The Baylor Bears Are Not a Good Football Team (Yet)
I grew up in suburban Massachusetts and every October I would see thousands of people flock to our little towns in search of the paranormal, the ghoulish, and the downright terrifying.
Baylor Bears fans, I'll save you the trip to tourist-trap Salem, you need not go any farther than Morgantown, West Virginia.
Milan Pusker Stadium was once again a house of horrors for the Bears, as they run their record to 0-6 all-time in Morgantown after a hair-raising 43-40 defeat at the hands of the West Virginia Mountaineers. Now at 3-3 on the season, there seems to be a new fault with this team every week, which leads me to the inevitable conclusion that this team just isn't very good...yet.
Based on the preseason hype and where West Virginia was in the standings, this is one of the most disappointing losses in recent memory for Baylor. This defense which brought back so many contributors from last year's suffocating unit gave up 500 yards of offense to third-time-is-hopefully-the-charm retread quarterback J.T. Daniels and gave up more than 35 points for the second game in a row. If that is what they give you after a BYE week, this team could be in some serious trouble.
Maybe we should have seen a performance like this coming when coach Dave Aranda said last weekend his team is full of "immature" young players and "complacent" veterans. It's not exactly the most comforting things for fans to hear about their team a month and a half into the season.
Of course, the main problem here is the defense. Coming into the season, we could have expected the inexperienced secondary wouldn't be their strong suit but I, and I'm sure many Baylor fans, thought the opposing quarterback wouldn't have all day to get the ball out. I also thought the run-stuffing ability would make offenses one-dimensional.
I was wrong. Baylor's defensive line is far too committed to spooky season, because they are a bunch of ghosts lining up each play.
Preseason All-American Siaki Ika has been fine this season, but not the monster disrupter we expected. Gabe Hall and Jaxon Player have been so non-existent the past few weeks that I'm wondering if they are injured. Based on what we all thought going into this season, the defensive line has undoubtedly been the most disappointing unit.
The line, however, has been far from the only disappointment defensively. Did Matt Jones play Thursday? How about Bryson Jackson? Those are both guys who have shown their talent in bursts this year but aren't putting it together when the games really matter.
The point is: we know how good those guys can be, and we know how good those units can be, but we don't really know how good this team can be. There is a tiny, tiny window for a Big 12 Championship Game appearance because of how wide open the conference is, but the window is closing fast.
The season looks really bleak right now, but I think this team has the players and the staff to turn it around. That doesn't mean they always do.
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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.