As a program matures, year three is typically the season where the most growth should occur.
During that season, there are benchmarks that must be crossed to signal that it really is making that move.
For the 2019 Bears, it started with the defense trying to collect sacks and turnovers.
Well, the Bears lead the Big 12 25 with sacks and just equaled their 2018 total. They also have forced 13 turnovers, which is three more than they forced in 2018 (10) and two more than in 2017 (11).
Then it was winning important conference road games. That started two weeks ago at Kansas State. It culminated in winning and finishing in a place that’s been more than a chamber of horrors – Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, OK.
Not only did Baylor win, 45-27, it finished, finished strongly and played like a program that knows it can beat anyone anywhere and at any time.
The Stillwater demons are gone. The fourth quarter blown leads are gone. The offensive explosive plays are returning.
And the Bears control their destiny in the Big 12 Championship Game race. When this game was played two years ago, the Bears were run out of the building, 59-16, and looked like a team that had no idea if it belonged at all.
Fast forward 24 months later and trust the process isn’t a phrase that has a super cool ring to it. There’s really something to it.
Baylor was ready to play this game and it showed on the opening possession when it scored on John Lovett’s 25-yard run.
Obviously, football is never smooth. There’s going to be some adversity. And there was. The Bears fell behind 13-7, 13-10 at the half, took a punch early in the third quarter and dealt with their largest deficit of the season (20-10).
The 2017 team folds. The 2018 team probably makes a game of it but probably comes up short. The 2019 team responds.
That’s probably the best quality of this team. They made it hard on themselves in the wins over Iowa State – how is that win looking now? – and Texas Tech where they blew leads and had to win it or force overtime to eventually win it in the final minutes. But they didn’t doubt themselves in those scenarios.
They didn’t doubt themselves as they saw another fourth quarter lead, modest as it was, disappear. Rather they were emboldened. Charlie Brewer smartly directed a 75-yard drive that finished in his somewhat helicopter-esque move into the end zone. That gave Baylor the lead for good.
To be sure, this wasn’t a vintage Oklahoma State team that we have seen the Bears play in the past. The Cowboys are very vulnerable especially with a redshirt quarterback in Spencer Sanders who is a turnover machine. He played to the script with three more miscues including the defining fumble that Terrel Bernard scooped and scored to essentially put a wrap on this.
Talking about finishing and actually learning how to finish are two separate things. It really comes down to a team finding a way to control the emotions within the stress, slow the game down and stay within the play.
That’s what Brewer has mastered. And because he led a drive that answered with the go-ahead score, it seemed that the rest of the team finally understood what it takes.
These are the a-ha moments of the season and the program. The journey toward becoming a great program is far more exciting than staying there. There is a newness and freshness to it.
Baylor has conquered the fun journey. It’s going to beat West Virginia on Halloween night. And the chances of beating a very wounded TCU team in its building seem to be growing by the day.
The Bears would be 9-0 going into the Nov. 16 potential first meeting with Oklahoma. Of course, the Bears won’t talk about that. They’re more concerned about getting some rest on this bye week, staying in the moment with their work and then moving on toward the Mountaineers.
There are more benchmarks to come.
