The best way to get over being beaten by 25 points? Hand someone the same kind of treatment yourself. Texas were overwhelmed by Oklahoma State to pick up their first conference loss of the season, but thanks to a 41-16 win over Texas Tech, their way of compensating for losing their bigger in-state rival to the SEC, their hopes of winning the Big 12 for the first time in four years remain alive and well.

Now, all that needs to happen is for Oklahoma State to lose against Oklahoma in Bedlam and for Texas to beat Baylor. Sounds simple right? Probably the odds point towards a different outcome, but there’s no doubt not a lot of people thought the Longhorns would be so close to a conference title after losing consecutive games by a combined 40 points to BYU and Ole Miss early on in the season.

Texas Tech started the season at 7-0, but like most pass-happy teams, someone realized the shtick and takes advantage. They entered the game against Texas with the best passing offense in the nation, but in the end, a gimmick isn’t enough to be successful in a top conference, and the Red Raiders end the season with five consecutive losses. Baker Mayfield was sacked 7 times and intercepted once without throwing a single touchdown pass. The biggest play Texas Tech had was a 51-yard fake punt run by Ryan Erxleben to start the game.

Case McCoy, on the other side of the line of scrimmage, wasn’t brilliant, but he didn’t have to be. He threw a couple of touchdown passes and ran for another one, with Texas doing extremely well on the ground. They gained 281 yards on 61 carries, led by Malcolm Brown with 128 yards and Joe Bergeron running for 102 yards and a touchdown. Looking for more places the Red Raiders fell over the last month, losing five straight games? They’ve allowed multiple rushing touchdowns for the 7th straight game, the 4th-longest active streak in the FBS this season.

How safe is Mack Brown now? The mood swings with every game in Austin, where expectations don’t usually match that actual quality on the richest football program in the nation. After the Oklahoma State loss, the team’s first in the conference this season, the calls were heard once again to get rid of the 62 year old who has been coaching the Longhorns since 1998, winning at least 10 games for nine consecutive seasons but failing to do that well since 2009, not finishing higher than #18 in the polls since.

Now, it’s once again happy times in Austin, but that might not last very long if their season finale against Baylor in Waco doesn’t end in the right way according to the Texas fanbase.

We fully assume Baylor will win against TCU and be right there. It’ll be a game that, as a senior class, we want to go out with a chance to put numbers on these walls and have a Big 12 championship. We’re still in the race. We had to win this one. This was a must-win. And we have to win the next one.

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