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 35 BAYLOR (5-0, 2-0) Rank: 15/15 |
Manhattan, Kan. • Attendance: 52,803 |
 25 KANSAS STATE (2-4, 0-3) Rank: NR/NR |
It's going to take me a long time to process what happened today in Manhattan. Part of me knows I should be happy about getting a road win in conference play, in a place where we've never won before. Another part feels the doubts expressed by so many others creeping into my appreciation of this team, replacing my unbridled confidence in the 2013 Baylor Bears with what is probably a more realistic (and rational) view of how things are. The bottom line for today is that this game was possibly the best example of a win that feels like losing, where just about everything that could go wrong, did, but we managed to win, anyway. That fact might be a minor miracle.
With OU crashing down to Earth earlier in the day, Baylor had a chance this afternoon to establish itself as the team to beat in the Big 12, to make the constant refrains of "Baylor can't play on the road!" go away, at least for a time. Instead, we acted like all that had to happen was to take the field, and everything positive would follow as a matter of course. It didn't, and we very nearly lost. We very nearly lost everything.
Before the game, I talked quite a bit, here and on twitter, about why I didn't think Baylor's past road history mattered to this game. In my mind, unless there was something verifiable upon which we could blame those games, something that might happen again, they weren't worth much in terms of predicting the game. Our players being inadequately prepared to make the trip, for example, would be a serious problem.
I didn't see any of those things, so I discounted the idea that "Baylor can't play on the road" offhand. I don't think I was wrong, but I see now I was right for the wrong reasons. It's not the big things that kill you playing in someone else's stadium; after all, the big things are those easiest to see and stop from happening. Instead, it's the relatively little things like not throwing the ball away when you should, not keeping your assignment on the option like you should, and not catching the ball on third down like you should. It's not that Baylor can't win hard road games; it's that road games are hard, period.
Considering the game just ended, and the feelings I have over our team not performing the way I thought they would (or should have) are still there, I don't want to make too much of this game. I'm still too close to it to really appreciate that the way things played out with the defense and the chances we had, our offense probably wasn't as bad as it looked (relative to expectations). Neither was our defense, probably, as awful as I'm thinking. We'll have plenty of time for all that. For now, I'll tell myself that we held off a spirited upset bid by a team determined to take revenge in the first road game for our starting QB. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Scoring Summary
| FIRST QUARTER | BAY | KSU | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
TD | 10:33 |
Bryce Petty rush for 1 yard for a TOUCHDOWN. Aaron Jones extra point GOOD.
Drive info: 12 plays, 59 yds in 4:27
|
7 | 0 |
| SECOND QUARTER | BAY | KSU | |||
 |
TD | 14:57 |
Daniel Sams rush for 1 yard for a TOUCHDOWN. Jack Cantele extra point GOOD.
Drive info: 8 plays, 78 yds in 4:05
|
7 | 7 |
|
TD | 8:55 | Bryce Petty pass complete to Tevin Reese for 93 yards for a TOUCHDOWN. Aaron Jones extra point GOOD.
Drive info: 2 plays, 95 yds in 0:34
|
14 | 7 |
|
FG | 2:29 | Jack Cantele 24 yard field goal GOOD.
Drive info: 11 plays, 68 yds in 6:26
|
14 | 10 |
|
TD | 1:51 | Bryce Petty pass complete to Antwan Goodley for 72 yards for a TOUCHDOWN. Aaron Jones extra point GOOD.
Drive info: 2 plays, 73 yds in 0:38
|
21 | 10 |
| THIRD QUARTER | BAY | KSU | |||
|
FG | 8:44 | Jack Cantele 32 yard field goal GOOD.
Drive info: 13 plays, 60 yds in 6:16
|
21 | 13 |
|
TD | 6:54 | Daniel Sams rush for 2 yards for a TOUCHDOWN. Daniel Sams pass attempt failed .
Drive info: 2 plays, 19 yds in 0:34
|
21 | 19 |
|
TD | 0:45 | Daniel Sams rush for 2 yards for a TOUCHDOWN. John Hubert rush attempt failed .
Drive info: 10 plays, 44 yds in 5:37
|
21 | 25 |
| FOURTH QUARTER | BAY | KSU | |||
|
TD | 14:33 | Bryce Petty pass complete to Tevin Reese for 54 yards for a TOUCHDOWN. Aaron Jones extra point GOOD.
Drive info: 5 plays, 71 yds in 1:12
|
28 | 25 |
|
TD | 1:16 |
Glasco Martin rush for 21 yards for a TOUCHDOWN. Aaron Jones extra point GOOD.
Drive info: 5 plays, 39 yds in 2:32
|
35 | 25 |
Team Stat Comparison
| BAY | KSU | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Downs | 15 | 23 |
|
3rd down efficiency
|
4-13 | 7-15 |
|
4th down efficiency
|
2-2 | 0-1 |
| Total Yards | 446 | 444 |
| Passing | 332 | 118 |
|
Comp-Att
|
12-21 | 10-22 |
|
Yards per pass
|
15.8 | 5.4 |
| Rushing | 114 | 326 |
|
Rushing Attempts
|
37 | 58 |
|
Yards per rush
|
3.1 | 5.6 |
| Penalties | 6-45 | 4-36 |
| Turnovers | 1 | 1 |
|
Fumbles lost
|
1 | 0 |
|
Interceptions thrown
|
0 | 1 |
| Possession | 20:36 | 39:24 |