The Baylor Bears We Were Promised Showed Up Against Texas Tech
It might be too late now, but the Baylor Bears finally looked like a team capable of winning the Big 12 championship with their breakout performance against the Texas Tech Red Raiders Saturday.
Putting their road woes behind them, the Bears finally strutted into a hostile environment and dominated from the jump in the 45-17 victory.
Coming into the season, many fans expected the defensive line to carry on their suffocating 2021 performance into 2022 and they looked the part Saturday, racking up six sacks after collecting just 10 in the first seven games. They were finally disrupting a passing attack with their rush and Gabe Hall looked like the freak we know he can be, as he got three sacks by himself and Garmon Randolph added two more.
The Bears have also struggled mightily this season forcing turnovers, with just four interceptions coming into the game Saturday. The 'jackers and robbers' might just have made their triumphant return as the much-maligned secondary pounced on every Tech mistake, picking off five passes from three different Red Raider quarterbacks Saturday.
Defensively, it just looked like the Bears weren't bailing out the bad offense for the first time this year. The pass rush and the secondary made the game a living hell for starting quarterback Behren Morton, who looked every bit a freshman going a putrid 11-33 for 152 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions. Zach Kittley's high-powered offense which ranked second in the conference coming into the game just had no answers in what looked like another perfect Dave Aranda defensive game plan.
Oh and remember RVO from last year? Reliable violent offense? Where Baylor was going to run the ball down your throat until you stopped it or until they picked you apart in the play-action passing game? Yes, that is back, too.
The Bears dominated the line of scrimmage and that man Richard Reese once again looked like an all-conference running back, carrying the ball 36 times for 148 yards and three touchdowns, and not one of them was easy. Even with just two backs at their disposal, the Bears bullied the Tech defense to the tune of 231 rushing yards and 442 total yards.
They aren't going to win every game by four touchdowns, but this is exactly how this Baylor team was supposed to be winning games. They are built to smack you right in the mouth, wear you down, and force you to make mistakes. This is not last year's team, but it is built in the same mold and we finally saw a 2021 performance Saturday.
For the players and fans who have had to hear about how these Bears can't win in hostile atmospheres, spoiling such a big party in Raiderland must have felt good.
This conference is wide open folks, don't count out the Baylor Bears just yet.
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You can follow Cameron Stuart on Twitter @RealCamStuart
Covering Baylor for Inside The Bears and the Locked on Baylor podcast. You can follow me for more Baylor content at @realcamstuart on Twitter. Originally from Rockland, Massachusetts and a Baylor alum, so I might mix the occasional bias and/or Boston sports tweet in there every once in a while.