WACO, Texas— When the college football season opened, Baylor was a favorite over Texas State by more than three possessions. So when the Bobcats walked out of Waco having defeated the Bears 42-31, everyone leaving McLane Stadium was in a state of shock.
After a very promising spring, and an enthusiastic fall camp, Baylor fans had every reason to believe they would be improved from the 2022 season. However, there appears to still be reason to be worried after the opening day performance.
During his postgame press conference head coach Dave Aranda was asked about the issues throughout the game
"Perfect example is, one thing that has been a hinderance to us throughout camp has been receivers on the ball vs. off the ball. Especially when we try to go tempo. That showed up tonight. Now that has been a struggle throughout camp. We've had scrimmages and we have refs at the scrimmages, they'll give the feedback that we're not...too many guys in the backfield. Throughout this week was the best that it has ever been. And so we feel like we're over the hump, only to get under the lights tonight and it seems very obviously that we're not. I think a lot of things tonight were under that type of example of things that we're fighting and we're making progress in, but not enough."
The Bears(0-1) will now go back to the drawing board before welcoming in the Utah Utes(1-0) next Saturday, September 9 at 11 a.m.
It was a rough day for the offensive line, with constant pressure from a blitzing defense, and for the Baylor defense as a whole, who gave up 42 points to a team they only surrendered seven against a year ago.
Baylor got on the board first after forcing a three and out, but a false start penalty moved them back away from the goal line. They stalled three plays later and were forced to kick a field goal. The Bobcats switched up their offensive game plan on the following drive, and marched right down the field, aided by an illegal substitution penalty. They took a 7-3 lead on a 10-yard touchdown pass from TJ Finley to Ismail Mahdi.
Finley finished the game with 22 completions on 30 attempts for 298 yards through the air and 3 touchdowns. He also added 18 yards on 6 carries and a score.
After being forced into a three and out, the Bears recovered a fumble and it appeared to be in position to take the lead, but again were plagued by penalties and forced to settle for a 53-yard field goal by Isaiah Hankins to make it a one point game at 7-6.
Just over a minute later, Mahdi took a handoff up the middle and broke free to go 65 yards for the score. Baylor went three-and-out on the ensuing drive and ended the first quarter down 14-6.
To open the second quarter, Texas State took over five minutes off of the clock, highlighted by two fourth down conversions to keep the drive alive. Finley finished it off with a 27-yard touchdown pass to extend the lead.
The Bears responded and finally found the end zone when Blake Shapen scrambled and decided to take it in himself from nine yards out to make it 21-13. But with less than a minute to go, Jahmyl Jeter punched it in from the one yard line to give the Bobcats a 28-13 halftime lead.
After making some adjustments, Baylor came out firing in the start of the second half as Shapen threw to Drake Dabney who made the catch along the sideline and raced 53 yards to pay dirt. The two-point conversion connected and it was a seven point game at 28-21.
The Bobcats wasted no time responding, as after an incredible one handed catch set them up in the red zone, Finley kept it himself and scored from nine yards. The Bears tried to respond but stalled in plus territory and could not convert on fourth down. They got the ball back after a fumble, but again stalled in the red zone and had to settle for a field goal, making it 35-24 after three quarters of play.
The Bobcats opened up the final frame with a 26-yard touchdown strike from Finley to Joey Hobert, and suddenly it was 42-24. Again the Bears responded, but took a lot of time off the clock to do so. The clock was under nine minutes to go when Shapen hit Dabney in the back of the end zone for a score to keep the game alive.
The defense did the offense a huge favor though, and came up with a late stop to get the ball back. Sawyer Robertson came in for a banged up Shapen and drove the offense down to inside the five, but a deflected pass was intercepted in the end zone and gave the ball back to Texas State. The two traded possession one more time, but Robertson fumbled on a long run and Texas State was able to kneel out the clock, solidifying the first time Baylor was defeated by Texas State.
"It's not acceptable," Aranda said about the loss. "I talked to the team about how it's not. I take responsibility for it. I thought that whether it was the wide eyes or the lack of details and just all of those things that I take a lot of pride in, I was counting on those things being done or thought they were done. To come and see that their not is painful. And so, we'll get better from it."
