Notebook: Oklahoma State-Baylor

I posted my 10 thoughts here but have a whole lot of notebook to empty. Let’s get right to it.

• Baylor won the toss and took the ball. I thought that played right into Oklahoma State’s hands. Injured freshman. On the road. Best defense of Mike Gundy’s tenure (maybe). I thought wrong, clearly.

• The commercials after Baylor’s first TD drive lasted (much) longer than Baylor’s first TD drive.

• Some of OSU’s cheerleaders didn’t wear sleeves. Baylor’s players were sipping hot chocolate on the sidelines. Just saying.

• I literally wrote down this note: “how is Baylor’s offense so good. I don’t understand it.” Plug and play. Second-string QB, third-string QB, pull a rando 37-year-old out of the stands (either section) and he tosses for three fifty and four. It’s crazy.

• Seeds!

https://vine.co/v/izzQXmuMzd0

• One thing I noticed offensively is that our RB protection of Rudolph was pretty poor. He wasn’t exactly Johnny Football reincarnate back there with the bum ankle (leg?) either but the RB protection could have been better. Poor Raymond Taylor was getting steamrolled by Baylor’s first-rounders.

• #Crootin

I'm on the 2nd row at BPS. Baylor is a better team than OSU. It's hard to accept but very true.

— Adam Lunt (@AdamLunt817) November 22, 2015

• Speaking of first rounds. Baylor sure has a lot of talent, don’t they? I mean, like an OU level of talent. Don’t be confused by the colors or the name, that’s a whole different animal we’re dealing with these days. Like it or not.

• Real Gus Johnson quote on a Marcell Ateman official review: “Sometimes, I think we’re a little bit too precise.” Him and Joel Klatt were tremendous.

• Speaking of Gus being tremendous … THE PRESIDENT!

https://vine.co/v/izzPAqXvTqw

• That first Jalen McCleskey misdirection TD was a work of art. I imagined Mike Yurcich flipping off 60K as McCleskey walked into the end zone. Unfortunately for him, those 60K were all flipping him off as they exited the stadium.

• Was that the deepest WR game of the season? KD Cannon, Corey Coleman, James Washington, Marcell Ateman and we’re only two deep on both side. Have mercy. Bring me Iowa in a bowl game!

• One thing Baylor does well that’s underrated — they control the rhythm of the game. They bend games to their will. They take defenses and crowds out of it when they’re really humming on offense. 73 rushes for 303 yards is humming on offense.

• Was this a good catch? Was this a catch?

https://vine.co/v/izavMzD2AvF

• Stidham looks a little like Zac. And that arm, sweet heavens it is good. I have no idea which Baylor QB is best. It was a treat to watch him and Rudolph sling it around to the tune of 688 yards (in just six combined quarters). It was also fun watching them gut out games in which they were both injured. Both are ballers. Both are going to be studs in the Big 12 for a long time.[1. I can’t believe Rudolph is two games from being a junior. My goodness.]

• Yes!

@OKStateProbs Here ya go pic.twitter.com/ki1LgQk2Du

— ?????? ????? (@Brooks_Frost) November 22, 2015

• Speaking of Rudolph, get out of here with your hate. J.W. was not working and they rode No. 2 like they should have. He sailed some balls, sure, but he went hard all night. He’s a really, really good QB and I hope he doesn’t get the Landry treatment from OSU fans.

• The game ended on the drive at the end of the third when Washington dropped what would have been a TD and Rudolph missed Glidden for what would have been another TD. Either of those would have made it 38-28 headed to the fourth. I could be talked into coming back from 10 down in the fourth. Anything bigger than that was going to be nearly impossible.

• The onside kick — meh, I just don’t really care. Either way, you were paddling upstream. I’m fine with it. Would have been find without it.

• He was pretty good.

Is Stidham getting Wally Pipp'd? This guy is 6'5, 225 pounds & throwing seeds.

— Carson Cunningham (@KOCOCarson) November 22, 2015

• Kevin Peterson was pretty good on Corey Coleman. I realize he had five for 77 and KD Cannon burned the stadium down, but still, Kevin Peterson was pretty good on Corey Coleman.

• There were as many points in the first seven minutes of this game as there were in the first 59:57 of Ohio State-Michigan State.

• Yup.

Good luck finding a better deep-ball passer in college football than Mason Rudolph.

— Jake Trotter (@Jake_Trotter) November 22, 2015

• It’s getting harder and harder for me to justify bringing in Walsh outside the red zone when Rudolph is really flowing. I just don’t see it.

• I have to say, after the Rudolph TD to tie it at 14, I didn’t think I was going to make it through the night. I actually wrote, “I’m not sure I can do a Bedlam game with this much on the line.”

• Baylor is about as disciplined as you would expect Baylor to be.

• OSU got so many breaks again tonight. The not-fumble in the first quarter. The weird Shock Linwood fumble-whistle-just give it to the team in orange call later on. Everything was coming up orange and OSU still couldn’t push through. It all goes back to how ridiculously difficult it is to go 12-0 in a season.

Officials basically missed everything on that play, but it WAS a fumble and OSU would have recovered without a whistle.

— David Ubben (@davidubben) November 22, 2015

• Speaking of, only Iowa and Clemson are undefeated. Haha.

• Baylor didn’t punt until 1:44 in the third. Baylor isn’t going to lose a lot of games like that.

• The more I watch this play the crazier it gets.

https://vine.co/v/izai6mamO36

• Baylor has three QBs. TCU has two and a half. OSU has two. OU has two. Texas somehow has none.

• Mike Gundy looks extraordinarily tan for it being mid-November, no?

• This is sort of true.

Welcome to Boone Pickens Stadium where Heisman caliber QBs play like a 3rd stringer and 3rd string QBs play like Heismans.

— Jordan Woodruff (@JWTriplePlay) November 22, 2015

• I wrote this at halftime and it turned out prescient: I’m not even sure if it matters if Stidham plays because they can just run us out of the building (literally). I also wrote: If we pull this off against the best offense in the country, this team is made of magic.

• Iowa still sucks. The Big 12 is really good. Had to get that off my chest.

• This is hilarious.

Best thing ever. @BUFootball @BaylorProud #sicem pic.twitter.com/2msJWmJfKp

— Lauren Lara (@lonny0907) November 22, 2015

• It felt like Baylor was playing with nothing to lose and Oklahoma State wasn’t playing with nothing to lose, didn’t it?

• It also felt like Yurcich hit the back of the playbook early in the third quarter. After that: hands in air, go deep, pray for flags.

• Retrospectively, OSU needed a pick six (or a couple) to win that game. Strange to think about.

• I laughed.

Baylor DT Andrew Billings squatted 805 as a senior in high school. Assume he doesn't throw QBs into the stands out of mercy alone.

— BUM CHILLUPS (@edsbs) November 22, 2015

• Joel Klatt on Emmanuel Ogbah: “For a guy sitting on a pile of money … ” — it doesn’t even matter what he said after that.

• Mason Rudolph is 12-0 against teams not named Baylor, 0-2 against Baylor.

• How many different ways do you think Mike Yurcich has had his name pronounced in his life? Over/under 99.5?

• Is there anybody in college football who bounces up more quickly after bigger hits than Jalen McCleskey? Kendall Hunter thinks Jalen McCleskey bounces up quickly. I would have been on the ground until Bedlam after this one.

https://vine.co/v/izajgVnYug3

• OSU’s defense held Baylor’s offense to 45 points on 14 possessions or 3.21. That’s pretty good. That’s almost a full point less than Baylor was averaging coming into the game.

• Chafin on Lampkin to seal the deal was ugly. Like an 18-wheeler against a Kia.

• By the way, OSU is 10-1. Everybody was tweeting at me all night like we’re 5-6. Bedlam to tie the best record in school history and (potentially) for the Big 12 title.

• What a photo.

Game time! @pistolsguy #gopokes #stillwaterstrong #okstate pic.twitter.com/i4ANRF6fU5

— David Jennings (@iambigfish94) November 22, 2015