By Foster Nicholas | Sports Editor, Claire-Marie Scott | LTVN Sports Reporter
Allowing 21 unanswered points in the first 12 minutes of the game, Baylor football dug itself into a hole too big to overcome, falling to No. 22 BYU 34-28 on Saturday afternoon at McLane Stadium.
LTVN’s Claire-Marie Scott recaps the Bears’ disheartening loss to BYU.
Despite the sluggish start, the Bears (2-3, 0-2 Big 12) had two final drives to take the lead. But with a glimpse of hope, Baylor failed to convert and the drives resulted in a turnover on downs and interception. Under head coach Dave Aranda, the green and gold have lost their last 10 games against ranked opponents and last eight home games against Big 12 foes.
“Whether you’re on the sidelines or you’re running out to the field, or it’s after something negative, or all the negative things that happened, there is always that belief that we’re going to win,” Aranda said. “There’s a lot of faith in the locker room. There’s a lot of leaders in there, guys that believe, guys that put everything into this.”
The Cougars (5-0, 2-0 Big 12) landed the first blow with a seven play, 75 yard drive ending in a 26 yard touchdown pass. Already feeling the pressure, redshirt junior quarterback Sawyer Robertson saw his first pass of the day swatted in the air and intercepted by a defensive lineman.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom for Robertson, who finished with a career best 324 yards, completing 27 of 48 passes and added three touchdowns. The redshirt junior quarterback also led the Bears on the ground with 12 carries for 29 yards and a rushing touchdown.
With a defense full of backups due to injuries and off the field issues, BYU added two more touchdowns after the initial blow and took a 21-0 lead with 3:39 in the first quarter after redshirt junior quarterback ran 17 yards to the end zone.
“There’s a couple guys that are injured, and there’s a couple guys (with) off the field discipline issues, and so there’s about 10 to 12 guys that we’re without. But what I would say to that is, ‘It’s next man up,’” Aranda said. “We’ve got good players on this team. You have an opportunity to play. You’ve been wanting to play. Here’s your opportunity to play.”
The Bears found their first score of the game with three seconds left in the first quarter when Robertson exploded through a gap in the offensive line on fourth-and-1 and scored from 20 yards out.
Including Robertson’s 20-yard touchdown carry, Baylor averaged just 2.3 yards per carry with 63 total rushing yards. Redshirt freshman running back Bryson Washington recorded 13 rushes for 31 yards and senior running back Dominic Richardson only took three hand-offs for three yards. Washington also finished with six catches for 37 yards.
“I thought the run game needs to improve. I thought it’s regressed these last couple weeks, both the blocking and the running,” Aranda said. “Our running backs, are not running as hard as I think they have in the past. I think we’ve all seen what has been, and it’s not right now.”
The Cougars added another touchdown in the second half, but Baylor responded with 2:10 remaining in the second quarter. Redshirt junior wide receiver Josh Cameron led the Bears receiving with a career-high seven catches for 125 yards and two touchdowns. Cameron scored his first touchdown of the game seconds before the two minute warning to cut BYU’s lead to 28-14.
“He showed that he’s a leader on the field with his play and with his leadership, so he was a big spark,” redshirt senior tight end Gavin Yates said of Cameron. “He’s an easy person to rally around and everyone does rally around him.”
BYU added a field goal with 30 seconds left in the half and took a 31-14 advantage into the halftime break. After a pep talk from Aranda, the Bears’ defense came back out in the second half and only allowed 81 yards and a field goal.
“Our second halves have been really good. Our offense has stepped up, our defense has stepped up. So, we know the kind of team that we are. And I think for both those games that we’ve lost, we were obviously the better team,” redshirt senior safety Caleb Parker said. “So, we’ve just got to start that way. We’ve got to start fast and just play confident and trust that we can win. Because we can. Obviously, we’ve shown that.”
Fifth-year senior wide receiver Ashtyn Hawkins put the Bears within two possessions with a 15-yard touchdown reception at the 8:44 mark in the third quarter. Hawkins finished with five receptions for 74 yards and a touchdown. Senior wide receiver Hal Presley led the team in catches with eight for 82 yards.
Baylor rolled into the fourth quarter trailing 34-21 but forced a missed field goal. The green and gold marched to the BYU 23 and Robertson zoned in on the end zone. Straddling the sideline, Cameron added his second score of the day with a leaping catch in the back of the end zone to cut the lead down to one score, 34-28.
After a few defensive stands, Baylor found the break it was looking for when senior defensive lineman Elinus Noel intercepted a tipped pass at the line of scrimmage. Noel lateraled the ball back to redshirt sophomore linebacker Keaton Thomas, who was brought down at the BYU 45-yard line.
With 4:01 to play, Robertson pushed the Bears to the brink of the red zone. But after three incomplete passes and a four yard carry, the green and gold turned the ball over on downs with 1:54 in the fourth quarter.
Not quite out of time, the Baylor defense forced a punt with just over a minute to play. However, looking to do too much, Robertson fired a deep pass down the left sideline intended for Hawkins that was intercepted and clinched a 34-28 win for BYU.
The Bears will be back in action to face No. 18 Iowa State (3-0, 0-0 Big 12) at 6:30 p.m. next Saturday, Oct. 5, at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames, Iowa. The Cyclones are playing Houston Saturday night.
