Baylor vs. Rice- The Morning After- Highlights, Notes, Tweets

While Baylor has a lot of questions entering conference play, the team is 3-0. It sounds like everyone will be available against Oklahoma State, and the conference may be the worst it’s been in years. Though we should have a better idea after this weekend if Oklahoma is worse than we thought entering the season, or if Houston is ready to win a playoff game, and where the rest of the Big 12 falls.

Highlights:

Football Notes:

The Good:

*Shock sets record- Congratulations to Shock Linwood for breaking Walter Abercrombie’s career rushing record. Linwood has had a wonderful career, including huge moments in two of the biggest wins in program history against Oklahoma in 2013 and TCU in 2014. Linwood still has at least 9 more games to build on his career total.

*K.D. Cannon- The man came to play. On a day where too many passes were dropped, Cannon dominated.

*Travon Blanchard- After missing the first two weeks of the season following surgery, Blanchard came out and made plays. In the 3rd quarter, Blanchard got to the quarterback in about two seconds and threw him down for a sack. Blanchard was a key piece in Baylor holding Rice to zero points in the second half.

*Injuries- Orion Stewart left the game, Kyle Fuller missed a few plays, K.D. Cannon hobbled at the end, and Shock Linwood has been banged up. So why is this good news? Well, Grobe said, "Mike Sims said we should have everyone going next week.... hopefully we’ll have everyone at it and full speed by next week." That’s good news because those guys are essential for the team. Baylor is in a fortunate spot if everyone is ready to go next week, especially if Ryan Reid can return.

*Lasers- While Baylor had a number of problems in the first half, the referee was forced to make a request I doubt I’ll ever see again after someone in the stands was shinning a laser on the field:

The Bad:

*Drops- Chris Platt and Blake Lynch dropped a number of passes. Coach Grobe noted, "We dropped some balls we should catch.. we have talent at the wide receiver position." Both Platt and Lynch have huge futures, but with Seth Russell struggling again early, this only made the problems with the offense worse. Lynch sent out a tweet that shows why he’ll be a fan favorite:

*First Half- Baylor once again had another bad first half. The Bears entered the locker room up 21-10. Rice entered the game as one of the worst defensive teams in the country. Baylor has to be far better if they want to contend in what looks like it may be one of the worst Big 12 seasons top to bottom in some time.

*Kicking- Callahan missed two field goals from 37 and 47 yards. His miss before halftime was way off. Callahan also got into it on the sideline with Jordan Tolbert.

Non-Football Notes:

*Art Briles- Art Briles sat in the stands at the game. Whether Briles will be at future games is unknown. I’m interested to hear from people who saw him at the game, and what he had to say. ESPN’s Sam Khan Jr. spoke with Briles. Briles said this, "I love these players and I love these coaches," Briles told ESPN.com "I love Baylor Nation. It's the only time I've been able to show up for a game."

*Shawn Oakman- Oakman was also sitting in the stands. A grand jury indicted Oakman for second degree felony sexual assault in July. Jessica Morey of KCEN had this:

*Rice Band- Their band’s performance included forming a "IX" to symbolize Title IX, and a star for departed president Ken Starr. Jason Kirk of SB Nation criticized the move, while John McClain of the Houston Chronicle thought critics needed to lighten up.

TWEETS:

We would normally throw some links in here, but almost every story is about the Rice band or Briles appearing. Feel free to read those takes. I would prefer to save you all the time because I assume you all can figure out what people could think about those two things, and we’ve got some great games today.

After Baylor elected to not run up the score:

After Mark tweeted out, "What’s he supposed to do" following a penalty for Sam Tecklenburg staying in his block after his helmet was knocked off, Tecklenburg had this gem of a tweet:

Well, all right:

I’ve really enjoyed listening to Jerry Hill and Elliot Coffey’s coverage: