Jackie Marshall has flashed multiple times this season, but he’s also made some costly mistakes that often come with inexperience. After two crucial penalties that allowed TCU to keep things close, Marshall played more disciplined ball in Morgantown.

The Mountaineers are tied for third nationally among Power Four programs in fourth downs converted (17) this season. Don’t be surprised to see West Virginia try to slow this game down and keep the ball away from Baylor’s offense at all cost.

"Dave (Aranda) is calling the defense – one of the best defensive minds in college football,” said Brown. “They are attacking in a bunch of different ways, mixing up their coverages and mixing up their fronts with simulated pressures, so we're going to have our hands full.”

Baylor is currently ranked 51st overall in Bill Connally’s SP+ Rankings. The highest ranked Big 12 team by this metric is Kansas State at 18th.

You can start to see the vision that head coach Dave Aranda has for this program. The Bears aren’t flashy and still have a lot of areas for improvement, but they absolutely believe in the message.

It was pretty evident early on that TCU’s defensive line was going to be in for a long night against a much-improved Baylor offensive line that was opening up running lanes with ease. Our underrated performer this week was the catalyst of that dominance.

If Baylor can keep the main focus on football and not the festivities,  then they should have a great chance to finally beat the Frogs and extend their winning streak to three games heading into the second bye week of the season.

"I think the story of their team has been a continual improvement. To me, they’ve gotten better every single week and that’s what you want to see from a football team,” said Dykes. “It’s a completely different team now than it was early in the year."

Baylor has also climbed out of the doldrums of ESPN’s SP+ Rankings put out weekly by Bill Connally who now has the Bears sitting at 47th nationally, clumped behind Kansas (45) and Cincinnati (46).

Bobby made two crucial tackles on Presley and then helped polish off Ollie Gordon, before Oklahoma State converted a fourth down to keep the drive alive. Oklahoma State elected to go away from Bobby for the remainder of the drive.

While last week was fun from Baylor’s perspective, it’s time to see if the Bears can carry that momentum into this week against Oklahoma State. The Bears have been absolutely awful at McLane Stadium in Big 12 play over the past few seasons, with their last victory coming back on October 22nd, 2022.

"We know they are going to want to pass the ball, but upfront, for us, regardless of if they like to run or pass, we always take pride in stopping the run. That will be one thing we continue to focus on."

Baylor not only physically dominated the Red Raiders in all three phases of the game, but they also out coached the Texas Tech staff as well.

Carl Williams IV brought his hard hat and lunch pale out to West Texas and helped Baylor’s defense keep the Texas Tech offense at bay with a career-high seven tackles.