Missed Opportunities and Defensive Woes Doom Baylor in Season Opener against Auburn

Rapid Reactions: Baylor Missfires Early in Season Opener

With the game on the line, facing a fourth down deep into its own territory, Dave Aranda’s defense needed just one stop, something that was a rarity on Friday night in the season opener.

Following a timeout with 4:40 remaining on the game clock, Auburn brought a wide receiver in motion, and quarterback Jackson Arnold faked the handoff and shot up the middle past an overpursuing Kyland Reed and went completely untouched for a 27-yard rushing touchdown, giving the Tigers a two-score lead, 38-24.

“It’s definitely frustrating,” preseason All-American linebacker Keaton Thomas said postgame of the defense’s performance. “When you have a quarterback that has the skillset that he has — it’s tough. It goes from 10 on 11 to 11 on 11 when you have a quarterback that can scramble. We need to get him down. There needs to be better tackling, and that’s on the defense.”

The back-breaking blow was a microcosm of the night where Auburn completely dominated the Bears in the trenches on both sides of the ball and capitalized on several key Baylor mistakes, including a 98-yard kick return touchdown and four holding penalties.

Offensively, Arnold was never required to make any high-level throws, finishing with just 108 yards on 11-of-17 passing, but on the ground, he scrambled for a career-high 137 yards on 16 carries.

“You knew they were going to run the quarterback,” Aranda said. “There were designed quarterback runs that we should have fit up better than we did. This had a couple of times where we were in match coverage, where we were matching them tight, and the quarterback was instructed to see that and would take off running. He would abort whatever play they had.”

Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze said postgame, "Jackson didn't force anything and took what they gave us. They were determined not to let us throw it down the field. They played two-high safeties the entire night."

Auburn’s two preseason All-SEC wide receivers, Cam Coleman and Eric Singleton, were limited to a combined 43 yards on four catches, but it didn’t matter because Baylor’s defense missed numerous tackles throughout the night, allowing the Tigers to total 308 yards on the ground and six yards per rush.

“The biggest disappointment in all of it was the tackling,” Aranda said. “I wish the tackling would have been so much better. That’s something we have to address. A lot of these plays that hurt us tonight, we’re going to see in a week. The team we’re playing already runs them. We have a lot of work to do.”

He later added, “We overran a lot of stuff, which is disappointing. The position I work with overran way too much, and I’m frustrated with myself. I feel like crap because of that — I let the team down. There are drills I’m already thinking of that we need to emphasize more, and we’ve got to find a way to be able to tackle more live people and bring those guys to the ground.”

Thomas, who totaled a career-high 15 tackles, believes the defense must immediately scrap its putrid performance and use it as motivation moving forward.

“This is something that should make everybody go harder,” Thomas said. “If you put your head down, I told the guys that this isn’t the moment for that. This is the moment to use as fuel. We should come back on Monday as hungry as ever. I’m still hungry. I feel like I can play another four quarters. If you guys aren’t feeling like that, you shouldn’t be here.”

On the other side of the ball, Baylor could never establish the ground game with star running back Bryson Washington rushing for 54 yards on 14 carries. The Bears were out-gained on the ground 308 to 64 with an average carry of 2.7 yards, making Jake Spavital’s offense one-dimensional for the majority of the contest.

“You’d like to get the run game started,” Aranda said. “When our run game is going, it opens up everything else. It makes what Sawyer and the receiving core did even more impressive. Auburn was teeing off on him the entire time.”

Speaking of Robertson, the redshirt senior signal caller threw for 419 yards and three touchdowns on 27-of-48 passing. It was the most passing yards allowed by Auburn since 2016, versus Ole Miss and Chad Kelly.

Baylor’s plethora of pass catchers performed at a high level and matched their preseason hype against Auburn’s veteran secondary, with Kole Wilson (8 rec, 134 yards), Michael Trigg (7 rec, 99 yards), Ashtyn Hawkins (4 rec, 70 yards), Josh Cameron (2 rec, 54 yards) and Kobe Prentice (2 rec, 38 yards) all making an instant impact. 

The problem on offense, aside from a limited ground game, was their inability to finish drives, settling for a field goal on the first possession and then failing to pay-dirt on multiple fourth downs inside the five-yard line, something that Robertson believes the team can clean up.

“That’s one of the better defenses we’re going to play against, and they had a lot of talent, and these guys were making a lot of plays,” Robertson said. “I’m super encouraged by that. We were out there having fun, and we were relaxed. We really just have to finish a couple of those drives, and the game probably has a different outcome.”

Another worry is that the Bears continue to drop the ball in big matchups at McLane Stadium. Baylor is now 6-11 at home, dating back to Nov. 12, 2022, with multiple no-shows in high-profile matchups, a recurring theme of the Aranda era.

“The biggest disappointment is that,” Aranda said. “I know the fans came out and stayed loud, and the guys could feel that right from the beginning. What a difference it makes when McLane is filled and loud. Of all of it, that’s the biggest and most painful thing, but we have to get back to work, and we have to win.”

Now, the Bears will have no time to take a breather as they travel to face another dynamic running quarterback, Kevin Jennings, and the SMU Mustangs next Saturday, Sept. 6, but Robertson remains hopeful about the rest of the season.

“I feel like we’re going to bounce back,” Robertson said. “Everything’s still out in front of us. We have a really, really good team this year. As far as the vibe in the locker room, we stuck in it and stayed fighting, which summarizes this team. A lot of dudes who are going to fight until the end.”