Dropped the ball: Baylor football loses overtime thriller to Colorado, 38-31

By Foster Nicholas | Sports Editor

Baylor football marched into Boulder looking to make a statement in front of a national audience. Instead, the prime-time duel was defined by Colorado’s improbable last-minute heroics which sealed a 38-31 overtime victory over the Bears on Saturday night at Folsom Field.

With two seconds on the clock in the fourth quarter and Baylor (2-2, 0-1 Big 12) up by seven, Buffaloes (3-1, 1-0) senior quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who was sacked five times in the final 10 minutes, escaped the pocket under heavy Baylor pressure. As head coach Dave Aranda unleashed a play called “Victory Cigar,” Sanders connected with diving senior wide receiver LaJohntay Wester for a 43-yard Hail Mary completion in the period’s final moments.

“We called time out prior to that play, and then we had the drawings of that play. And so during the time out, we were showing the drawings, and we went to opposite sides,” Aranda said of the defensive play call. “I’ve never seen that. I take full responsibility for that. I have to find a way to coach that better. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Fueled from the last-second score, Colorado quickly opened the overtime period with a touchdown, and it was up to the Bears to keep the ball alive. After just four run plays, redshirt junior quarterback Sawyer Robertson and senior running back Dominic Richardson pinned the ball at the Colorado 1-yard line.

With a fresh set of downs, Aranda watched on as Buffaloes junior two-way star Travis Hunter knocked the ball out of Richardson’s grasp and it was thrown out of the back of the end zone. Even as the white-out crowd rushed the field, officials reviewed whether the ball broke the plane before being jolted free.

After a minute of held breath and white-clad fans pouring toward the 50-yard line, the call was confirmed.

“I haven’t really been a part of something like that, especially down to the last play of overtime — or last play of regulation, like how that went. And so, [that’s] very hard to take. The team is very gutted right now,” Aranda said. “We’re probably going to be hurting all the way back to Waco. We were able to battle back from this mistake and that mistake until we couldn’t battle back anymore. Then the end of regulation play, I’ve never seen. And then to fumble it when we could have tied it up and all of it. It’s just par for the course.”

Taking the reins as the starting quarterback for the second consecutive week, Robertson completed 11 of 21 passes for 148 yards and two touchdowns, while also leading the team in rushing with nine carries for 82 yards and a touchdown. His lone score came on a 45-yard run on fourth-and-one in the second quarter to give Baylor its largest lead of the game, 24-10.

“I think he did an awesome job handling the environment. This is one of the loudest stadiums that I’ve really played at, so I think he did great,” junior wide receiver Josh Cameron said.

Helped by a 54-yard punt return by Cameron, Baylor took an early 3-0 lead as redshirt junior kicker Isaiah Hankins drilled a 32-yard field goal with 8:13 in the first quarter. The Buffs responded with a touchdown run from Sanders to end the quarter and take their only lead of the game until overtime.

Robertson led the offense back out and marched 75 yards in seven plays. The drive was capped off by a 30-yard completion to senior wide receiver Monaray Baldwin, who leapt into the air in order to corral a perfect spiral in the end zone. Baldwin led the Bears with three catches on seven targets for 36 yards and a touchdown.

“Sawyer played heart wide open, and as I would expect him to. A lot of positives there, but it’s hard to see them right now,” Aranda said.

In front of a sold out Homecoming crowd, the Bears sacked Sanders eight times — the most in a single game since the green and gold amassed 10 sackings against Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 2022. Redshirt sophomore linebacker Keaton Thomas and fifth-year senior linebacker Steve Linton led Baylor with two sacks each. Sixth-year senior linebacker Matt Jones led the squad with 10 tackles, while Thomas added nine to the fray and led the green and gold with three TFLs.

“[You have to] try to get your heart back in your body,” Aranda said. “We have to fix the mistakes. We had eight sacks in this game. We should have had really double that, to be honest. … We couldn’t tackle them.”

After the Bears stumped the Buffaloes and forced a field goal with 6:55 in the second quarter, fifth-year senior Jamaal Bell flashed his speed in the return game. Untouched, Bell weaved through incoming black jerseys and sprinted 100 yards for the Bears’ first kick return touchdown of the season.

After starting the game a perfect six for six with 59 yards, Sanders only completed the next five of 14 passes for 28 yards before he led the Colorado offense onto the field for one final drive in the first half. Baylor was prepared to take a 24-10 lead into the halftime break when Sanders delivered a pass across the middle to sophomore wide receiver Omarion Miller.

Miller rushed down the far sideline, and as he was being brought down, he jumped back up without his knee touching the turf. As Baylor defenders stood motionless, thinking Miller was down, officials ruled the 58-yard completion a touchdown.

Colorado evened the game 24-24 with the lone score of the third quarter, but Robertson and the Bears responded. After going without a completion in the third quarter, Robertson completed all three of his passes during an eight-play, 61-yard drive that ended in a 24-yard touchdown for senior wide receiver Hal Presley with 5:43 remaining in the fourth quarter.

“Man you put so much into it, and just to have it in your hands and throw it away. Man, it just hurts,” redshirt sophomore outside linebacker Kyler Jordan said. “Just the pain in the locker room. It’s just terrible. It’s terrible. You want to remember the good, but I think it’s hard to remember the good when it turns out the way it did”

The green and gold sacked Sanders twice and swatted away a pass on the next drive, forcing Colorado to punt on fourth-and-31. Cameron once again delivered a state-of-the-art punt return for the Bears to set up shop at the Colorado 26-yard line.

Already in field goal range, Baylor was pushed back three yards across the next three plays and Aranda sent Hankins out to attempt a 45-yard field goal. With the ball on the left hash, the left-footed kicker overcorrected and pulled the three-point attempt away from the uprights.

With a turnover on downs and one final shot, Sanders led the Buffaloes on an eight-play, 72-yard touchdown drive to end regulation and force overtime, where the team would go on to rally past the Bears 38-31.

“For our guys that have just fully committed to this — to have their heart ripped out like this, of their own doing, I think, is a big wake-up call,” Aranda said. “I know we’ll respond. I know this team, and I know that we’ll come out stronger because of this.”

Baylor looks to find its footing on Saturday when they return home to host BYU (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) at McLane Stadium. Kickoff time and viewing options are yet to be determined and will be announced by the conference on Monday.