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 13 BUFFALO (0-2, 0-0) Rank: NR/NR |
Box Score | Quotes | Notes | Baylor Photos Waco, Texas • Attendance: 39,126 |
 70 BAYLOR (2-0, 0-0) Rank: NR/NR |
| Recognizing straightaway that strength of opponent matters and we haven't played the best two teams to start things off, it's really hard not to overreact to these two dominant performances. And "dominant" is just about the only way to describe them. The last two weeks, this Baylor team has shown itself possibly the most explosive team in the country, capable of scoring from anywhere at any time with a speed that has to surprise even our most optimistic fans, myself included. The combination of Lache Seastrunk, Bryce Petty, and Tevin Reese has been incredible in the most literal sense of the word, as in difficult, if not impossible, to believe.
Today, Baylor responded to getting down 7-0 after a trick play and a strong Buffalo drive by outscoring the Bulls 70-6 the rest of the way and setting a Baylor record for yards with 781. Those numbers could have been 100 and 1000 easily. It wasn't always pretty on defense, and I still don't understand how we didn't see foresee the outright reliance on Alex Neutz as their go-to guy, but it was a dominant effort nonetheless. In the first half alone, the Bears had 501 total yards, in 9:55 TOP. We ran a play every 14.6 seconds and scored a point every 10.7. HOW DO YOU STOP THAT?
My player of the game might surprise you: QB Bryce Petty. In his first two games as the starting QB at Baylor, he's been simply marvelous, better than we could have ever reasonably expected, even after taking our opponents into account. If we get this kind of performance from him all season, with the other weapons we have around, the sky is the limit for this team's offensive production. The only frustrating factor, and this may sound ridiculous, is that Baylor has been so good in both games that we've pulled Petty early in the third quarter twice, limiting his stats and the attention the necessarily draw. That will change, I'm sure, in the future, but I want the rest of the country to know how good Bryce Petty is. Many do...
Bryce Petty averaged 21 yards per attempt. Like I've said before, I'll just assume Baylor is fine at QB till proven otherwise.
— Bring On The Cats (@BringOnTheCats) September 8, 2013
For the defense, I don't have much to say at this point. Shawn Oakman was once again electric, racking up 2 TFL. The much-maligned Sam Holl was even better, leading the team in tackles with 9 and adding 2.5 TFL of his own. He also registered a sack and a huge forced fumble that Bryce Hager miraculously returned for a TD. On the other end of the spectrum lies Joe Williams, part of a pretty horrendous day on behalf of our CBs. They'll go to bed tonight thinking Neutz is behind them right now and readytocatchanotherpassohmygod. Or maybe not. But they should.
We could lob superlatives at this team all night; most of twitter has, anyway, and I've been retweeting them as quickly as they come. I'll finish with this: right now, based on what I've seen, I don't know how you could call this team anything but a contender in the Big 12. These aren't your mama's Baylor Bears. She don't work here.
The Rest of the Conference
We had my son's second birthday party today, so I have to be honest, I didn't get to see much of the games before ours. That doesn't mean we can't talk about each game individually in this thread. Grin & Bear It will bring much more detailed information tomorrow.
Aside from the fourth quarter when I assume most of the backups (or their backups) were in, looks like Oklahoma State had themselves a day. Getting them in Stillwater still scares me, especially with J.W. Walsh looking so good with his feet. Whether the coming SI story has a major impact will be something to watch.
I do notice, looking at the box score, that Okie State did almost all their damage today through the air. Someone who watched, how does their running game look on the whole? This was one of the games I didn't get to see.
I'm going to break with whatever people think rivals should do right off the bat and say something many might disagree with -- I feel really bad right now for Casey Pachall. I don't find anything funny about a battle with addiction, and it was bad enough when ineffectiveness (in a short sample, granted) seemed like his biggest problem. Then he got hurt today and had to have surgery that will keep him out for several weeks, if not longer. Trevone Boykin is the man at TCU now and managed to pull TCU out of what could have been an extremely embarrassing game against SELA
Didn't get to see any of this. Yay for Kansas to get a win. This might be their only one this season. Anybody pay attention to this game? Apparently, they ran the ball well...
Kansas State bounced back in a big way today, beating ULL soundly in Manhattan. Someone who watched, how did Jake Waters play?
Our first conference game? And oh boy, was it ugly. Neither team trusts their QB, whether it's Trevor Knight or Paul Millard. I'm really beginning to think West Virginia isn't any good this season, but what does that say about OU? This game was in Norman, for crying out loud. This strikes me as a game where both teams just wanted it to be over by the end.
I have to admit-- I'm getting caught up a bit in the Baker Mayfield show. A question, though: do you think his initial success says anything about Johnny Manziel? Do you wish I hadn't brought him up? We don't have to talk about it. But this Mayfield kid is thriving. Sure, it's SFA, a bad FCS team, but still. He's a walk-on and I have something of a soft spot for underdog stories. I am a Baylor fan, after all.
This game is still going on, so that score isn't final.
Wow. What in the world is wrong with Texas' defense? This BYU QB, Taysom Hill, has over 200 yards rushing. BYU as a team has nearly 500. Every time I look up, some Texas player is getting trucked. Just now, as the 3rd Quarter ended, David Ash got laid out on a broken play. I don't even really have words to describe what I'm seeing. They should have sent a poet.
Texas is getting their asses kicked. Let's go with that. What are Lache Seastrunk, Glasco Martin, and Rashodrick Linwood going to do to this defense?
Oh, and then there's this:
High praise for Baylor from Buffalo Head Coach Jeff Quinn. #SicEm pic.twitter.com/iv37pN9JRM
— Baylor Football (@BUFootball) September 8, 2013
It's so rich, but I just can't stop eating it. In the comments, give me your conference rankings as of this moment. Who is the best team in the Big 12?