In The Web: What "They" are Saying About Baylor in Week 3
After falling to No. 12 Utah (2-0) 23-12 on Saturday in Salt Lake City, Baylor (1-1) should feel good about where they currently stand despite some glaring flaws on offense that need to be addressed this week. Even if Cam Rising would have stayed healthy for the entire game, I firmly believe the Bears’ defense could have kept the Utes from cracking 35 points.
While it’s not necessarily the best indicator of how things are going for your offense, it’s nice to know that you have a guy with a cannon for a leg as your punter to flip the field, which is exactly what Baylor has with Palmer Williams (So.).
Williams, who is averaging 57.9 yards per punt per game, was called on multiple times to pin the Utes back as far as possible and did that with perfection, averaging 62.7 yards per punt on the day. His contributions didn’t go unnoticed, as he was named to the Ray Guy Award Watch List.
If you look at how chaotic things have already been with Big 12 programs through just two weeks of play, then you can see how the Baylor defense gives them a great opportunity to make a run at bowl eligibility. To make that a reality, the Bears will need to take care of business against Air Force (1-1) in their final non-conference game of the season.
While Baylor has a history of botching cool opportunities, they appear to have nailed the theme for Saturday night. The fans have been longing to see their program have some swagger injected back into its veins, and the Black Ops drip against a service academy is one way to do that.
Now, it’s up to the team to actually win the game and not kill the vibe. The thought of playing Air Force again this soon gives most Baylor fans PTSD, but this isn’t the same cauldron of Falcons that defeated the Bears 30-15 in the frigid hellscape that was the 2022 Armed Forces Bowl.
Air Force returned just four starters in 2024, one on offense and three on defense. The entire offensive line, along with the backfield — QB, FB, RB — are gone, and the Falcons are averaging 217 yards of total offense per game, 154.5 rushing and 62.5 passing this season.
It’s not an ideal matchup for Baylor after playing a very physical Utah team on the road, but it’s a game that the Bears should win. Here is a look at the opening lines from the folks in the desert.
The struggles by both Air Force and Baylor this season have neither program sniffing the Top 25 polls. At the moment, The Athletic has the Falcons (79) ranked one spot above Baylor (80) out of all 134 FBS programs, while the ESPN SP+ rankings have Baylor at No. 52 and Air Force ranked 100.
As far as conference play goes for Baylor, they’ve moved up one spot from 10th to 9th place in the Week 3 Projected Big 12 Standings by Kelley Ford Rankings.
Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. at McLane Stadium on Saturday and televised on FS1. We will have our 365 Sports pregame show on Saturday morning at 9:00 AM on KWTX.