ANALYSIS: The Improbable 180
West Virginia defeated Baylor, 24-21, in the regular season finale Saturday at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, WV. The Bears finished the regular season at 6-6 and 3-6 in the Big 12. Their six-game losing streak is the longest since 2007. All signs point to a bowl but we’ll have to wait and see on Sunday. You may want to look at the Cactus.
So what did the publisher think?
>Well, that was weird. So two calls that went against the Bears in the final 2:40 closed out this game and probably was a fitting ending to what has transformed into a season of misery.
>Looking at Baylor acting head coach Jim Grobe on what turned out to be a dreary miserable day in the mountains matched his facial expression. His nose was as red as a tomato. He kind of carried a scowl. He looked ready to end this thing. Can you blame him? Now, he really didn’t impact much of this season. To what extent, I don’t know what he could have done to make much of one given the bizarre circumstances. He’s going to be on campus through January. As off the chart bizarre as his comments were about possibly coaching the bowl, I guess you have to evaluate that as maybe he didn’t know for sure if Baylor is going to a bowl. Well, if Baylor is he should finish it out and coach the game. It would be ridiculous if he steps aside and defensive coordinator Phil Bennett – assuming its him – handles the game.
>Now to the calls. Let’s talk about the onside kick that Baylor recovered and then was whistled for a penalty for Aiavion Edwards initiating the block before the ball traveled 10 yards. First of all, Mike Perreira of FOX Sports said that rule was added into the review before the 2016 season. Ok, so we have to accept that. I couldn’t find anything in the NCAA rule book regarding that. However, I’m going to take Perreira at his word because if he talked about that and since the Big 12 crew called it the same way, then they’re not making this up.
Now, I’ve watched this replay several times with Edwards – I postponed my thoughts because I wanted to wait until the video was posted – and the only thing I will say is that it looks like the right call. That’s not going to be a popular stance with many of you.
When you watch the play, don’t look at what Edwards did with the first player he made contact with because that looked incidental. Look at what he did with the second player. He does appear to throw a block. That block is thrown at about the 44-yard line. He could have been flagged for one or the other but I think it’s the second. Remember, the onside originated from the 35. Any onside has to go at least 10 yards before Baylor can do something. That changes if the opponent touches the ball. One of the West Virginia up men did.
But in anything, the penalty supersedes a change in possession. The block took place maybe a split second after the West Virginia player touched the ball. It’s a terrible break because the Bears did everything right and covered the ball. Maybe we’re arguing semantics but like a holding penalty it’s a judgment call. It just went against the Bears. Of course, the Bears tried the onside kick again and it didn’t work.
>Once the Bears held the Mountaineers to a punt and got the ball at their 20, they advanced to their 37. In the final seconds, the chaos of QB Zach Smith lost fumble ensued. That was also the right call. Ishmael Wilson – who had about as bad a game you could have with at least three holding penalties and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty following Smith’s first lost fumble – for some reason tried to throw it like a hot potato instead of covering the ball. At first, it was called an illegal forward pass, Baylor kept the ball and there was a 10 second run off. There would have been 17 seconds on the clock. Then, it was reviewed and corrected. You have to really possess the ball in order for it to be called an illegal forward pass. Wilson didn’t. Game over.
>This was definitely a surprising game for the taking. In terms of effort, Baylor played its best game since Iowa State. But the issues with this team with penalties – 12-100 – and the four turnovers committed by Smith with his two interceptions and two fumbles neutralized the effort. What this game showed over the last six weeks is that Baylor’s margin for error is so thing. This team had to play without blemish to pull this off.
>West Virginia did its part by playing an incredibly poor game. QB Sklyer Howard from Fort Worth was terrible. He was 11-26 for 111 yards and made some brutal throws. Really brutal throws. The Mountaineers didn’t look like a 9-2 team. They have had some offensive issues throughout the season. And those flaws reappeared.
>Baylor’s defense played really hard, gave great effort and hung in there. While West Virginia was 4-18 on third down it was 3-4 on 4th down. Two of those conversions were touchdowns. Unfortunately, the Bears didn’t force any turnovers.
>I think its resonating that Baylor football 2017 and beyond will experience a rebuild. It should have a great leader in Smith. I’m not going to pretend to know his intentions beyond this year. That’s speculation. But his big arm could be the best that has come to Baylor pre Art Briles. The TD strike to Ish Zamora was a seed. The TD strike to KD Cannon was electric. The interception he threw at the end of the first half was a bad read. I know the comments made about Chris Platt not running through the rout. But I don’t think Smith read the safety either. He finished with 244 yards on 15-of-31. He also survived an unfortunate pick to start the game.
>Terence Williams legs have got to be feeling it. The way his ankle got turned along with his tendon issues were just tough to watch.
>This Baylor offensive line turned into the worst unit on this team. Again, not a surprise. When Briles and his staff were hoping for a late addition in May to help things, you knew they were Yikes about it. Also, my observation in the Spring Game that this unit stunk was validated.
>Zamora and Cannon were great. Cannon’s reception on his spontaneous juggling audition that led to Baylor’s first touchdown is the guy Baylor has been waiting on all year.
>Well, the 180 has happened. Baylor pulled off the improbable from starting 6-0 to finishing 6-6. A season that had so much angst at the start finally ends in the first weekend in December. There’s one game to play. Between now and then, the new era begins.
Rather than resent these final days, embrace them. We have no idea the next time Baylor will enjoy going bowling.