Why R.J. Sneed Needs To Be More Involved on Saturday

Baylor’s road woes have become a theme in the 2021 season. There haven’t been any blowout losses and the Bears had opportunities to win in Stillwater and Fort Worth, but for whatever reason the team has not looked great away from Waco. Thankfully, the Bears will get one last chance to silence that narrative before it sticks for the next 9 months. To accomplish that, I believe R.J. Sneed will need to be more involved than he has been in the past couple of road trips.

The math is simple—Sneed has a total of 2 receptions for 8-yds in the Bears losses against Oklahoma State and TCU. To me, it’s no coincidence that when Sneed is not getting touches, the Bears tend to struggle. As a comparison, in each of Baylor’s biggest wins (ISU, BYU, UT & OU) he had multiple grabs and had a game-high reception over 20-yds in each one of them.

It doesn’t feel like Sneed has been relied on near as much this year as opposed to last season. That’s a good thing for the team. Last year, it seemed like the entire offense was just waiting on R.J. to make an acrobatic catch in order to move the football. Obviously, the team has been more balanced this season and Sneed’s blocking has played a role in that. But at the end of the day he is a proven playmaker and he has showed it time and time again. I was proud that he came back after his fumble on Saturday and help put the game away with a 20-yd reception.

I don’t know how much it means but R.J. and Gerry had a moment the last time the Bears played in Manhattan. When Charlie Brewer went down with an injury, the two connected on a 3rd and long and Sneed broke several tackle to get the first down—helping the Bears put the game away. With Tyquan Thornton having back to back big weeks, I except Kansas State to game-plan to stop him—that should open things up for Sneed.