A spirited effort from the opening snap lasted for all 60 minutes. Baylor put together its most impressive performance of the season as it blew out West Virginia, 45-20, Saturday at McLane Stadium.

After a bewildering performance last week against Oklahoma State, quarterback Gerry Bohanon was on target with a comfortable pocket for most of the day. He threw for a career-high 336 yards and four touchdowns as the Bears (5-1, 3-1) crept one game closer to becoming a postseason team.

Baylor can reach bowl eligibility next week when it plays host to BYU (2:30 p.m., ESPN/ESPN2) for Homecoming in a matchup of future Big 12 opponents.

The Bears scored on their first three possessions of the game and let Bohanon fly with the deep vertical that worked beautifully in strikes to receiver Tyquan Thornton and tight end Ben Sims.

However, Bohanon’s first touchdown pass to Thornton that covered 75 yards was just a little slant where two West Virginia defenders got caught flat footed and Thornton easily ran away from the pack.

West Virginia briefly tied it. However, Bohanon used a 44-yard strike to Thornton to set up his 10-yard touchdown pass to Ben Sims. Bohanon connected twice with Thornton and Sims on scoring plays. Thornton finished with a career-high 187 yards.

The Bears essentially put this one away late in the opening period following Jalen Pitre’s interception at the Mountaineer 47. Bohanon closed the opportunity with a QB sneak from the West Virginia goal line.

Baylor’s offensive line presented a clean pocket for Bohanon for most of the game. Rarely, was he under duress and a healthy number of passing plays were used on play action plays even when there wasn’t a running back in the area.

It somehow seemed to confuse the Mountaineer defense. The Mountaineers, who came into the game leading the Big 12 in sacks with 17, didn’t collect any.

This offensive renaissance was a far cry from the 350 it collected between the second half against Iowa State through the Oklahoma State game. Baylor finished with 525.

Meanwhile Baylor’s defense harassed West Virginia quarterbacks Jarret Doege and Garrett Greene with six sacks.

Baylor firmly put itself in the middle of the Big 12 race with this victory and has home games against Texas (Oct. 30) and Oklahoma (Nov. 13) remaining.

With the exception of the West Virginia win in Waco in 2017 (Matt Rhule’s first year), this series held to form with the home team winning in the other nine meetings.