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Big XII Recap - Week 6
October 8, 2006 | By Benjamin Miraski
To say that the Red River Shootout is an important game is an understatement. Since 1999, when Bob Stoops arrived in Norman, the winner of this game has represented the South division of the Big XII in the conference championship game every year, save one. Based on that history, Texas may want to start booking a trip to Kansas City for December 2nd.
Turnovers would turn out to be key in the game. The Sooners lost the ball 5 times, including one credited to Adrian Peterson, who hadn't lost a fumble since last season. Despite Peterson being the only one to generate any offense on the day for Oklahoma (213 all-purpose yards, 1 touchdown), he couldn't overcome three fumbles and two interceptions.
Freshman Colt McCoy handled the pressure well for Texas, finishing with 108 yards and two touchdowns, including a 33 yard pass to Limas Sweed which gave Texas the lead early in the second half. They never looked back. The dagger came early in the fourth quarter when Aaron Ross picked up an incomplete backward pass from Paul Thompson to Peterson, and returned it for a touchdown. The Longhorns were then up 28-10, which ended as the final score.
Based on how Missouri's defense had played this season, there was no reason to expect a shootout in Lubbock, when they took on Texas Tech this week. No reason, other than the high flying passing offense of the Red Raiders. For a long time though, it looked like Missouri had the answer to that attack. The Tigers were up 24-0 by the middle of the 2nd quarter, partially thanks to two interception returns for touchdowns.
Texas Tech fought back to get within seven points on three touchdown passes by Graham Harrell but Chase Daniel and Tony Temple were too much. Missouri extended the lead back to 38-21 at the beginning of the final quarter and held on from there to get to 6-0.
In other conference action, Nebraska went back to an old-style rushing attack against Iowa State and beat the Cyclones, 28-14. Texas A&M needed 14 points in the fourth quarter to get past Kansas, 21-18. Oklahoma State blew a 10 point lead with three minutes left, on the road against Kansas State. The Wildcats won 31-27. Baylor needed overtime, but overcame the Colorado Buffaloes 34-31, to move to 2-0 in conference play, and drop Colorado to 0-6 overall. The Buffaloes are 0-6 for the first time since 1980, when the team finished 1-10.
Ben Miraski writes for MRISports.com and is a featured blogger on FanIQ. His Big XII recap appears weekly on Blogcritics.org as part of their NCAA Tailgate Cleanup. Readers can contact Ben at bmiraski@mrisports.com
Posted October 8, 2006 8:35 PM
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