Gameday Thread: Baylor (6-6) Faces Air Force (9-3) in the Armed Forces Bowl

The Baylor Bears (6-6) wrap up the season against Air Force (9-3) on Thursday night in Fort Worth in the Armed Forces Bowl. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. CT and will be aired live on ESPN.

Analysis of the Week

SicEm365 Analyst Sam Bradshaw

This is a game that if it was played indoors or in typical weather I would be picking Baylor 27-17 in a game with nine possessions for each team. Given the zero-degree wind chill and heavy winds this is going to make things more slanted to Air Force’s “we want to run 90% of the time” philosophy. Their bread and butter isn’t all that impacted but Baylor’s is. Baylor has been mostly sound against the run during the year with a few notable bad spots but generally did well while fighting outnumbered in the box. Now they have multiple weeks to prepare for a run-first opponent and I like what I saw from him in the old game against Navy. I think BU will be ready for a really tough offensive scheme. Air Force is a good team that has won their last four games against P5 teams and shredded those defenses doing it. However, 2019 Colorado, 2019 Wazzu, 2021 Louisville, and 2022 Colorado are not good defenses and tended to get pushed around badly by base zone and trap plays before you even get to the option.

On the other side of the ball, BU will need to get the run going and I think they can as long as they can build just enough constraint plays to keep Air Force from simply selling out. Baylor goes on to eke out a win where a lot of factors are giving the Falcons help.

Baylor: 20

Air Force: 17

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