Week 11: sink or swim

Another must win week for my favorite team, the Missouri Tigers.  Not like it's going to make any difference in the race for the north.  That ship pretty much sailed in the second half of the Baylor fiasco last weekend in Columbia.  But as I said in my recap, the team is on a roller coaster right now and they desperately need a win against a team that has been playing well, and oddly enough, they seem to be playing better on the road.

Taking a look at K State, they appear very similar to the early teams Bill Snyder brought out.  They run the ball well, play good special teams and defense and don't beat themselves with mistakes.  They're older players, due to former coach Ron Prince's inability to recruit high school players and benefiting from a division that is horribly down this year, but right now they'd be sitting with probably 2 wins had Snyder not returned.  Last week they won the sunflower showdown (could there possibly be a gayer name for a rivalry?) against kansas, 17-7.  The jayhawks held a players only meeting early in the week which obviously did no good as Todd "Frodo" Reesing continued his descent into a drunken haze of a senior season.  Frighteningly enough, the Tigers held a players only meeting this week following last Saturday's fiasco.  We'll see if it plays out any better for them in a few short days.  The game opened as Mizzou a 2 point underdog on the road.  I'm going to take a chance here and predict my Tigers to cover and win outright 24-21.   
Moving around the conference, Texas travels to Waco to play the Baylor Bears.  I'd thought the Bears were dead in the water before watching them last week.  However, probably all it did was make Texas aware that they were capable of biting someone if they weren't paying attention.  The Horns are now making their run to the national championship game, and I don't believe that anyone will stop them.  It certainly shouldn't be this week.  The Longhorns open as a 24 1/2 point favorite.  I think they get that and then some.  I'm taking the Horns in a laugher, 45-10.
Colorado travels to Iowa State to take on the Cyclones this week.  The Buffs stunned me, as well as Texas A&M last Saturday, with a 4th quarter comeback to win 35-34.  Meanwhile the 'Clones were getting prison raped in Stillwater, 34-8.  Iowa State opens as a 5 point favorite and a win this week could get them bowl eligible.  Colorado has been completely unable to sustain any kind of success, especially on the road.  I think that the Cyclones cover in this one, 24-13.

In lawrence, kansas, the fighting Mangino's appear to be in complete disarray.  They've lost 4 straight and managed to make my Tigers look like a well oiled machine in the process.  Coach Mark Mangino should be getting down on his well padded knees every night thanking the Big Guy (I mean God, not Lew Perkins) for that contract extension and raise he received after the smoke and mirrors 2007 season.  Nebraska is coming to town as a 4 point favorite.  The Huskers defense is playing very well, as evidenced by last weeks 10-3 upset win over the Sooners in Lincoln.  Their offense continues to be something of an abortion, but I do think they'll have some success running the ball, and the beaker secondary can make a lot of teams look good.  I look for the hicks to win and cover this week 23-10.  The thing that will be interesting to me will be the number of times the Husker pass rush is able to get to Reesing.  The next 2 weeks may not be kind to the gimpy midget as the beaks travel to Austin next week to face the Longhorns.  
Texas A&M travels to Norman this weekend to face the Sooners.  Both teams are officially in disarray at this time.  The Aggies choked up a huge hair ball last week in Boulder, falling to the Buffalo's and everyones's favorite whipping boy, Dan Hawkins.  A win there would have been their 6th, and given their fans reputation for traveling, would have assured them of a post season invitation, probably to someplace in Texas even dumpier than College Station.  Meanwhile, the wheels completely fell off the Sooner offensive wagon as they managed 3 points against the Husker defense in Lincoln.  For some reason, Oklahoma opens as an 18 1/2 point favorite here.  I like the Sooners but don't care much for the spread.  I'll take Oklahoma 27-14.

Texas Tech travels north to Stillwater to face the Cowboys and Coach Mike Leach has had something of a rough season and his pirate flag has taken a few cannon balls.  The Red Raiders had last week off to prepare, but I don't know that they really have much to play for at this time.  Their fans don't travel particularly well and they are staring at a Christmas Bowl in Houston win or lose.  Meanwhile, the Cowboys season hasn't gone as well as they'd hoped, but they do have a chance for a decent New Years type trip to either Dallas or San Diego.  The Cowboys open as a 3 1/2 point favorite and I think it's a damn good spread.  I'm taking Okie State to win and cover, 31-27.    
I found the out of conference schedule to be incredibly uninteresting this week.  Now the next couple are going to be great with some classic matchups.  However, the only thing I could find that was remotely attractive was West Virginia traveling to Cincinnati to face the undefeated Bearcats.  I confess that I don't know much about the Big East in general but Cincinnati has been on a nice run the last couple of years, and for some reason I've always like the Mountaineers.  The Bearcats open as a 9 1/2 point favorite.  I'm going with them to cover 38-24.
Good luck to your team this weekend unless they reside anywhere in the state of kansas.