ANALYSIS: Baylor now 4-0 after knocking off Oklahoma St., 35-24

No. 15/16 Baylor defeated Oklahoma St., 35-24, Saturday night at McLane Stadium in the Big 12 opener for both teams. The Bears improve to 4-0 and 1-0 and will play at Iowa St. on Saturday. So what did the publisher think?

In another walk of life, I was talking to a coach about what he hopes to see out of his team the day after it played a hard fought football game. He explained it to me this way: It was good football. The competitor had spent it all. That’s the mentality he wanted his players to bring to every game. He wanted them to be sore because it meant they competed.

Even if you never played a down of this game in your life, you saw Saturday night exactly what this coach was describing. In the seven seasons that I have really watched this Baylor program – and I mean really watched it – I would call this arguably one of the top 2-3 efforts.

Now, the euphoria that comes with a game like this always makes the mind spin in every direction. There’s no possible game that will ever outmatch this. Well, that’s because we haven’t really focused on others that might compare or even be better. But this Baylor defense (and probably the team) is going to wake up at some point on Sunday extremely sore and extremely exhausted. This unit is gassed. Indeed, it did leave everything out there on the banks of the Brazos.

We thought this Baylor defense was pretty solid. But we were still a little on the fence because of a non-conference schedule that didn’t offer much of a challenge. NOW WE KNOW!

I’ve always been a defensive advocate. I love watching good defenses go to work. I always have. When you have a good defense, you control your opponent every time. I take nothing away from what Baylor done over the years offensively. That’s how this program reached this point. But give me a punter and a defense, and I’m good with that.

This is not a shutdown defense. It’s not a group that with overwhelm with superior talent. It will get gouged every now and then. But it’s a family. Every starter and reserve who play a role has each other’s back. It finds a way. It found a way against the Cowboys. Baylor was on the field for more than 41 minutes. It saw Oklahoma St. run 101 plays. It saw the Cowboys convert 12 of 20 third downs. It saw the Cowboys rush for 213 yards and come up with 492 total yards. That’s the formula that leads to the other team winning.

But it's about making the right stops. On Saturday, Baylor’s defense made two stops inside its 3-yard line – in the fourth quarter: on a 4th and 2 at its 3-yard line and recovering a fumble inside its 1-yard line. It created four turnovers. It sacked OSU quarterback Mason Rudolph four times. It collected 13 tackles for loss. It held OSU to 4.9 yards per play. It made three stops in the red zone in the fourth quarter. I think it was in the fourth quarter before the fumble that was recovered when the FOX cameras locked into the defensive line. Hands were on hips. They were breathing hard. They kept playing. Somewhere in this game, there was the fortifying of chemistry or whatever you want to call it where the Baylor defense had its personality defined and toughness revealed. This is what it means when you hear people say they had to grind out this win.

Verkedric Vaughns had his best game as a Baylor Bear. He did a great job – playing a lot of man coverage against OSU’s James Washington – of handling his assignment. The play of the game was his tackle, strip and fumble recovery of Cowboys’ running back Justice Hill that led to a Baylor TD. When the Baylor coaching staff decided to put Patrick Levels and Travon Blanchard on the field at the same time, the idea was for this group to have its best playmakers on the field. Are there any questions? If you noticed, you cannot run wide on this group. The way that you’re going to beat Baylor is if you do it going North-South. Go to the perimeter? Good luck with that. These linebackers are the best group on this team IMO. I also believe Baylor tackled really well.

Let’s go back to the 4th and 2 stop at its three. This was when Jim Grobe decided to go for it at his 24-yard line (I know what he said but please) and was denied. Baylor only led 28-24. No slumped shoulders. The 11 went out, nodded and denied the Cowboys. I agreed with OSU coach Mike Gundy’s decision to go for it rather than kick the field goal. He likes the way his offense is moving. He's on the road. He can see Baylor is on its heels. If he takes the lead, that’s a mental edge. It didn’t work. That was the stop of this game.

Baylor’s offense only scored two touchdowns in the second half. But it had the flare for length. Seth Russell throws his best football of the season with an 89-yard touchdown pass to Chris “the hands are back” Platt (3-114 2TD). Then, the offense capitalizes on the recovered fumble inside the one and goes the entire length of the field when Russell throws his second TD pass to Platt.

Of course, this offense had to do without K.D. Cannon who wound up straining a groin in his leg in the first half and didn’t return for the second. We’ll find out more early next week about his status at Iowa St.

Yet we welcomed back hopefully reformed and a little more humbled sophomore wide receiver Ishmael Zamora. He had the look-what-I-found 38-yard touchdown pass that was coupled with his other 38-yard TD grab. Of course, he mouthed on one of them and then received an earful of what for from offensive coordinator Kendal Briles after that. He seemed to be a boy scout after that. Russell, who was a little iffy in the first half, was pretty dead on in the second half. For the game: 18-of-28 for 387 yards and 4 TDs.

While the running game was pretty pedestrian (136 yards but not surprising because Oklahoma St. has a pretty solid run defense) – Russell had a good night – we are seeing the changing of the guard. Shock Linwood only had two carries. This part is now in JaMycal Hasty and Terence Williams hands. Those two combined for 24 carries. For the most part, I was OK with the offensive game plan. Minus the misfires in the red zone in the first half, I liked the pace. The first TD drive was vintage Baylor. But we’ll get into that more on Monday.

Yes, there was the Tony Nicholson gaffe on the punt that led to Oklahoma St.’s first score. But Baylor didn’t have to call upon walk-on place-kicker Connor Martin. He drilled all five extra points. It was a perfect way to break in. It’s probably too early to wonder if there will be a battle to become Baylor’s No. 1 kicker following Chris Callahan’s one-game suspension. But if I’m Grobe, it’s an open competition. I love Drew Galitz, 43.7 per and a long of 53. He flips the field. I know there’s this rage about angling punts to reduce the net yardage in return. You know what? Coaches overthink that. If you have one with a big leg who can boom it, you’re fine. If you’re a coach who wants to trick it up with this stuff, that signals you didn’t put in the time to really look for a solid punter. That’s your fault.

There is so much more to cover with this game and to discuss. I know I didn’t cover all of it. This was a team win. Now, it’s on to Iowa St. and taking another step in pursuit of bowl eligibility and to stay in the race for the Big 12 championship.

Just keep working.