Baylor Loses the 2020 BU-TT Bowl 24-23

I’m going to write about this game because I told KK I would, not because I want to. We both know what I’m going to say. Baylor lost the 2020 BUTT Bowl on a last-second FG by a kicker built like a left tackle because we are a bad football team. Right now the coaches may be saying things like “there was progress here!,” “we were so close,” and “we feel like we’re moving in the right direction!” but there was not, it doesn’t matter, and we are not, and don’t let anyone tell you anything else. Don’t let anyone convince you that this game—as part of the larger season—is anything other than awful. It would only have been slightly less awful if that Clarence Beeftank-the-kicker missed one along the way or that linebacker hadn’t suplexed Brewer at the goal line.

We lost again today despite leading 20-6 at one point and are now 1-5 on the 2020 season, having lost 5 in a row. Our lone win came against Kansas. In our five losses, we have 256, 316, 278, 366, and 360 total yards, respectively. That averages to 3.6, 4.9, 4.0, 6.1, and 4.8 yards per play, respectively. Our average coming into this game was right at 4.7, and so it is leaving. I won’t compare that to anything prior to 2017 because I don’t hate myself that much, so going back just that far, we averaged 5.5 in the disastrous 2017 season, 6.0 in 2018, and 6.2 in 2019. That lines up with general offensive trends—6 is about average, 7+ is good, and below 5 is awful. Below 4 is historically horrific; I don’t know if anyone has ever done that over an entire season in what I’d call the modern era of CFB, and I don’t want to know. I do know that we went 1-11 in 2017 at 5.5, and the general consensus seems to be that was the worst Baylor team since Steele was coaching in the early 2000s. Now we’re at 4.7. Take from that whatever you want.

I don’t know where you go from here or what any of this actually means going forward. Between COVID, injuries, a lack of practice time, and a thousand other things, you can find plenty of excuses to throw this entire season into a dumpster where it belongs and light it on fire. That’s about the best imagery there is for it, anyway. But no matter how you decide to process it in the grand scheme of things, here we are after yet another loss having endured yet another awful offensive performance that ultimately let the defense down, and we have no idea what we want to be offensively or how we’re going to get there. That’s a problem in game 6 of any season, much less one immediately after winning 11 games! At least when we sucked in 2017, we had a process to trust. There was a vision that didn’t involve just getting some fresh air and exercise ... doing whatever.

I’m tired of talking about how we should change QBs; everyone is so dug in on this issue by now that you’re either on Team Brewer and see everything positive he does (he may not be able to throw, but look at him run around, what a gamer!) as supporting his continued play or you’re not and see everything negative (again, the part about not being able to throw) as a reason that he shouldn’t. Oh, and you’re a bad fan because you don’t support the players, even though that’s really just a roundabout way to attack dissenters because I could just as easily argue that not playing the backups means you don’t support them. See how much fun we’re having??

If you couldn’t tell from the preceding two sentences, my stance is pretty clear: I don’t see what playing Brewer now over any of the other options—however bad or not good they might be—actually accomplishes when you’re already not any good, he isn’t the future, and you have other guys that might just be. Oh, and those other guys might transfer because they’re seeing the same things we are. I can’t imagine any other situation where someone would play as close as possible to 100% of the snaps like this on a bad team with absolutely zero (apparent) thought given to replacing him. I can’t imagine watching other games throughout a given Saturday with QBs that can actually throw, then watching our games, and thinking “Ok, I see it.” Maybe, just maybe, in a season that supposedly doesn’t matter where eligibility doesn’t count against you, you might think about giving a shot to someone that you don’t secretly hope won’t turn that around on you. But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe we just need to wait until after the next game when we can blame the wind, the offensive line, the playcalling, or whatever else is convenient at the time. Maybe it will be a snowstorm this time! At least we have two weeks to find out before KSU comes to town.

And at least Jalen Pitre is awesome.