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TCU vs. Baylor Instant Analysis

1. It was Boykin’s legendary night, but …

In the end, the highest-powered offense in college football couldn’t power for one yard.

The Baylor offense couldn’t work in the slop, the TCU defense stepped up when it had to, and Trevone Boykin came up with the type of gut-check effort that goes well beyond the statistics.

Boykin could sort of move on an injured ankle, but every time he tried to make something happen, he couldn’t do much of anything on the next play. For the most part, he was a sitting duck, but he still threw two touchdown passes, including a dart in the second overtime that knifed through the miserable weather, and he managed to do just enough to close out his TCU regular season career with a win.

But he also had a lot of help from a decimated, struggling defense that wouldn’t allow the Bears to do much of anything.

Baylor was going to try sneaking the ball for a first down on the key fourth down play in the second overtime, and TCU’s defense outtoughed and outplayed and outslugged the offense that averages 644.1 yards per game

The Bears couldn’t get the .1.

2. You wanted a Big 12 champion, and now you’ve got one.

It’s amazing how this all has worked out.

TCU took care of things for the Bedlam showdown, and now the college football world will have the championship game it’s been looking for.

Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State and Notre Dame vs. Stanford will be going on around the same time, and if everything goes according to plan for the Big 12, the Cardinal will roll.

In a perfect world for the conference, the winner of the game in Stillwater just goes off. It’ll be an easier sell to the playoff committee if the One True Champion is the One True Champion with a 49-14 stomping.

It’ll be even easier if Notre Dame loses to Stanford.

At the very least, at least for this year, the screaming about the conference needing a title game will stop. If the Big 12 doesn’t get into the playoff this year, it’ll be because it comes down to Oklahoma and Notre Dame for that fourth spot, and the Irish beat Texas when the Sooners didn’t. It won’t be because the Big 12 didn’t have a title game.

3. Why you don’t move games to late November.

Yeah, the Big 12 wanted to move the biggest games to the very end to build up to something massive that’ll have the college football world watching, but this was the downside.

Texas weather isn’t exactly Miami Beach around Thanksgiving weekend, and two of the best offenses in college football were reduced to a punting contest.

Last year’s classic 61-58 Baylor win was played on October 11th. How nice would it have been if both teams – particularly the quarterback situations – were healthier? How nice would it have been to have seen what these two teams could really do in the right conditions?

As time goes on, this will always be remembered for the miserable weather conditions, but this might also mark a moment that showed Big 12 teams how they have to adjust to the potential problems.

Yeah, it’s sometimes important to be able to power run the ball. Yeah, it’s sometimes vital to be able to make plays from under center and not rely on timing and precision.

These are two brilliant coaching staffs – they’ll figure it out the next time around. And they’ll hope their respective teams are far healthier.

By the way, next year’s game is on November 5th.