Baylor escapes Cincinnati by three
CINCINNATI, Ohio— In desperate need of a win the Baylor Bears traveled to the Buckeye State to take on the conference newbie Cincinnati Bearcats who were hunting for their first Big 12 win. It was a close game throughout and the Bearcats were nipping at the heels of the Bears the entire time but Baylor held the lead for most of the game and ended up walking away with a 32-29 win.
Baylor now improves to 3-4 and will return home to face the Iowa State Cyclones next Saturday, while Cincinnati falls to 2-5 on the year, still looking for their first Big 12 win. They will travel to Stillwater next week to take on Oklahoma State.
The game opened up with Cincinnati driving deep into Baylor territory and threatening to score. However, on fourth and short the Bearcats opted to go for it and failed, giving the ball to the Bears for the first time.
The Bears picked up a quick first down but then stalled and punted to give Cincinnati the ball back. Thanks to some good defensive plays by Matt Jones, Baylor held defensively and forced a punt themselves.
Josh Cameron got a big return that set the Bears up at the Bearcat 32 yard line. Unfortunately the drive moved backwards, but Isaiah Hankins came in and nailed a 54-yard field goal to give Baylor a 3-0 lead.
Cincinnati then responded with a 14-play drive that took up the rest of the first quarter. Then, on the opening play of the second quarter, quarterback Emory Jones found Xzavier Henderson for a 4-yard scoring strike to give the Bearcats a 7-3 lead.
Baylor responded quickly and took it right down the field, capped off with a 3-yard keeper by Blake Shapen to retake the lead at 10-7. On the ensuing kickoff, the ball was knocked loose and right into the hands of Byron Vaughns who just strolled in for the touchdown to make it 17-7.
The defense then forced a three-and-out to get the ball back. The offense drove down the field again but ultimately settled for a 43-yard field goal by Hankins. Not long after, the Bearcats scored on a 38-yard touchdown run by Myles Montgomery to end an eventful first half at 20-14.
Baylor took the opening drive of the second half and methodically drove down the field and scored on a 6-yard screen pass to tight end Jake Roberts. They opted to go for the two-point conversion, but were not successful and the score remained 26-17.
The defense held on fourth down again to get the ball back after the Bearcats drove into Baylor territory. The offense got some good yardage on the ensuing drive, but once again was left settling for a field goal to make the score 29-14 going into the final frame.
Just two plays into the fourth quarter, Cincinnati got on the board again with a 1-yard run by Montgomery to close the gap. The Bears answered with a drive into the Cincinnati redzone, but an intentional grounding penalty pushed them back and they called upon Hankins one more time to make it 32-21.
Leading by 11, the defense took a conservative approach from that point on, which allowed the Bearcats to make a final push. With just over five minutes to go, Jones found Henderson again from 29 yards out. The two point conversion was successful, and it once again became a three point game at 32-29.
The Bears were able to get near midfield late and keep the ball out of Cincinnati’s hands but they stalled and had to punt. A great punt pinned the Bearcats inside their own 10 yard line. They quickly had a drive going but when it got to midfield, the Baylor defense stood tall and got the stop, ending Cincinnati’s hopes of that elusive conference win.