoma State stayed undefeated with a final quarter blitz of No. 25 Texas on Saturday.
The No. 12 Cowboys (6-0) scored 19 straight points in the second half against the Longhorns in a 32-24 win to move to 6-0 and into pole position for a spot in the Big 12 championship game.
Oklahoma State never led until Tanner Brown kicked a 29-yard field goal with 4:37 to go. Brown’s kick came a drive after Oklahoma State went 80 yards in 10 plays to cut Texas’ lead to 24-22 with 10:16 to go.
Texas (4-3) had plenty of time to get a go-ahead score after Brown’s field goal but the Oklahoma State defense came up big like it has for much of the season. The Cowboys stopped Texas on a third and short and a fourth and short in Longhorn territory.
After Jaylen Warren broke a 29-yard run to the Texas 10, the Longhorns decided the best way to win would be to let OSU score. Spencer Sanders did just that and Texas got the ball back down eight with 2:18 to go.
UT’s final drive lasted one play. Casey Thompson threw an interception to give the ball back to OSU and the Cowboys ran out the clock.
Texas took the lead less than five minutes into the game thanks to a Bijan Robinson touchdown run. The Longhorns weren’t in real danger of losing that in the second and third quarters and a 38-yard run by Robinson extended Texas’ lead to 24-13 early in the third quarter.
That was Texas’ last points of the game. OSU got a field goal in the third quarter and then scored three times in the fourth quarter as Texas’ defense started to leak oil and the offense stagnated. After Robinson ran for nine yards on the first play of Texas’ penultimate drive, the drive ended after a short pass and two runs by Thompson.
Robinson finished with 21 carries for 135 yards and just three of those carries came in the fourth quarter as Texas' final six drives ended in four plays or less.
Texas needs some help to make the Big 12 title game
Texas’ inability to close out games could very well cost it a shot at the Big 12 title. The Longhorns now have two losses in the conference and those two losses come to teams who are also competing for the title game and haven’t lost yet.
Texas now needs a win against Iowa State on Nov. 6 and a lot of help from both the Cyclones, Cowboys and Sooners in the coming weeks if it wants to have any chance of winning a tiebreaker for one of the two spots in the title game.
OSU, meanwhile, can make another huge step toward a Big 12 title berth with a win over Iowa State next week. If the Cowboys win in Ames then they’ll have a manageable schedule until a final week game against Oklahoma on Nov. 27 - a game that could very well serve as a preview of the championship game the following week.
https://sports.yahoo.com/no-25-texas-blows-a-fourth-quarter-lead-again-in-loss-to-no-12-oklahoma-state-192735377.html
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Colorado extends Arizona skid to 18 games with 34-0 shutout
ARNIE STAPLETON
Sun, October 17, 2021, 7:58 AM·
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) - An Arizona team that owns the nation's longest losing streak was just the salve the Colorado Buffaloes needed.
“With everything we've been working on the last couple of weeks with our bye it was good to see that it paid off in a convincing fashion,” coach Karl Dorrell said Saturday after Colorado snapped a four-game skid with a 34-0 thrashing of the Wildcats at Folsom Field.
It was the first conference shutout for the Buffaloes (2-4, 1-2 Pac-12) since they beat Oklahoma State by the same score on Oct. 1, 2005, when they were in the Big 12.
“This is a really good win for us as a program because all three areas scored touchdowns.” Dorrell said.
The Buffs scored on a blocked punt and an interception in addition to a long pass from Brendon Lewis as they extended the nation's longest losing streak to 18 games.
Stumbling since a season-opening rout of Northern Colorado, the Buffaloes shook off their four-game losing streak thanks to Trevor Woods' 36 -yard scoop-and-score of the punt he blocked and defensive end Carson Wells' 50-yard interception return for a touchdown on consecutive Arizona possessions.
Lewis followed up with a 62-yard scoring strike to Brenden Rice that put Colorado ahead 27-0 late in the third quarter. Lewis finished 12 of 19 for 248 yards and two touchdowns and Rice caught three passes for 111 yards.
The Buffs managed just two first-half field goals against an Arizona team that hasn't won since beating Colorado 35-30 win at Folsom Field on Oct. 5, 2019.
The Wildcats (0-6, 0-3) had played better in recent weeks, keeping No. 9 Oregon and UCLA close until the fourth quarter but this one blew up on them in the third.
The Wildcats lost a quarterback for the second straight week. Redshirt freshman righty Gunner Cruz tore a ligament in his right thumb when he hit a helmet on the pick-6. Wildcats coach Jedd Fisch said Cruz appears to be done for the year. Cruz got the start after the 'Cats lost starter Jordan McCloud to season-ending ankle and knee injuries last week. Arizona then turned to freshman Will Plummer, who threw for 71 yards on 7-of-17 passing and also threw an interception.
“I don’t think we can get Gunner back this year,” Fisch said. “Will is going to be our guy we’re going to ride with.”
Colorado preserved the shutout when cornerback Nikko Reed broke up Plummer’s fourth-down pass to Jalen Johnson in the end zone with a minute remaining.
“The game didn’t go the way we thought,” Fisch said. “First half of the game kind of did.”
This was the West's version of the UMass-UConn game earlier this month that pitted two winless FBC independents, and for much of the afternoon it was the snooze fest everyone expected.
The first half featured almost as many punts (five) as points as the Buffs took a 6-0 lead into the locker room on the strength of two Cole Becker field goals and a goal line stand.
The Wildcats were stuffed for no gain on three straight runs from the Colorado 1 late in the first half. On fourth down, Cruz was pressured by linebacker Nate Landman and misfired his pass to Stanley Berryhill.
Colorado also faced fourth-and-goal from the 1 in the first half, but Dorrell sent out his kicker much to the chagrin of the crowd of 49,806. Becker's 19-yard field goal gave the Buffs their first opening drive score of the season.
“As soon as the offense scored a field goal in the first quarter, we said if they don’t score again, they don’t win,” Wells said. “So that was our philosophy through the whole game.”
Dorrell's decision to go for 3 looked much better through the lens of Colorado's second drive that ended when Alex Fontenot was stuffed for no gain on fourth-and-1 from the Arizona 30-yard line.
Fontenot set up Becker's second field goal, from 37 yards out, by hauling in a 43-yard pass at the Arizona 24. “It’s definitely tough,” Arizona running back Jalen John said. “But I mean, stuff happens. It’s definitely a process, but we’re halfway through the season. And our mentality right now is just 0-0 right now. So we’re just gonna keep going.”
SEE LEGS
Not unexpectedly, the punters had some of the better plays for both teams in the first half.
Arizona’s Kyle Ostendorp buried the Buffs at their own 3 with a perfectly placed 42-yard punt in the first half and Josh Watts followed that by getting Colorado out of trouble with a 64-yard punt out of his own end zone. “When Josh punted from the back of our end zone to like the 30, our whole team went crazy," Carson said. “We love him.”
UP NEXT
Arizona: Hosts Washington on Friday night, Oct. 22.
Colorado: Visits the California Bears on Oct. 23.
https://sports.yahoo.com/colorado-extends-arizona-skid-18-225842529.html
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Caleb Williams shines with 5 total TDs as No. 4 Oklahoma routs TCU
Sam Cooper
Sun, October 17, 2021, 12:29 PM·
It feels safe to say that the move from Spencer Rattler to Caleb Williams was the right one for Oklahoma.
Sooners coach Lincoln Riley made the switch from Rattler to Williams, the five-star true freshman, midway through last week’s game against Texas. All Williams did was lead a ferocious come-from-behind victory in one of the sport’s biggest rivalries.
Riley wouldn’t announce it, but we all knew it would be Williams at quarterback when the fourth-ranked Sooners hosted TCU on Saturday night. And in his first college start, Williams did not disappoint.
In a 52-31 victory, Williams completed 18-of-23 passes for 295 yards and four touchdowns while also rushing for 66 yards and a score. TCU’s defense is not good, but the Oklahoma offense has looked so much more explosive with Williams at quarterback.
The Sooners looked locked in from the jump. On their very first drive, they marched 75 yards in seven plays to take a 7-0 lead. OU scored again on its second drive and ended up taking a 24-14 lead into halftime.
That lead grew to 31-14 early in the third and a highlight reel touchdown run from Williams made it 45-24 entering the fourth.
When the dust settled, the Sooners had racked up 525 yards and improved to 7-0 on the year.
After its other five wins versus FBS competition came by a single-digit margin, a blowout is a promising outcome for the Sooners as they enter the second half of the regular season.
Oklahoma defense has issues to sort through
Games against two of the Big 12’s worst teams, Kansas and Texas Tech, are next on the schedule before the Sooners finally get a bye week. Those games will be big for the Oklahoma defense, which could prove to be a problem against better competition.
The Sooners were gashed for 529 yards in the win, including a career-high 346 yards and four touchdowns from TCU quarterback Max Duggan. Duggan had touchdown passes of 53, 20, 75 and 25 yards as the TCU receiving corps continually outmatched the Oklahoma cornerbacks.
It’s the second straight week that Oklahoma’s cornerbacks struggled mightily. Texas QB Casey Thompson threw for 388 yards and five touchdowns on the Sooners with freshman Xavier Worthy going off for nine catches, 261 yards and two touchdowns.
The team’s cornerbacks are a clear weakness. It’s something that needs to be cleaned up if Oklahoma wants to win a national championship.
https://sports.yahoo.com/caleb-williams-shines-with-5-total-t-ds-as-no-4-oklahoma-routs-tcu-032909225.html