Football games in which both teams score more than sixty points are as rare as winning lotto tickets.
On Saturday, in their first ever Big 12 conference game, the number 9 ranked West Virginia Mountaineers (4-0, 1-0) squeaked pass the number 25 ranked Baylor Bears (3-1, 0-1) at home by a mind boggling score of 70-63.
In a game featuring two extremely efficient offenses, it was a duo of sub-par defensive efforts that surrendered scoring rates equivalent to those of college basketball teams.
The two teams combined for an outrageous total of 1,507 yards, 19 touchdowns, 67 first-downs, and a single turnover.
In the highest scoring game in Big 12 history, it was West Virginia’s senior quarterback Geno Smith who shined in the spotlight.
Smith, a four-year starter and Heisman hopeful, complemented a grand total of 656 passing yards with a seemingly artificial 8 touchdowns and zero interceptions.
With a stat sheet reading 45 of 51 in the passing column, the 6’3 signal-caller made some commanding strides in his Heisman trophy campaign, finishing with two more touchdowns than total incomplete passes.
Through four games, Smith has a picture-perfect 20 touchdowns and zero interceptions.
With an 83.4 percent completion rating, Smith is currently the closest figure to strategic perfection that the college ranks has seen in quite some time.
On the losing end, Baylor quarterback Nick Florence’s performance was anything but lackluster, breaking last year’s Heisman winner Robert Griffin III’s school passing record with 581 yards, five touchdowns, and an interception.
At only 5’11 188lbs, elusive Mountaineer slot receiver Stedman Bailey obliterated the Bear’s defensive secondary, hauling in 13 passes for 303 yards and five touchdowns, including an 87-yard trip to paydirt early in the fourth.
According to ESPN, Bailey and teammate Tavon Austin are the first FBS receiving tandem with 200 yards a piece since 2007.
Baylor receiver Terrance Williams did what he could, delivering with an epic performance, snagging an astounding 17 passes for a total of 314 yards and 2 touchdowns.
It was Williams who scored the final of the 19 touchdowns with 3:08 remaining in the fourth, cementing the final score at 70-63.
In the midst of an era of football culture exhibiting defensive superiority and controlled statistics, football fanatics must relish and appreciate games of statistical prominence.
I mean Saturday’s game only came up eight points shy of setting the FCS scoring record set by the Weber State Wildcats who defeated the Portland State Vikings 73-68 in 2007.
In other words, even the wisest of football experts would probably have better odds of perfectly counting the blades of grass in their lawn than to accurately predict the next 60-60 college football outing.
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- Kayln Hoyle, Opinion Editor