Baylor-OU, Midway-Highland Park highlight Slovacek's I-35 Showdowns

Slovacek's logoTo honor the loyal football fans that travel great distances to support their favorite team, DCTF and our friends from Slovacek’s in West, Texas are proud to present The Slovacek’s I-35 Showdowns of the Week. Baylor (8-1) at Oklahoma State (10-0) 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater The Big 12’s much-anticipated November round robin has already knocked Baylor and TCU from the ranks of the unbeaten, leaving Oklahoma State as the conference’s only team without a blemish on their record. Saturday, the Bears will travel north looking to change that. Winning in Stillwater, though, is much easier said than done – especially if you’re wearing green and gold. Baylor has gone 0-10 on the road against Oklahoma State as members of the Big 12, including a devastating 49-17 loss two years ago that derailed their own undefeated run. The Bears’ last win in Stillwater, in fact, came in 1939 – more than two full years before the United States joined World War II. Complicating things further than just the setting is the overall team health for Baylor. Original starting quarterback Seth Russell was lost for the season in the Iowa State game, and now Jarrett Stidham is battling a back injury suffered against Oklahoma. As dangerous and NFL-ready as Baylor playmakers like Corey Coleman and Shock Linwood are, their effectiveness is dependent on strong play from the quarterback. Injuries have also affected the Baylor defense, which may be without several key members of the secondary. That is music to the ears of Oklahoma State’s two-headed quarterback monster of Mason Rudolph and J.W. Walsh, who feasted upon an equally banged-up TCU defense two weeks ago. The key to a Baylor victory may lie with one of the Bears’ existing strengths: the defensive line. The ability of Andrew Billings, Shawn Oakman & company to stifle the Cowboys’ running game juxtaposed with the perceived weakness of the secondary to stop the deep ball may entice OSU into being one-dimensional. If Rudolph and Walsh misfire on a few long throws, it could create an opportunity for Stidham’s back to loosen up and the Baylor offense to get up to speed in winning a shootout. Hewitt Midway (8-3) vs. Highland Park 2 p.m. Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington A year to the day after Midway and Highland Park met each other in a 2014 playoff thriller, they’ll kick off in another loser goes home contest- this time on one of the sport’s grandest stages as the Panthers and Scots will do battle at Arlington’s AT&T Stadium. Midway running back Eric Clayburn was the workhorse in last year’s showdown, rushing for 202 yards and four touchdowns on 40 carries as the Panthers outlasted the Scots 35-28 to move on in the 6A playoffs. Clayburn totaled 169 yards and two scores in this year’s first-round victory over Garland last week. Together with quarterback Sam Glaesmann, he helped spearhead an offensive effort that produced more than 600 total yards in eliminating the Owls. The Panthers’ defense will have to contend with another spectacular quarterback-running back duo in Highland Park seniors Henry Allen and Stephen Dieb. Allen threw for 269 yards and five touchdowns last week as the Scots raced past Irving Nimitz last week, 38-12. Dieb has 1,125 rushing yards on the year to go along with 17 touchdowns.