Baylor Finally Wins in Norman, Dominating Oklahoma 48-14

Three years ago, Baylor had never beaten Oklahoma or had a player win the Heisman Trophy.  Two years ago, we'd never beaten the #1 team in the country.  Last year, we'd never won the Big 12 Conference.  This year, we'd never beaten OU in Norman, and we'd lost 37 in a row to ranked teams on the road.

The Art Briles Era is one of firsts for the Bears, and today was absolutely no different.  Down at one point 14-3 and looking listless, at best, Baylor responded with 45 consecutive points, absolutely dominating the Sooners and throwing themselves wholesale back into the CFB Playoff discussion with one of the most impressive road wins of any team in the country.  At one point QB Bryce Petty, long a whipping boy for frustrated fans this season, completed 18 passes in a row en route to his program-record 14th 300+ passing yard game.  Baylor finally pulled him with 6 minutes to go in the game, and he finished 32/42 (that's 76.2%) for 387 yards, a TD, and no turnovers.  Onn the whole, the Bears put up over 500 yards of offense and 45 points on the road against an OU team that had lost its only two games this season by a combined 5 points.

On the other side, a Baylor defense that gave up 14 points in the first quarter absolutely destroyed OU the rest of the way, allowing less than 100 total yards in the second half and holding the Sooners scoreless for 45+ minutes.  Bryce Hager had one of the best games of his career with at least a dozen tackles (I'll get the exact number shortly), and Andrew Billings introduced himself to the world yet again with a dominant performance against the OU offensive line.  Everything that Baylor needed to do to show they were legitimate today, they did in spades.

Arguably the only negative to the entire game came in the fourth quarter, when Grant Campbell and Shawn Oakman sacked OU QB Trevor Knight, who apparently suffered an as-yet undisclosed injury on the play.  Knight had to be immobilized and taken from the field on a stretcher, something you absolutely never want to see.  I think I speak for all Baylor fans (just this once) in saying that we wish him only the best and hope that he is back as soon as possible.  I will also say that out of that negative came a positive, as I was overjoyed to see the reaction from both sides during the injury timeout as they prayed together on the field.  I'm excited that we won, obviously, but I'm even more excited to see such a classy move by players who recognize it really is just a game.

I'm going to do a Twitter Reacts to this game sometime this afternoon, so look for that.  In the meantime, we can use this thread as both the post-game and an open thread for the rest of the day.  Great job today, Bears!

Bryce Petty was #ReadyForOU. pic.twitter.com/NCFR7VD5x1

— Baylor Football (@BUFootball) November 8, 2014