Jordan Smith | Sports Writer
Baylor looked like a team on a mission in the second half as they took the game in its’ grasp and ran with it, winning by a final score, 40-13.
The Bears started the game off slow. In fact, their start was a complete 180 degree spin from their first game of the season last week against Northwestern State. In the first half alone, the Bears committed a total of seven penalties for a total of 56 yards racked up in those penalties.
Penalties weren’t the only issues for Baylor in the first half. Unfortunately, third down conversions were a big issue for Baylor. In the first half, the Bears were four for 14 on third down conversions.
The Bears got on the scoreboard at the 13:51 mark of the second quarter with a 35 yard field goal. With points on the board, the Bears started to pick the tempo up. With some momentum going their way, the Bears went down the field and made a field goal just before the half to tie things up at 6.
Sophomore offensive lineman Patrick Lawrence was very assured that what head football Coach Jim Grobe told the players at halftime definitely affected the way the team played as a whole.
“He just told us it’s on us really and that all that we have is each other. So, we just banded together really and I thought we did a much better job in the second half protecting him [Russell] and next week we just need to come out and do what we did in the second half in the first half,” Lawrence said.
Once the second half started, the Bears appeared to turn into a new team. Baylor came out of the intermission hungry and determined to take the game back. The Bears received the kickoff to start the second half. They took advantage of that opportunity and scored a touchdown after senior quarterback Seth Russell threw a perfect pass to redshirt freshman wide receiver Blake Lynch for a 31 yard touchdown to take the lead for the first time, 13-6.
After that, Baylor ran away with it. Their defense started to become more of a threat in the game by forcing turnovers and even getting a pick six for themselves as senior safety Orion Stewart telegraphed the pass and ran it back for a touchdown at the 4:55 mark in the third quarter to take a commanding 26-6 lead over the Mustangs.
At the five minute mark, Baylor decided to put in their back-ups. The Bears sealed the victory at this point. Russell went 26-47 with 261 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions.
At the final sound of the buzzer and the launch of the fireworks, the Bears defeated SMU, 40-13. Afterwards, Grobe joked around about a certain non touchdown during the game, where Lynch lost possession of the ball just before he crossed the goal line.
“The thing that I will tell you, show you what a great coach I am, I told him, you might want to carry the ball with you into the end zone in that situation,” Grobe said. “But I think what you saw and what we saw that was real exciting, Blake Lynch can play football. He’s a really good player and he’s a guy going forward, we’re going to have to use a lot more.”
The Bears look to keep their perfect record going as they travel to Houston next weekend to take on the Rice University Owls at 7:00 p.m. Friday at Rice Stadium.
