By Foster Nicholas | Sports Editor
Baylor football fell behind early and failed to recover from a brutal start despite No. 11 Utah’s senior quarterback Cam Rising going down with an injury in the first half. The Utes never looked back after slapping 23 points on the scoreboard in the first half en route to a 23-12 victory over the Bears Saturday afternoon at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.
After allowing 17 points and 151 total yards in the first quarter, the Bears (1-1) held the Utes (2-0) without another offensive touchdown and just 141 total yards for the rest of the game. Rising, a seventh-year college quarterback, was taken out of the game with 1:47 left in the second quarter after colliding with Gatorade coolers on the sidelines. Without Rising in the game, Utah only recorded 99 yards of offense.
Head coach Dave Aranda and the Bears have been looking for their first win against a ranked opponent since January 1, 2022. Out of the gate, the green and gold looked shell-shocked, with the first six drives resulting in four three-and-outs, a strip sack and a blocked field goal that was returned for a touchdown with 5:21 in the second quarter, extending Utah’s lead to 23-0.
I ain't lookin at ya… I'm lookin past ya. 👀
📺 @CFBONFOX @thatboytao | #GoUtes pic.twitter.com/QDzrHY4cSs
— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) September 7, 2024
“I think I probably put too much emotion into this, and you know, [I] really wanted this to be a statement game and I think I probably overdid that. I think our guys were fighting and trying to do that,” Aranda said. “I think we’re playing too many things when we’ve got to just play the guy right in front of us.”
Sixth-year senior quarterback Dequan Finn completed just nine of 21 passes for 115 yards with a touchdown and a fumble. Of the night’s 115 passing yards, 74 came after the catch. On Baylor’s second drive on offense, Finn was sacked from behind and fumbled the ball on the Baylor 3-yard line. Finn was sacked three times, and the strip sack resulted in Utah’s second score of the game just one play later.
“The whole thing was kind of deflating,” Aranda said. “Losing is not what we’re about, not what we want and not what we want to be associated with. I know right now that’s the case, and so you fight against that.”
Baylor finished the first quarter with -10 yards of total offense and could only muster 48 yards in the first half, less than Southern Utah recorded against the Utes in week one (65 first-half yards). The green and gold finished with 223 total yards, as the offense could string together longer drives in the second half.
“Later in the game, there was great attention to detail. I think early in the game, we were blinded, probably by ambition, and some of those details got lost,” Aranda said.
The lone touchdown for Baylor came when redshirt junior wide receiver Josh Cameron took a first-and-10 screen pass 47 yards to the end zone with 1:08 in the third quarter. Cameron’s first career touchdown pulled the Bears within two scores, 23-12, but the green and gold missed the two-point conversion and all scoring halted.
He's like that 😤 @Josh_Cameron34 #SicEmpic.twitter.com/RQ8bxRpOpc
— Baylor Football (@BUFootball) September 7, 2024
“It felt pretty good, but, at the end of the day, I really don’t care about my production. I really don’t care about it, honestly, because we lost,” Cameron said. “Come next game, we’re going to start fast. We’re going to get it corrected. Any mistakes that we see on film, we’re going to get it corrected.”
Baylor had the opportunity to claw its way back into the game in the fourth quarter but a false start penalty on fourth-and-4 halted any progress. The Bears punted to Utah with 11:03 remaining but didn’t see the pigskin again until the 3:40 mark in the fourth quarter.
Sophomore running back Dawson Pendergrass led Baylor on the ground with nine carries for 69 yards. The bulk of his workload came on a 46-yard carry in the third quarter, ultimately leading to a 39-yard field goal by redshirt junior kicker Isaiah Hankins. Redshirt junior tight end Michael Trigg, who had four catches for 27 yards, and Cameron, who had two catches for 59 yards and a touchdown, led the team in receiving and were accountable for one-third of Baylor’s offensive production.
Here is more on Dave Aranda and what went wrong early in the game pic.twitter.com/eT7CkaCPe3
— Darby Brown (@darbyjobrown) September 8, 2024
“I put too much emotion into this game, and we wanted to play physical, we wanted to play our best ball, we wanted to make a statement. And I think the guys still want to do that, and I think it probably became too much of that,” Aranda said. “They’re all trying to win everything one fell swoop… when it just got to football, I thought we settled down and played well.”
Redshirt sophomore linebacker Keaton Thomas led the defense with 12 tackles and was helped out by sixth-year senior linebacker Matt Jones, who recorded 10 tackles. Redshirt junior defensive end Jackie Marshall also picked up seven tackles and recorded his first collegiate sack in the battle.
“I believe in this team. I believe in coach Aranda. I believe everybody’s put us in the right places to have the right opportunities,” Thomas said. “I just think sometimes, when you’re too busy trying to make a plan and not do your job, negative things can happen on the defensive side.”
Baylor returns home on Saturday for a rematch of the 2022 Armed Forces Bowl against Air Force (1-0). Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at McLane Stadium. The game will be broadcast on FS1.
“We just want to win. It’s been too long. It’s been too much of this. We need to win,” Aranda said. “That’s the bottom line, and so however we do win, we’ll take it, but we’re working to win.”
