By Blake Vines | Reporter
After a devastating loss to No.13 Utah at home, Baylor is looking to bounce back and continue fighting for bowl eligibility.
The Bears (5-5, 3-4 Big 12) fell 55-28 to the Utes (8-2, 5-2 Big 12) Saturday. The film was a tough pill to swallow.
“Coming in on Monday after a loss like that, it’s hard,” junior tight end Matthew Klopfenstein said. “There comes humility with that. You got to look at the film, you got to realize what went wrong, what we could have done better, what we need to fix. Every single day, being a different type of day of the week, focus on specific things. We know that we can just continue to stick to the things that we’ve been doing.”
One game from bowl eligibility, the Bears have two more chances to lock in a spot in the postseason. That road begins Saturday at Arizona (7-3, 4-3 Big 12).
“So much of what we talk about is, past performance doesn’t predict anything in the future,” head coach Dave Aranda said. “Just because you won doesn’t mean you’re going to win next week, or just because you lost, no matter what the loss, doesn’t mean you’re going to lose next week. It’s the choices that you make, it’s the effort that you bring, it’s the attitude that you decide on.”
Baylor had fewer yards, more penalties and more turnovers than Utah on Saturday. Aranda took a share of the blame for the team’s struggles.
“Sawyer could have played a better game, I could have called a better game, our DBs could have tackled better in the game,” Aranda said. “But I thought that there were plays that we got to make versus how they’re playing us. There’s a whole lot more out there than just fade balls from that slot position that I thought were there, and we got to get it there.”
The focus for the players seems to be on defense, as most problems appear to stem from a lack of team function. It only takes one person to make a gap wide enough for a team as skilled as Utah to take advantage of it. Identifying and finding those gaps appears to be a key focus for the Bears leading up to the matchup with Arizona.
The defense will be the key player this week. Led by quarterback Noah Fifita (2,494 yards passing, 24 TDs), the Wildcats have won three straight and rank 35th nationally in scoring at 32.7 points per game.
“It’s really frustrating, because we would have 10 guys doing their job and then all it takes is one and it’s out the gate,” redshirt junior outside linebacker Kyler Jordan said. “We got a really talented team, so we really got to go out there and do our best. We really just need to play as a unit more than anything, and I think I think we’re capable of that, we just need to go and do it.”
The Bears will face off against Arizona at noon Saturday in Tucson, Ariz. The game will be broadcast on TNT.
