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Big 12 Football: Predicting the Final Score of TCU vs. Baylor

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By @writered21

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It’s the Big 12 Game of the Year that you didn’t see coming with No. 9 TCU at No. 5 Baylor this Saturday. Thanks to the Horned Frogs’ 37-33 win over No. 4 Oklahoma last week, TCU is in prime position to win the conference and make the national playoffs if they can turn the tide on the fifth-ranked Bears in Waco on Saturday. This will be no easy task, of course. Baylor is 5-0 and no opponent has gotten within better than 21 points of the Bears all season.

But Baylor hasn’t played an opponent quite like TCU yet either. Yes, the Bears whacked Texas last week, 28-7, and any win in Austin is a good win. But it’s no secret that the current Longhorns team isn’t anything like what we’ve seen from Texas in the past. Mainly, the Longhorns aren’t any good. In fact, you could say the same for just about everyone Baylor has played. The combined record of the five teams the Bears have beaten (even if by an impressive combined score of 255-62) is a pathetic 8-18, and the only team in the bunch that is even at .500 is the University of Buffalo (3-3), which Baylor stomped, 63-21.

To make a long story short, nothing Baylor has seen this season will have prepared the Bears for what they face Saturday against TCU. The Horned Frogs are 4-0, beat a Minnesota team soundly (30-7) that is 4-1 and outlasted Oklahoma last week in Fort Worth at a time when everyone was predicting Oklahoma to be one of the teams still standing when the four-team national playoff begins. Baylor leads the nation in scoring and is fifth in scoring defense against a horrible schedule. TCU is 12th in the nation in points scored and seventh in scoring defense against a schedule that had one decent game on it and one very tough game.

Both teams have excellent offenses, but in Trevone Boykin, the Horned Frogs have a quarterback who can go toe to toe with the much more renowned Bryce Petty of Baylor. Boykin threw for 318 yards and two touchdowns in the win over the Sooners. Petty was a rather pedestrian 7-for-22 for 111 yards and two scores in the win over Texas. And while Baylor’s defense is improving, TCU’s has shown to be stout going back many years. A key for TCU will be trying to contain Baylor wide receiver KD Cannon, who averages 22 yards per catch and has five touchdowns this season.

But overall, TCU is the more dangerous team, and by far the best team Baylor has played this season. That all will show in the result.

Prediction: TCU 38, Baylor 27

Ed Morgans is an ACC Basketball Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @writered21 and add him to your network on Google.

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