West Virginia (3-4, 1-3) at No. 11/12 Baylor (7-0, 4-0)

Site: McLane Stadium, Waco

Time/Day: 7:00 p.m. Thursday

TV/Radio: ESPN/ESPN Central Texas

Betting Line: Baylor -18

Series: West Virginia leads, 5-2

The countdown is on for Baylor’s 2019 season. Starting with Thursday’s Halloween meeting with West Virginia, there are 31 days remaining in the regular season.

Baylor would like for it to be extended to 38. That larger number is the extra week for advancing to the Big 12 championship game on Dec. 7 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

What the Bears know at this point is that they don’t need any help from anyone to reach the title game. The goals of gaining bowl eligibility and clinching a winning season have been accomplished.

This is about making the push toward the championship game. The Bears control their destiny. Yet they also understand that the pressure to win is even greater.

It doesn’t matter if the opponent is the Mountaineers or Oklahoma. Amid the chaos, a team has to find a way to play with a sense of calm.

Still, this team knows it's being chased. Following Kansas State’s upset of Oklahoma, the Bears are now at the top of the summit. They are the ones being pursued after being the ones doing the pursuing. It’s different and new mentality.

“I think our guys have done a good job,’’ Baylor Head Coach Matt Rhule said. “Sometimes when you start winning guys start retweeting a lot of pictures of themselves on social media and I want them to have fun, don’t get me wrong, but if you are not going to retweet when you are 0-7, then you shouldn’t retweet when you are 7-0. You should just live the same way all the time.

“But I think at the end of the day it just comes down to work. If they show up to work then so be it. And they have been showing up to work. Now, we need to show up and play really really well on Thursday night and we will see if we can get them to that point.”

Baylor is in the position for this meeting that West Virginia was in last year’s meeting in Morgantown, WV. The Bears are now the veteran team. They have the stable coaching staff. They have the rising quarterback. They have the polished defense.

When the Bears traveled North last year, they were disorganized, saw their QB get knocked out of the game and lose their nerve in a 58-14 loss.

West Virginia has the new coaching staff led by Neal Brown. There is a decent but not overwhelming QB play in Oklahoma transfer Austin Kendall. There is no running game. There is nothing special about it defensively. Hence, this team is a on a three-game losing streak.

A win also snaps a three-game losing streak in this series. Baylor hasn’t won this game since 2015 in Waco.

Here are some elements to look for…

>JT Woods is expected to get the start at safety for the second consecutive game for the ailing Grayland Arnold. It will be his third start in the last four. While it’s been tough for the Bears secondary to not only lose Arnold, they also don’t have their difference maker in the return game. As for Woods, he’s played pretty steady. That’s all you can ask of your backups. Plus, the reps are invaluable.

>The quiet part of why Baylor’s meteoric play in its defensive line is because the expectations for senior James Lockhart have come to fruition. He has 2.5 of his 3.5 sacks during league play. He’s been just good enough so teams do have to pay attention to him. That attention has been plenty for junior defensive end James Lynch to put together an All-American type of season and senior nose tackle Bravvion Roy to play at a higher level.

>Rhule said slash Trestan Ebner is available and could see some time. You can take that any way you want to with it between starting to never seeing a down. He appeared in only two plays against Texas Tech. He did not play against Oklahoma State. Baylor has survived on offense without the benefit of its utility player. It may be a situation that Ebner would play only if the game becomes an issue like Texas Tech did.

>After collecting 21 total turnovers between the 2017 and 2018 seasons, Baylor’s defense has collected 13 through the first seven games and is on a pace to eclipse that combined total with 22 this season. West Virginia isn’t overly gifting with 11 total giveaways thus far. However, Mountaineer QBs have thrown nine interceptions this season.

Notable

Baylor holds a 113-55-2 record all-time as a ranked team.

Keys to the Game

>Fast means Fast – Baylor’s slow starts have been an issue for a good part of the season. But it may have found something at Oklahoma State with an early touchdown. A fast start against a team it should beat would be immense and mentally let the Mountaineers know they aren’t going to be able to stick around in this one. Also, Baylor has forced a punt on its opponents first possession in its first seven games.

>Stop what should be stopped – West Virginia has the Big 12’s worst rushing offense in the conference averaging only 88 yards per game (it’s also dead last in total offense at 314 ypg). It doesn’t have a back that has surpassed 200 yards. Kennedy McCoy and Leddie Brown are at 188 and 184 yards respectively. Baylor’s rushing defense allows just 137.4 yards per game and 3.6 per attempt. Form needs to hold here.

>TCU is Nov. 9 not Oct. 31 – Rhule said all the right things that his team has done a good job of keeping everything in perspective. But people are people. And you can be sure that Baylor players know the Horned Frogs loom in 10 days. A mature team should handle this game with the Mountaineers. However, this is sports and weird things can happen.

>T squared – Who has been Baylor’s best receiver in Big 12 play? If you answered, Denzel Mims, you would be wrong. It’s been sophomore Tyquan Thornton. In the first four league games, Thornton leads all receivers with 21 receptions and has had no fewer than 83 receiving yards in a game. You could make the debate that he’s moving closer toward becoming the No. 1 receiver for this team because he’s more consistent. Even if Mims is 100 percent, Thornton has shown he can handle any situation.

Prediction

West Virginia is a bad team. But once in a while bad teams can come up with a good performance. For Baylor to have some bizarre performance, it’s going to have to help the Mountaineers with turnovers, drive killing penalties and not being mentally ready to play. Play this game straight up and this game is over somewhere in the middle of the third quarter. I don’t see this is a revenge game for the Bears – after what happened in Morgantown last year – so much as this program proving to itself it can handle playing with a different set of expectations. Strong leadership in the locker room between Brewer and Lynch and even the injured Clay Johnston make an impact. Plus, West Virginia just doesn’t have the offensive firepower to stay with the Bears. I expect the Bears to be efficient.

Baylor 38, West Virginia 17