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1. Stillwater Woodshed
Top 10 teams haven't played all that great in Stillwater as of late. In fact, the last top 10 team to win in Stillwater was No. 3 Texas in 2009. Since, Baylor and TCU have both brought top-flight teams with Heisman contenders and come up empty. In 2011, Robert Griffin III won the Heisman. In his trip to Stillwater, he threw for a touchdown and two interceptions in a 59-24 loss. Yesterday, Trevone Boykin came into the game with more than 2,900 passing yards and 28 touchdowns while only throwing five interceptions on the year and only two in the last five weeks. He left the field with a touchdown pass and four interceptions, almost doubling his interception total and making his Heisman hopes as slim as they have been all year. Boykin and Robert Griffin are two players at the college level that can take plenty of teams from No. 25 to No. 5 just by their presence. When they come to Stillwater in their Heisman years (2011/2015*), they total two touchdowns and six interceptions and an 0-2 record.
Also, don't take Boykin out of that race yet. We've seen Heisman candidates go out and have games like that and still win it. He's a great player, great person and amazing ambassador for the TCU program.
*Boykin was being talked about as a top two Heisman candidate before the game.
2. Mason Rudolph
This guy is for real. Rudolph just picked apart this TCU defense that is No. 3 in the Big 12 against the pass. Completing 16 of his 24 passes, Rudolph gained 352 yards and threw five touchdowns, a career high. These are the sort of games many thought we would get from Rudolph going into the year. Obviously it hasn't been that way but it's not as if OSU needed him to do that. In a game that had a pretty good defense in TCU that had obviously prepared well for J.W. Walsh, Rudolph shined. Look out though, as OSU has to play the No. 1 (OU) and No. 2 (Baylor) Big 12 pass defense later in the month.
3. Rush Game Not Skrong
That rushing attack is not good. Raymond Taylor started and looked good for the most part but only rushed the ball nine times for 28 yards (3.1 ypc). As a team, 81 yards is pretty unacceptable but OSU showed that even if you're focusing on stopping, or at least trying to stop, the pass game, they can still beat you with the lack of a run game. If Oklahoma State could just get a hundred yard rusher to take some pressure off Rudolph and Walsh, this team could potentially be even more dangerous.
4. They Aren't Who We Thought They Were
I'm not sure how many people actually thought this would happen in August, I'd have to ask Kyle Porter about that survey the fans took. I'm fairly certain that only the drunkest ones on the brightest Orange Kool-Aid were the ones who said OSU would be 9-0 and have a win over a crazy talented TCU team. I bet even less said OSU would manhandle that TCU team for a majority of the game. But it happened. Now, OSU is heading to Ames, Iowa, as an undefeated team for the first time since 2011 and will host Baylor and Oklahoma to end the season. If that team shows up the next three weeks, I'm going to have a hard time finding enough reasons to say they can't finish undefeated.
5. Defense
Mark May and Robert Smith were just on ESPN arguing about Oklahoma State being a top four team. For you older OSU fans, pinch yourself, it's really a thing, I promise. Mark May seemed to be in love with the OSU defense that forced four turnovers and held a high-powered TCU team to 29 points. Smith though, was in love with the other team in Oklahoma, the one that lost to Texas. Two things, one it's amazing that this is even an argument, especially for the fans who have been around forever. Two, Smith's argument was that OSU didn't have a defense while OU did. Yes, OU defense has been on fire as of late, but to say OSU doesn't have a defense is ignorant. Emmanuel Ogbah still leads the conference with nine sacks and the team allows 23.8 points per game, second in the conference. Oklahoma State has the third best defense in the Big 12.
6. Ames
For those worried about Ames being Ames, I'll say this. There'd need to be a lot of things to go wrong between now and Saturday for that situation to be duplicated. One, the plane crashes didn't help the players. Of course the tragedy hurt them emotionally but now there were also players actually scared to get on a plane, add that on top of the fact that the team had plane issues the week before and you've got a bad time. Then, the bus was having issues. The game was on a Friday night. No one was ready to play in the orange and black. I believe it'll be completely different next week when the Pokes kick off at 2:30.
7. It's Possible
It's possible, now more than ever, for the Pokes to be the first Big 12 team to ever make the College Football Playoff. There's still a long road but OSU just knocked off what may be the most complete team in the conference with the best quarterback at home. Next up is ISU, then Baylor and ending with those dreaded Sooners. If the Cowboys show up and do what they've been doing, every one of those games are winnable. That's something no one could've predicted.