The good news? In a thrilling display of big-conference MACtion, Baylor won its tenth game this season for only the second time in program history by amassing nearly 800 yards (program record) and scoring 9 touchdowns. In his final game for Baylor, Terrance Ganaway gained 201 yards on 21 carries and scored 5 touchdowns. Baylor as a whole gained over 480 yards on the ground (not bad for a spread offense, right?). In a game where Baylor entered the second half down 11 points, Baylor actually covered by scoring 43 points in the second half alone. Baylor's offense was every bit as good as I thought it would be going into this game.
The bad news? Baylor's defense was way, way, way worse. Phil Bennett's unit gave up over 600 yards of offense and 7 TDs tonight and may have crowned next year's Heisman Trophy winner in Washington's Keith Price. Price threw for over 430 yards and 4 TDs and ran for 3 more, including one that might be one of the best plays of the season. What's more, with a somewhat lackluster game by his standards, Robert Griffin III *might* not enter the NCAA record books officially as the holder of the single-season passing efficiency record. He finished the season with a line of 72% completion percentage, 4,293 yards passing, 37 TDs and 6 interceptions, which are good for a 189.48 ranking. We'll know more when Russell Wilson plays in the Rose Bowl against Oregon.
Worst of all was my pregame prediction, which ended up being off by almost 50 total points. I either vastly overrated our defense coming into the game or underrated Washington's offense. Probably a mixture of both. I guess you could say they tightened things up in the second half by allowing only 21 points (considering they gave up 35 in the first), but at no point should any Baylor fan have been comfortable with the defensive product on the field. The defensive rankings proved entirely justified.
Still, if this was RG3's last game at Baylor, he went out in a display of offensive fireworks (by the entire Baylor team) the likes of which our program has never seen before. We won our first bowl game since I was in elementary school and 10 wins in a single season, tying a Baylor record. Baylor will possibly finish in the top 10 for the first time in school history. He won the first Heisman Trophy our school has ever known. He has done everything we could have ever expected and so much more.
60,000 Baylor fans descended on San Antonio tonight and saw something they'll probably remember for a long, long time.
UPDATE: Ganaway and Elliot Coffey were named Offensive and Defensive MVPs of the game in what has to be the most ludicrous usage of the phrase "Defensive MVP" in the history of sport.
UPDATE #2: Baylor set records for a bowl performance tonight in total yards (777) and points (67), and the two teams combined to set records for total yards (1397), points in a quarter (43), and touchdowns (17). Keith Price set an individual bowl record by accounting for 7 TDs.