By Bennett Parker | Sports Writer
Head coach Dave Aranda has attributed much of his team’s early shortcomings to a lack of clean play.
Aranda has said that penalties are the reason the run game has not found its explosiveness and the offense is struggling to sustain drives over 10 plays throughout the game. The Bears seem to be shooting themselves in the foot, and that is what is keeping them from reaching their potential.
Baylor (2-1) believes its best football is still ahead, recognizing a few wrinkles that need to be ironed out before its first Big 12 game against Colorado (2-1) on Saturday.
The Bears host head coach Deion Sanders and Colorado as both teams are in search of a strong start to conference play. After a sloppy win against Louisiana Tech, both the offense and the defense feel like they have more in the chamber.
“I feel like everybody has their own chip on their shoulder,” fifth-year linebacker Travion Barnes said. “The whole entire team, everyone coming to practice, working hard, constantly, just due to how our season went last year. So everybody is taking that kind of personal and just going from there, using it as motivation fuel.”
Fifth-year wide receiver Jayden McGowan echoed this when asked if there was something to prove on the offensive side of the ball.
“We’ve gone into these games, and we were talking about how we slowed down at the end of the game,” McGowan said. “But we have to keep our foot on the gas. We got to be more disciplined; we had a lot of offensive penalties … We got to be more on detail and just keep our foot on the opponent’s necks through all four quarters.”
Sloppy play has been a talking point for the Bears over the last couple weeks. They have committed 24 penalties this season, with 19 in the last two games.
“We have known that we have to continue to [play cleaner],” Aranda said. “Practice is the closest thing you’ve got to games. You’ve got to hold guys accountable in practice in terms of penalties and put them in competitive spots where they’re tired, where they’re hot … and get them to where they’ve got to move their feet.”
Penalties aren’t the only area of focus for Baylor ahead of the Colorado game. Sacks saw a dramatic falloff in Week 3 against the Bulldogs, with only one strip sack to the Bears’ name compared to the nine across the first two games.
“We are at our best when we rush as a unit,” Aranda said. “All four guys working as one … We need to apply pressure for 60 minutes from the very beginning. That’s something we’re talking about all week long.”
Colorado is on the heels of a 34-point loss to Northwestern and will be playing with a fire lit under them in McLane Stadium.
“With the start of the league and their [coach Sanders] and knowing who he is and what he’s about, we’re going to get their best game, their best effort, their best shot,” Aranda said.
For the players, they talk about the Buffs the same way they have every other team.
“It’s a nameless, faceless opponent,” McGowan said. “We’re just going out and playing these guys like any other opponent. Going in every week with the same process we started off with, we’re just going to play them how we’ve been playing, to our standard.”
That standard is something fans have heard about but have yet to see the full product on the field. The football season is in full swing, and the Bears are hopeful to hit their stride against their first Big 12 foe.
Baylor faces Colorado at 11 a.m. Saturday in McLane Stadium. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
