3^rd quarter

12:54: Nowhere to go for Ganaway, Frank Alexander, again, gets into the backfield for a combined tackle for loss.

10:38: Ganaway up the middle for a few.

10:19: Ganaway powers up the middle to convert 3^rd and 1 against a stacked box.

10:04: Ganaway with a nice chip block.

9:53: Griffin has an awesome deep throw against tight coverage dropped.

6:46: Robert Griffin throws a dart, off his receivers’ hands, but it takes a bounce off the first receivers’ hands about 20 yards into the hands of a wide open Kendall Wright, who takes it and scores 87 yards. Awesome awareness and hustle to stay with the play by Wright. I love this kid. It’s worth noting that this is Baylor’s 3^rd touchdown drive of a minute or less in this game, their 17^th of the season. Amazing.

6:26: NJB does a good job of staying with a spinning ball carrier in the backfield, tackle for loss or no gain. Nice job of not letting the ball carrier break his tackle.

4:45: NJB is on tonight. 2^nd sack of the night. Knocks down the center with power and stays with the quarterback to finish him off. Getting benched really lit a fire under him as he’s having his best game of the season.

3:38: Alexander almost gets another sack, Griffin feels the pressure, steps up and completes it.

3:23: Powerful inside run by Ganaway for 11 yards.

2:41: Ganaway does some bouncing around in the backfield, not going anywhere.

4^th quarter

13:59: Ganaway with a great pass block.

13:26: Griffin does a great job after a badly botched snap by the Baylor center of getting the ball tracked down, getting out of the tackle box and throwing it past the line of scrimmage, incomplete, to save about 20 yards.

13:19: Travis Lewis with a facemask penalty. He’s had issues with penalties this year.

12:50: Ganaway up the middle, breaks a couple of tackles, 11 yard touchdown run.

10:29: NJB gets into the backfield on a play where Baylor gets a tackle for loss.

9:45: Landry Jones with two straight bad overthrows on 3^rd and 4^th down in the red zone. He also has a pick tonight. I have not been impressed.

9:28: Ganaway does a solid job blocking and recovering in the backfield. Griffin did hold the ball a long time so Ganaway technically allowed a pressure. The ball could have been picked on the throw.

8:44: Ganaway with a solid lead block for Robert Griffin on a quarterback scramble.

8:24: NJB shows good athleticism to get outside the tackle box to almost get a tackle, but just misses. He looked a little off balance and fell trying to get the tackle on the back.

6:25: NJB gets pressure and a hand in Landry Jones’ face. Nice job by Jones of still completing it.

5:20: Ganaway with another nice block. I’ve been really impressed with this part of his game.

4:50: Ganaway with a couple up the middle.

4:06: Griffin with a rare mistake, an errant lateral, out of bounds for a loss of a few.

1:23: NJB gets pressure, but slips, tripped up from behind by an offensive lineman, but missed by the official.

0:46: Ganaway powers it up the middle for a few. Good power run and a nice spin move as well.

0:08: Game winning touchdown by Robert Griffin. Enough said.

0:00: The big story in this game was Robert Griffin versus Landry Jones. Andrew Luck is well…Andrew Luck. Matt Barkley is playing very well at USC so it looks like it’s going to be between Griffin and Jones to be the 3^rd quarterback off the board, should both declare. In my opinion, Griffin got the better of this matchup.

Griffin was 21 of 34 for 479 yards, 4 touchdowns, and no picks and also ran for another 72 yards, and that’s including a couple sacks he took. He did this against a tougher defense. Oklahoma has 3 guys up front that could get drafted in the first 2 rounds this season (Alexander, Ronnell Lewis, and Travis Lewis). Baylor will be lucky to get 3 guys drafted, period, for their stop unit. Griffin’s numbers could have been better as he had a 70 yard touchdown called back by holding and another big gain downfield and potential touchdown dropped by his receiver. It’s crazy that Griffin could have had at least close to 600 yards and 6 touchdowns passing had a couple things gone his way.

Griffin has tremendous deep accuracy and is putting up a legitimate Heisman worthy season, especially after a signature upside win here over Landry Jones and Oklahoma, in which he led the game winning drive. On the year, Griffin is completing 72.9% of his passes for an average of 10.6 per and 33 touchdowns to just 5 interceptions. His stats aren’t quite as good as they were to start the season, but he’s played tougher competition now that he’s in Big 12 play and still played well.

He’s mobile, athletic, and a tremendous character and leader on and off the field. Away from the football field, he’s also a former All-American hurdler and already a college graduate working on a Master’s Degree. He’s got a cannon arm and tremendous pocket presence. He’s playing behind clearly the worst offensive line of any of the top 4 quarterbacks in this draft class, taking 22 sacks already. Landry Jones, Andrew Luck, and Matt Barkley have combined for 21. However, Griffin hasn’t gotten frazzled, making great throws under pressure and producing behind a poor offensive line.

Landry Jones’ stat line wasn’t nearly as impressive in this one as Griffin’s was. Jones, the loser in this matchup, was 36 of 51 for 446 yards, no touchdowns, and a pick, though it’s worth noting the only reason he didn’t have a touchdown is because Oklahoma ran for all 5 of their scores on the goal line. Against a weaker defense, he simply didn’t play as well and got upset in the process. Jones doesn’t have Griffin’s leadership, athleticism, or arm strength, nor does he have Griffin’s numbers. On the year, he’s completing 65.3% of his passes for an average of 8.6 YPA, 28 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. He’s got more experience than Griffin, but that’s the only thing he has over him. He’s also playing in a system that bloats stats more than Griffin’s does.

The way I see this quarterback class, it’s Luck, Barkley, Griffin, and Jones. This makes sense. Luck does have the head-to-head win over Barkley and Griffin over Jones. Griffin doesn’t have the experience that Luck, Barkley, and Jones have (all 3 year starters), but he’s almost just as good as Luck and Barkley and better than Jones. Griffin would likely be a top 5 pick should he declare this year. If he returns, which he could in order to complete his Master’s, he would be the early favorite to be the #1 pick in a weaker quarterback class in 2013.

Griffin didn’t do this all by himself. Griffin has 3 great receivers in Kendall Wright, Terrance Jones, and Tevin Reese, though for comparison’s sake, Jones has a good receiving corps as well. All 3 of those receivers caught touchdowns, long touchdowns, and Williams’ was the game winner. Wright is likely the only of those 3 to come out this year, though Jones, a junior, could come out, but probably won’t, especially if Griffin doesn’t either.

Wright was the star of the star other than Griffin. He caught 8 passes for 207 yards and a score. That score was a 87 yard catch off the hands of another Baylor receiver. Call it luck, but you have to credit Wright for staying in position. He also had a 55 gain with the majority of it coming after the catch. The athletic 5-11 190 pound receiver could run in the 4.3s and has great functional speed and quickness. He’s got great hands and is deadly in the open field with both speed and power moves. He’s also a high character hustle player. A 4 year contributor, the senior is having a career year with 89 catches for 1281 yards and 10 touchdowns. He’s an early 2^nd rounder in my book.

Baylor also has Terrance Ganaway on offense. Ganaway is a big 6-0 240 pounder who some are projecting to fullback at the next level. For this reason, it is very good that he showed himself to be a solid blocker, both pass and run blocking, in this one. Ganaway didn’t look too bad running the ball either. He struggled early to get to the outside against Oklahoma’s speed, but once he started going north to south, he really looked good. He’s a physical, powerful runner who could be a nice short yardage back at the next level. He had 60 yards and 2 scores on 16 carries in the game and has 949 yards and 12 scores on 164 carries on the season. He looks like an early to mid day 3 pick.

I mentioned Oklahoma’s front 7 on several occasions in this writeup, but let’s get more in depth on them. Frank Alexander (DE/OLB), Ronnell Lewis (OLB/DE), and Travis Lewis (OLB/MLB) all could get drafted in the first 2 rounds. Alexander had the best game of the 3. He was especially impressive early when he was making a big play on every other snap. He didn’t keep that up all game, but he finished with 5 tackles, 3.5 for loss, and a sack, along with a quarterback hit and numerous quarterback pressures.

On the year, Alexander has 45 tackles, 17 for loss, and 8.5 sacks. The 6-3 257 pounder has 2 years of good production and looks like a borderline first rounder as either a 4-3 defensive end or 3-4 outside linebacker. He could stand to bulk up another 5-10 pounds if he can do so without sacrificing speed and quickness. In my opinion, he’s more impressive than his counterpart, Ronnell Lewis, who often gets rated higher.

Lewis left this game early with an injury. The 6-2 244 pound defensive end shifted down from linebacker this season. His experience at linebacker will help him get drafted as a 3-4 outside linebacker. He’s a day 2 pick in my book. On the year, he has 60 tackles, 13 for loss, and 5.5 sacks. Travis Lewis is the 3^rd impressive front 7 player for Oklahoma. He really hasn’t looked the same after a broken foot earlier this season and he’s also had trouble with penalties this year. Once a potential first round, Lewis looks like a 2^nd rounder now. The 6-1 230 pound linebacker has 67 tackles, but just 2.5 for loss.

As I mentioned earlier, Baylor doesn’t have nearly the defense that Oklahoma says. Nicolas Jean-Baptiste might be their most talented player, but he didn’t even make the start. NJB is a big, physical 6-1 330 nose tackle prospect who had a very good junior season next to eventual first round pick Phil Taylor. However, the coaching staff was not impressed with his play of late and benched him for this one. When injury struck a Baylor defensive line, NJB was forced into action and made the most of it.

He showed great power, but at times didn’t look like a 330 pounder. He’s nimble for his size. He had 3 tackles, 2 for loss, and 2 sacks on the game. If he can play like this always, he’ll be a good 3-4 or 4-3 nose tackle at the next level, but there are concerns about his discipline and motivation. One plus, he did play a good amount of snaps in this one so he’s got good durability for someone his size. Someone will take a flier on him late.