Big 12 Championship Postmortem

ARLINGTON, Texas – Well, gang, I don’t know how else to break the news to you. Baylor, led by their backup quarterback, walked right the hell into AT&T Stadium, dropped 21 first half points, and then double-dog dared Spencer Sanders and company to get to 22. What resulted was a 4 interception, 0 touchdown day from the All Big-12 First Team Quarterback and the third conference championship trophy in 8 years for your Baylor Bears.

Incredible.

Anyone who was in Arlington for a little pre-game tailgate action would have quickly noticed that Baylor fans were outnumbered by nearly 3-1. There was Orange everywhere and they had no idea how bad they were about to be hurt lol. I think a lot of people are up in arms about Baylor not traveling all that well, but here’s the thing: I literally don’t care. They have a larger and more dedicated fan base? Sure, whatever. We showed up the best we could and walked out a winner. Can’t take that away baby. Hope the traffic outside Winstar doesn’t hold you up too much on your way home.

Shortly before kickoff, we got confirmation of what everyone had been assuming all week: Gerry Bohanon was yet again replaced by Blake Shapen at quarterback for the 2nd full game in a row. In my slightly over-served mental state, I was pretty sure that this was the nail in the Baylor coffin. I only thought this because I am dumb and not smart, but it was just hard to imagine Baylor being able to put up 17ish points without Gerry under center. Boy was I wrong.

I’ll admit it: I miscalculated how much beer I should drink before an 11am kickoff, so the game itself is kinda foggy to me, but after a little highlight watching and deep, deep concentration I have discovered that we kicked the shit out of Oklahoma State in the first half. Through two quarters of football, Blake Shapen was 17-21 for 151 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Can you imagine fielding the best defense in the storied history of your school, beating the hell out of a small team from Waco, and then getting to play them again without their star-qb and getting the hell beat out of you like that? It sounds absolutely horrible and I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy.

The real story of the day is the Baylor defense. Does that sound familiar? There isn’t really another way to spell this out: The Baylor Defense took Mike Gundy’s Cowboys and gave them an atomic wedgie on a nationally televised game. They were outmanned, outclassed, and outgunned for a full 60 minutes. Sure, they gave us a little scare there at the end, but this was a mudhole stomping that Oklahoma State never had a chance of escaping from.

Whether you like it or not, the Baylor offense did its job by putting up 21 total points in the game. Scoreless second half be damned, if you can keep a putrid Oklahoma State offense to under 22 points in regulation, you have not earned the chance to call yourself a Big 12 champion.

The Baylor defense, in their biggest game of the season, put together a herculean effort to bottle up nearly every facet of the Oklahoma State offense. One thing we can agree on is that Spencer Sanders is #Not #Good, but forcing any quarterback into 4 picks in a single game (let alone the 1st team all conference QB) is some extremely tough shit.

I mean look at this. His guy isn’t open. Not even close. This is an indefensible throw. Thank you Spencer.

Two pass attempts later we get another gift from Brother Spencer:

Not to worry though, Oklahoma State got the ball to start the second half and they are going to mount a co- wait no Spencer threw a 3rd interception on the first drive of the second half. Here it is!

Last, but certainly not least, Baylor forces a pass breakup and snags the ball before it hits the ground. This one wasn’t on Spencer, but you need to look at how hard Jairon McVea hit the receiver here.

“Now Evan, you can’t just rag on the Ok. State passing game. You know their rushing attack is their strength. Be fair”

Ok, sports fan, let me talk to you a little bit about the run game for the Cowboys on Saturday. They ran the ball 40 times. That’s a lot! After 40 rushes, they had amassed a grand total of 70 yards. Seven zero. That is 1.8 yards per carry for a team that thought they could make the College Football Playoff. I am personally offended knowing that.

Ok everyone catch your breath because we are about to talk about The Play.

Oklahoma State got the ball back with 3:14 left and needed to get a touchdown that was about 90 yards away if they really were who they say they were. After an admittedly Pretty Good ™️ drive by Sanders and company, the Cowboys lined up for 1st and goal from the 2 yard line with a chance to win the whole damn thing.

I was SICK. The writing was on the wall and I had already started grieving from my seat.

Buckle up baby

1st down: Baylor stuffs Dezmond Jackson at the 1 yard line. I feel slightly hopeful, but still have a huge pit in my stomach. There is no way we can do that three more times, right?

2nd down: Baylor hits Jackson right in his damn mouth again. No gain. Oh??????? Say it ain’t so. Still have my doubts but my ears are perked up at this point.

3rd down: Spencer drops back to pass. Honestly I didn’t even need to watch because there was a very literal 0% chance he does anything good with the ball after throwing 4 interceptions. Incomplete, like we all knew it would be. Holy shit Gundy is going to try and run it again isn’t he? I can’t believe it.

4th down: I am beside myself. There is no way we get a fourth consecutive stop here, right???? After all this bullshit, Baylor is going to break my heart aren’t they? Wrong. Dezmond Jackson, who I feel very very sorry for, takes the snap and instantly takes a left turn to head for the pylon. Typically, this would be a smart move and he would Waltz into the the endzone to seal a conference title and very likely a playoff berth. Unfortunately for Dezmond, he had Jairon Mcvea in pursuit. For those of you who do not know anything about Jairon, let me just tell you this: He is fast as hell and has gone through hell to get to this point in his career. Not a damn thing was going to stop him from getting his guy. Jairon stops him and the Bears take over to win the game.

Here it is in all it’s glory:

In a game where the defense played out of their collective mind, Jairon McVea was the best player on the field.

I don’t know if any of you know this about me, but I am an *extremely* ugly crier, and brother the ugly tears were flowing. What a day. Look at life. Sic ‘em Bears baby.

Baylor now has 3 conference championships since the beginning of the 2013 season. What a dumb sentence to type. Can you believe it? I sure can’t.

I want to hear about your experience at the game. Were you at home? In the crowd? On the field???? Give us your testimony in the comments and let’s relive Saturday one more time.