Baylor trounces Texas Southern in home opener, 66-7

Expected domination is an astute way of summing up a Baylor (2-0) waxing of Texas Southern (0-2) to open this season’s home slate, 66-7. 

Don’t get me wrong, Texas Southern is very not good at football. Bishop Sycamore would’ve tacked on at least a few scores against the Tigers. But, even still, Baylor took care of business in the same way many expected to see last week. 

With an obvious understanding of the disparity between the two teams, the Bears played without reserve — even attempting three fourth downs in the first half and converting on each. And Jeff Grimes let his team go bonkers. 

In just the first quarter, Baylor put up 235 yards thanks to 11 carries going for 13 yards per run — that’s 143 rushing yards for those of us who don’t want to math in a game recap. Examining the half as a whole, Gerry Bohanon aired out 194 yards for two touchdowns on a 15-20 clip. 

In the first half, the Bears allowed 52 yards while putting up 458 of their own. In contrast, Baylor put up a nice 420 yards in their best game last season, a full 60 minutes against Kansas State. It’s also worth noting that Baylor tallied 156 yards against Oklahoma State to end last season — that was also in an entire 60 minutes.  

An offensive showing of this magnitude has not been seen at McLane Stadium since Dave Aranda left the swamp — unless you count Oklahoma State putting up 608 yards in the aforementioned game. 

The second half was a formality. The Texas Southern band had already taken the field and the Tigers were free to exit, but the team stuck around for 30 more minutes of sadness. I warred with whether or not to use the word sadness, and in the process of my contemplation, JT Woods notched the school’s longest fumble return with a 97-yard touchdown. Sadness is appropriate. 

This contest was highlighted by Bohanon scoring five total touchdowns, Trestan Ebner and Abram Smith amassing 125 yards each and Tyquan Thornton exploding to his potential with 103 yards and two scores on just five receptions. 

This game was not close and I did not have to hear the Applebee’s commercial — chalk it up as a win for everyone… except Texas.