Baylor @ West Virginia

Thursday, October 13th 6:00 PM CT, FS1

Baylor (3-2, 1-1) is coming off of a bye week, following their tough loss to Oklahoma State. I think this bye week was perfectly timed, as the Bears had a lot of correctable issues to work on after that game with the Cowboys. They head to Morgantown for a Thursday night showdown with West Virginia (2-3, 0-2). The Mountaineers are looking like they’ll be in a fight for the bottom of the conference with Oklahoma (what strange times we’re living in, huh?). West Virginia also had a bye week after losing 38-20 to Texas. WVU quarterback JT Daniels has looked pretty good so far, but the Mountaineers defense is definitely suspect, giving up 55 points to Kansas, for example. Baylor is currently a 3.5 point favorite coming into this one. While both offenses have comparable capabilities, Baylor’s defense has been much stronger through the first five games of the season, so give me the Bears to get this one done on the road.

31-23 Baylor

Iowa State @ #22 Texas

Saturday, October 15th 11:00 AM CT, ABC

#22 Texas (4-2, 2-1) flat out demolished Oklahoma last weekend, winning 49-0. A big chunk of that is due to Oklahoma actually being pretty horrendous this year. But it was also an impressive showing by Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers, who returned to the starting position after an earlier injury. Iowa State, on the other hand, had an impressive defensive showing against Kansas State in their last game, but boy howdy that Cyclones offense is the stuff of nightmares. The Cyclones lost 10-9 to the Wildcats, being unable to do much of anything to sustain drives. The upside for the Cyclones is that Texas’s defense is arguably worse than the Wildcats (although comparing Oklahoma game results wouldn’t seem to fully back that claim). But, assuming the Longhorns do have a weaker defense, I still don’t see the Cyclones keeping pace with a much, much better Texas offense. Texas is favored by 16.5 points in this one. I actually like Iowa State to cover on the strength of their defense, but still lose by probably 10-13 points.

28-18 Texas

#19 Kansas @ Oklahoma

Saturday, October 15th 11:00 AM CT, ESPN2

#19 Kansas (5-1, 2-1) suffered a tough loss to TCU last weekend, being unable to get over the 38-31 hurdle. However, AP voters gave Kansas a decent amount of credit for the way they battled with the Horned Frogs, as the Jayhawks did not drop at all in the rankings. They now travel to Oklahoma (3-3, 0-3) where the Sooners are somehow favored by 7.5 points. That line is purely brand names, if I were a betting man I would throw most of my paltry net worth behind Kansas to cover (and probably outright win). The Jayhawks have looked FAR more impressive than the Sooners so far this season, and getting absolutely blanked by your heated rival is hard to get back up off the mat from. Part of this equation is of course KU quarterback Jalon Daniels, who was injured in the TCU game and is at the time of this writing questionable going into Norman. The flipside to that is that OU quarterback Dillon Gabriel is expected to return for the Sooners this week. However, I’m not convinced that’s enough for the Sooners to rally behind. Further, if Daniels is a no-go for KU, backup quarterback Jason Bean looked really good too, throwing four touchdowns and only one interception in his time in the TCU game. Give me the Jayhawks to hit bowl eligibility in this one and set the Sooners at 0-4 in the conference.

38-35 Kansas

#8 Oklahoma State @ #13 TCU

Saturday, October 15th 2:30 PM CT, ABC

This is definitely the marquee Big 12 matchup of this weekend. #13 TCU (5-0, 2-0) secured a big win in Lawrence last week with gameday in town. #8 Oklahoma State (5-0, 2-0) edged out a feisty Texas Tech by a 41-31 margin. The winner of this game certainly controls their destiny in the Big 12 (and maybe beyond). This is a surprisingly evenly matched contest, as both teams have averaged exactly 46.4 points per game. TCU has a very slight edge in defensive points per game, holding their opponents to 23.8 ppg compared to Oklahoma State’s 24.8. So this game could really go either way, with homefield advantage giving a 3.5 point edge to the Horned Frogs. From what I’ve seen from both of these teams, I like TCU a bit more than the Cowboys, especially at home. They’ve had some more spunk on offense, and are very hard-nosed on defense. TCU wins in a moderately high-scoring affair.

41-35 TCU

FieldinOfDreams’ 2022 Pick ‘Em Record through Week 6: 32-11